Simian Mobile Disco – Temporary Pleasure

Following up from the highly acclaimed Attack Decay Sustain Release was always gonna be hard, but after having heard tracks like ‘Audacity Of Huge’, I think myself, amongst others, thought that there was a possibility that SMD’s second album could possibly be almost as good as the first. Most of you who’ve read reviews though will probably find this isn’t the case, and tbh, even though it definitely isn’t as good as the first, I still found it highly enjoyable. Reviews in the 50’s/100 etc I find pretty harsh, though I guess after ADSR the follow-up was never gonna be as good. Anyhow, the obvious feature of the new album is the amount of guests. This is the year to release an album full of guests after all (see MSTRKRFT, Tiesto, Guetta and so on) but to be fair to SMD its no way near as disastrous compared to MSTRKRFT’s etc. ‘Audacity of Huge’, the first single, I still think is great. Beth Ditto’s feature is a bit low-key imo but nice nonetheless; but my favourite guest performance would be that of Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) on the album opener, ‘Cream Dream’. It sounds like something you’d get on a farfetched TV show or something, can’t quite think. Really good tune though. A close second would be Telepathe on ‘Pinball’ though, the album closer. But after having listened a few times, by far and away the best track is the pre-released ‘10000 Horses Can’t Be Wrong’. It is basically this album’s version of ‘Sleep Deprivation’ (their best song, for me anyway) and is actually the only instrumental, given that ‘Synthesise’ is now updated, for the worse unfortunately. Still though. 10k Horses is a fantastic track, typical glitchy stuff. Overall I’d probably give the album a 6.5 or 7/10. Not the best but still a good listen.

Simian Mobile Disco – 10000 Horses Can’t Be Wrong

Simian Mobile Disco – Temporary Pleasure

Deadmau5 – For Lack Of A Better Name

You gotta love Joel’s track and album names, if nothing else. FLOABN follows up well from Random Album Title in the naming sense at least, but sadly not in the quality sense. The thing about RAT was 90% (if I remember correctly) of its tracks were already released, so you kinda knew what you were getting. With this though, even though most of them had been floating about for a number of months or weeks, nobody really knew what you would get. The new version of ‘Ghosts N Stuff’ (now a single) with Rob Swire was good fun, but not as good as the original. ‘Moar Ghosts N Stuff’ I actually think is fantastic; the original was a nice mix of his melodic and experimental styles, with this being a more fast-paced electro-style version. Now, the other tracks… I just don’t particularly like them. ‘The 16th Hour’ is probably the best of them but even that isn’t that great. It is mainly back to his ‘Get Scraped’ style it seems, ie. experimental, rather than the gorgeousness of pieces like ‘Arguru’ on RAT. I really am not into this old style that much and accordingly I didn’t find the album very good at all. HOWEVER! A new track, named ‘Strobe’, is the album’s saving grace. Originally called ‘And Then We Stood Still’ (we posted it a while ago) and only 3 mins long, Strobe is a full 10 mins+. Anyhow, this track is a MASTERPIECE. Considering how amazing Arguru, Not Exactly etc are, it would take a lot to make something what I would consider Mau5′ best track. But Strobe does this with ease. It is honestly his best track by a mile, words cannot describe how good it is! Tied for me with Pryda’s ‘Melo’ for best track of the year, and it may go ahead of it. It to me is already in my top 10 tracks ever, it is truly amazing. If it weren’t for this, the album would be pretty dismal. But this makes it SOOOO much better. To be fair, as soon as I heard it, I immediately thought of BT’s This Binary Universe (my favourite album of all time) as its got that quiet, beautiful feel, but this also has that progressive element as it gets going. So yeah, enough about Strobe; overall the album is probably only 6/10 imo, with Strobe and the 2 versions of Ghosts N Stuff being the only tracks I still listen to. Worth buying just for Strobe though! Oh and how could I forget, the awesome ‘Hi Friend’ with MC Flipside is on it. Old, but a classic. That makes it 4 tracks I listen to still.

Deadmau5 – Strobe

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