So I was on a plane. To be more specific, I was on a plane home from Vancouver. And the movie for the flight was Wes Anderson's wonderful The Royal Tenenbaums. Being the first time I'd seen the movie, I was particularly surprised and excited to find that it had made its way into a screening on an airplane. Not just any airplane, but an Air Canada airplane. If you've ever taken a flight on this horrible airline, you'll understand what a pleasant surprise it was to find a really good movie, instead of the latest Reese Witherspoon romp.
Right. Uh... anyway, what does that have to do with the newly released Sybarite singles compilation? Nothing much, really, but I'm clumsily trying for a metaphor, here. Think of musicforafilm, his last release, as Air Canada. No. Wait. Nevermind. musicforafilm is great, so I can't really compare it to Air Canada. Alright... just think of Placement Issues as the aural equivalent of The Royal Tenenbaums. Or... I don't even know.
Here's what it is I'm trying to say: musicforafilm was a dark, serious, and creepy release. Placement Issues could be it's antithesis (albeit Xian's signature sound is left intact); it's a warm, melancholy collection that's more suited to winter afternoons than the murder story that musicforafilm was designed for.
Take my personal favourite, "Second Cities"—it's warm, glitch driven, and guitar-based. Incredibly pretty. I'm usually not a supporter of IDM (being that I think it's the most asinine genre classification to come about in recent years), because whenever I hear someone use the genre as a descriptor, I conjure up a bunch of groups (guys?) I really can't stand. And, of course, the hype is unstoppable. Continuing. There's also a huge jazz element going on here. "Without Nothing I'm You" has a hard bop beat with electronic whistles and a really sweet bass line accompanying it. Great stuff.
Anyway, Placement Issues is a good collection. Surprisingly, it's got a seamless flow that makes it seem more like an album and less like a singles collection. Highly recommended for those of you who can't get enough "IDM," or for people like me, who're kind of afraid and kind of reproachful, but open to mellow, pretty sounds like this.
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