TAKE ME HOME – BIG CHILL RECORDINGS
May 2nd, 2006 by rui
Reviews and feedback for ‘Take Me Home’ have been coming in from journos and regular bigchill.net contributors – read a selection below…
If you’ve heard the album and want to share your opinions on it, email rui@bigchill.net with your review.
Matt Chittock – Wave Magazine
In the mid 90s many a fledgling space cadet’s fuzzy morning-after-the-night-before was spent with the TV sound turned down, sunshine flooding through the blinds and Pete Lawrence’s brilliant Eyelid Movies compilation on the stereo. The sonic equivalent of a fistful of St John’s wort, the lush, playful collection of downtempo tunes brought back the positivity required to put on the kettle and accept a new day had begun.
Many moons later, and Pete is once again back in compilation mode with this fresh effort. As befits one of The Big Chill’s co-founders, the tempo never goes much beyond meandering, but if you’re in the mood to have a gentle wander, it’s a bewitching journey up the garden path. There’s a good ratio of gems like The Beaufort Scale’s rolling anthem ‘Sevestapol’ and Dollboy’s slightly sinister slowburner ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’. To prove that Pete’s got a sense of humour it even ends with a pleasingly parpy slice of mutant Dixieland jazz. A gorgeous soundtrack with a real sense of fun designed to give the warm and fuzzies to even the most hardened late-night coffee table connoissuer.
Emma Haslett – Time Out – April 26th
‘The Big Chill deliver a little beaut to make us all look forward to long, warm summer evening sipping rum cocktails next to large bodies of water. Starting with Pan Electric’s ambient ‘Rising Slowly’. Pete Lawrence takes us on an ‘uplifting journey’ thorugh the sounds of Eastnor Castle via Tom Greenwood’s ‘Slent Running’ and another gorgeous mix of Sebastien Tellier’s ‘La Ritournelle’ to create a mix so chilled it could make a polar bear shiver.’
Comments from bigchill.net regulars…
Enchanted Gordon
It’s a real pleasure to have another Big Chill compilation come along, the wait has been too long!
The standards have been so high over the year that it should be considered a real honour for the artists involved to make the cut. So I’m delighted to see a handful of my recent favourites being awarded their laurels. I think these recordings of ‘Sevastapol’, ‘La Ritournelle’ and ‘Honey Czars’ are already Big Chill classics and it’s a pleasure to see them here. I’m also personally delighted to see recognition of Animat, Digitonal and Dollboy, three of my favourite acts.
It wouldn’t be a Big Chill compilation without a few new sounds however, and I’m chuffed to have found a few jewels here. I’ll be checking out more from Tom Greenwood, for sure. The George Chatzis tune is lovely, and Pan Electric drew me into the album magnetically.
Still, an album that never offends anyone rarely excites anyone either and there is plenty here to be excited about. For my money, Take Me Home is lovelier and more coherent than iChill, and stands healthy comparison to Disc1 of Glisten, probably my favourite BC collection of them all.
Well worth taking home.
King Rob
Coming out around the time when most people will probably buying their Eastnor tickets, ‘Take Me Home’ is a handy reminder of what’s so great about the musical aspects of the Big Chill Festival.
Like the festival, you won’t be drawn in by big names, although most people will recognise Sebastien Tellier’s La Ritournelle. As you would expect, there’s new unsigned talent, as wel as artists with a longer association with the festival. Canada’s Upstairs recordings ar represented by tracks from Telefeuzz (with vocals by Big Chill recordings’ own Laura B) and The Verbrilli Sound (which has been remixed by Alucidnation – also part of the BC recordings stable), and Jon Hopkins appears with one of the tracks from his Contact Note album.
Elsewhere Digitonal’s ‘A Lighter Touch’ would sit happily alongside tracks from Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works, Adem adds his vocals to a track by Lunz and George Chatzis gives a nod to the festival’s Greek past with the almost Balearic, Beloved-sounding ‘After Paros Island’.
After Blu Mar Ten’s pulsating ‘Black Water’ the album rounds off with Dollboy’s slighltly discordant and echoey cover of 30′s standard ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’, then closes with Swinging Troubles’ ‘Raining Pleasure’, which sounds like it came from the era that Dollboy’s track was written in, with it’s jazz clarinet and horn section. Exectly what you weren’t expecting when you started the cd, but like the festival, you end up with a broader musical horizon for it.
I’d try and end the review with a pun based around ‘Take Me Home’ and taking the CD home from shops but I’m too relaxed now. Wake me up in time for Eastnor…
Marky a.k.a Mach V (SoxaN)
The latest sublime selection from maison de grand chill is outand once again Pete Lawrence has managed to compiled another high quality, eclectic and welcome collection of downtempo musical marvels.
The cd kicks off with ‘Rising Slowly’, a beautiful beach-boys-meets-Apollo-records piece by Fragile State’s guitarist Matt Coldrick under the name Pan Electric and carrys on through the warm electronic sounds of Forum find The Beaufort Scale, with ‘Sevastopol’ on to Just Music’s maestro producer Jon Hopkins which bridges the aural gap from electronica into the acoustic ambience of ‘Lunz’ by Lunz, accompanied by ‘nu’ folk god Adem with a passionate waltz that’s reminiscent of Elbow.
Tom Greenwoods ‘Silent Running’ reminds us that electric guitars don’t have to be sharp blunt instruments and with a keeping on a plucked string theme, we end up with Andreas Vollenwelders harp sound ‘Moonday’.
Sheffield’s Animat, with ‘Signwave’ is up next, and then Digitonal pick up the mantle with aplomb and from vinyl samples, clicks and scratches lay down an aural shag pile for your feet to make fists in. Next up is last years DJ anthem, Sebastian Tellier’s ‘Ritournelle’, this time restructed by Mr Dan, in a way that rivals the original and keeps it fresh to the ears. New Greek Islands find George Chatkis takes us in to deep Mediterranean ambient and BC Laura B teams up with BC Telefuzz to create the blissful 4AD inspired ‘Tasp’.
Old Ambient Drum and Bass heads and North London trouble makers Blu Mar Ten return to a Big Chill compilation with a complex layered jig called ‘Black Water’, that takes me back to their beautiful ‘Everglades’ EP. On to the spooky sounds of Dollboy who twists up the Art Garfunkel love lament ‘I only have eyes for you’ into something far more sinister and scary and we’re left with a reminder that good music is always good music, irrespective of genre, fashion and style, in the form of Raining Pleasures beautiful big band sound on ‘Swinging Pleasures’.
I like.
