Ott - Fairchildren

[survey1]

 

Artist: Ott
Style: Psychill
Date: 12-08-2015
Lenght: 57:40
Where to buy: https://ottsonic.bandcamp.com/album/fairchildren


Tracklist:
1 - A Gentle Place By Birth Is You (02:41) https://ottsonic.bandcamp.com/track/a-gentle-place-by-birth-is-you
2 - 16mm Summer Day (07:16) https://ottsonic.bandcamp.com/track/16mm-summer-day
3 - Coursing Batch (09:15) https://ottsonic.bandcamp.com/track/coursing-batch
4 - Harwell Dekatron (06:53) https://ottsonic.bandcamp.com/track/harwell-dekatron
5 - Unit Delta Plus (08:10) https://ottsonic.bandcamp.com/track/unit-delta-plus
6 - Hello, My Name Is... (06:32) https://ottsonic.bandcamp.com/track/hello-my-name-is
7 - The Bicycle Of The Sky (06:11) https://ottsonic.bandcamp.com/track/the-bicycle-of-the-sky
8 - Ship Is Not A Child (10:42) https://ottsonic.bandcamp.com/track/ship-is-not-a-child


How can i describe this album?

It's an album with truly awesome stuff except for vocals in some tracks.

Quick review: I loved tracks one and two. Track three is a standout one at first listen, magical track, had great expectations for the rest of the album. Tracks four and five were being awesome until the vocals. Tracks six and seven are too "happyish" for my taste, again, the vocals, i found myself passing quickly though them.

 

Last track is a more old school approach, i remembered slightly Hallucinogen in Dub, good one.

All in all a good album with, i guess for now, four strong tracks in a eight track album.

Best tracks for now? 2, 3!! and 8

 

Score: 7/10

[psyberhippie aka V!nc3]

I thoroughly enjoyed this album, like I did with almost every single OTT release. 8/10. Some really interesting tracks and soundscapes on this one.

[Guest antic]

I've a mixed feelings about this one - on one hand, it's indeed unmistakably Ott-sounding, which is never bad; but on the other it somehow lacks the 'wow' of his previous releases. 'Skylon' did the song-style tunes better, with much more memorable melodies & singing, while 'Mir' got the whole dubstep / glitch aesthetic & sonic wizardry so well, that I'm still in awe listening to some of those tunes still to this day...

 

The most experimental track here - 'Harewll Dekatron' - is great, especially that middle 'dramatic' bit, until it gets ruined by cheesy combination of arabic melodies & Japanese singing, which I also hated in 'Glass & Chrome' off of his debut album. The more song-like tunes: 'Coursing Batch', 'Unit Delta Plus', 'Hello, My Name Is...' and 'The Bicycle of The Sky' are great, but all are playing it safe relying on too frequent repetition of good, chanting bits and sticking to safe & comfy world/chill music genre. I'm struggling to find something interesting in 'Ship Is Not a Child', which doesn't seem to know what it is about.

 

Still, there are some awesome bits here & there:

- the key / mood change at the end of 'A Gentle Place By Birth Is You',

- the guitars & strings solo in '16mm Summer Day',

- funky guitars & heavy reverbs on chords in the beginning of 'Hello, My Name Is...',

- the acid line & sitar solo in 'The Bicycle of The Sky';

but - comparatively to Ott's previous albums - they're too few and far between.

 

Frankly, this is the same kind of evolution from their usual sound we've seen on Shpongle's latest 'Museum of Consciousness' - it's less flashy, more evened-out than their previous albums, with fewer good & bad outliers, providing for a more balanced listening experience, with the album working as a whole, instead of a collection of - some good, some bad - singles. An artist growing up and settling at what he does best, if you will.

 

Overall, a solid 3.5 / 5 effort.

[Bill]

I've a mixed feelings about this one - on one hand, it's indeed unmistakably Ott-sounding, which is never bad; but on the other it somehow lacks the 'wow' of his previous releases.

 

100% agreed. Nice album but "Unit Delta Plus" is the only track I found magic in.

[Guest antic]

 

100% agreed. Nice album but "Unit Delta Plus" is the only track I found magic in.

 

You know, while I still stand by my review above, the album grows on me: I even found meaning in "Ship Is Not a Child" . The album is full of small, wonderful details and touches that indeed prove it's more mature, more focused creation. Gone are the big hooks and sweeping changes, traded in exchange for much more subtle story-telling. It's indeed the same as with last Shpongle album, that over time became my favorite of theirs. I wouldn't be surprised if same thing happens here

 

BTW, to anyone liking Ott, Shpongle, Younger Brother, Celtic Cross, Dub Trees, etc. style - do yourself a favor and check Globular's Magnitudes of Order - it's wonderful!

[pdinklag]

 

BTW, to anyone liking Ott, Shpongle, Younger Brother, Celtic Cross, Dub Trees, etc. style - do yourself a favor and check Globular's Magnitudes of Order - it's wonderful!

 

Been following Globular since the Colours of the Brainbow EP, definitely the same league as Ott, but still only getting started.

The first album, A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, as well as his EPs, all free on Ektoplazm, are worth checking out.

[StratosOZ]

Maybe I need to listen more, but for me the tracks don't have the magic of the ott of old. Reckon he peaked with skylon. That shit was good

[Guest antic]

Maybe I need to listen more.

 

Yes, you definitely do

[StratosOZ]

Hopefully you're right. The other albums hooked me instantly though

[Bill]

Hopefully you're right. The other albums hooked me instantly though

 

Exactly! Nice albums can stay nice over repeat listens (and grow on you) but this one does not have the "wow" factor mentioned earlier. Hallucinogen In Dub, Blumenkraft and, my favorite Ott. track, "Owl Stretching Time," are all superb from the very first listen. Nice album, not a great one though...

 

As for Globular, A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy is a masterpiece!

[Guest antic]

 

Exactly! Nice albums can stay nice over repeat listens (and grow on you) but this one does not have the "wow" factor mentioned earlier. Hallucinogen In Dub, Blumenkraft and, my favorite Ott. track, "Owl Stretching Time," are all superb from the very first listen. Nice album, not a great one though...

 

As for Globular, A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy is a masterpiece!

 

Real question is - is the "wow factor" mostly an effect of novelty? It's easy to be stunned by something you're hearing for the first time, but consequent encounters with similar - even if gradually better - music will only result in "more of the same" feeling, although objectively speaking it's as good or better. On the other hand, at beginning musicians are willing to experiment more and take bigger risks, resulting in uneven albums with some very good tracks, but also some not so great. To this day I "hate" some of the early Shpongle, YB or Ott tracks because they're cheesy, weird or plain sub-par; but over the years I learned to overlook it because good tracks compensate for it. With their later output - and more experience - their music evened out, got more balanced: they already know what's working, what isn't. And also, their experimentation takes less obvious forms - just check all the fun Ott has with echos, reverbs and glitch/fx in "16mm Summer Day", creating a seemingly hidden layer of sound & music. The wow moments are still there, but not so in-your-face. In the end - and on the surface - there's much less contrast, but does it mean that the overall experience is diminished? Or does it simply require more commitment from the listener to discover those new layers of creativity?

 

TL;DR - it's difficult to review later albums by established artists, because they produce more 'predictable' and 'familiar' music; but it doesn't mean it is objectively worse for it

 

BTW, above is regarding any (good...) album by scene veterans, not Ott exclusively

[healium]

"Blumenkraft" is easily my favorite Ott album ever.. To me that album has the most distinct style - so swanky, groovy, and trippy - very stylish music with lots of depth..

[trancedigital]

With regards to why old music of any artist may sound better than the new, I would like to add the reasoning made by another band, Insane Clown Posse, who posted the following on Reddit:

 

"The new stuff will never be able to compete with the old stuff because its not just about the music. You're also competing with that guys childhood and the first time he ever heard your shit. the first time he discovered his or her own music or homies or whatever. Thats what the old music means to them. So your new shit usually never gets a fair chance because its just more of the same. You can never compete with the first time regarding anything. Theres always hate regarding the new stuff because it aint the old days anymore. Life aint as fresh as it was when we were young discovering shit for the first time. now we all got bills and responsibilities and all that shit. Thats why most ninjas always perfer the old shit, it just brings back better feelings than the new shit for most people. how can the new shit possibly compete?"

 

To which another poster replied:

 

"Agreed, nostalgia is a dominator. Furthermore, the first album contains material that a musician has accumulated throughout their lives up until that first record contract. Suddenly they've got like 6 months to amass material for the second album. It's hopelessly unlikely that an average or above-average musician will be able to come up with something equal to their earlier work for such a tight deadline."

 

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/3mzfhd/insane_clown_posseama_starts_at_2_pm_est_today/

[Starkraver]

Nice stuff!

 

Wonder what does the sample from Harwell Dekatron means. :/ can't figure out which language it is.

 

Fav track are 6,7,8

[antic604]

Wonder what does the sample from Harwell Dekatron means. :/ can't figure out which language it is.

 

Sounds like some Scandinavian language - Swedish of Finnish, maybe?

[Starkraver]

 

Sounds like some Scandinavian language - Swedish of Finnish, maybe?

Na na, if you referring to the sample after 4th minute, it sounds like one of the regional languages from north, northwest India. I could identify a few words, not all.

 

Right after the above post, I contacted a few friends from up north. I'll post if I find out any info.

[Starkraver]

 

Sounds like some Scandinavian language - Swedish of Finnish, maybe?

It's a punjabi folk song sung during the time of marriage ceremony.

[antic604]

Na na, if you referring to the sample after 4th minute, it sounds like one of the regional languages from north, northwest India. I could identify a few words, not all.

 

Right after the above post, I contacted a few friends from up north. I'll post if I find out any info.

 

Oh, I though you meant the monologue at 2:00 - 2:20

[Starkraver]

On f'in Vinyl! 2X12"

 

That gorgeous cover!

[oldschoolgoa]

nothing new to me. its basically alice in wonderland trippy cover sort of stuff... downgraded psychadelic mental pandamoniium sort of shit ah well

[Sabine]

On 4/18/2016 at 11:03 AM, antic604 said:

 

Sounds like some Scandinavian language - Swedish of Finnish, maybe?

It’s Dutch and it says:

"Wij kunnen vloeiend spreken omdat we meeluisteren naar onze eigen stem. Onze stem word naar de hersens teruggemeld zodat we hem kunnen controleren."

Which translates into English as:

"We can speak fluently because we are listening in on our own voice. Our voice is being sent back to the brain, so we can check it." [Thanks to Gijsje Geelen and Filip Kalas for the translation.] 


I am Dutch myself. I am trying to figure out who is being sampled here. 

I wanted to know who’s voice it is.