The Boats: Our Small Ideas (Our Small Ideas, 2008/flau, 2012)
August 4, 2013 at 11:54 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
The Boats: Our Small Ideas
Reissue of an earlier album by IDM/drone/post rock/modern classical group The Boats, originally self-released on their own label which shares this album’s name. The songs are mostly pretty short, and often contain small clicky beats, acoustic instruments (guitar, xylophones and similar things, strings), plus crackling, ambience, field recordings, etc. “You Need To See Through Better Eyes” has some humming, and “Please Return” has a little bit of vocals, but “Raindrops Remain (First)” has full vocals, and I guess is the most poppy song here by default. “We Sometimes Forget” has vocals too, and they’re somewhat filtered/phoned-in-sounding, and there’s some deep bass thuds, and some sort of melting atmosphere in the background. “Procedure Details” has some soft beats with acoustic guitars in front. “This Song Has Been Intentionally Left Blank” does have some mysterious vocals and a veil of static. “They Gave Me This To Keep Quiet” has some more (appropriately) quiet, buried vocals. Tracks after that tend to be quieter instrumentals. “Raindrops (Version)” is a more synth-heavy version of “Raindrops (First)”. “Little Song At Little Time” gets a trip-hoppy remix by Aus. “The List Of Our Mistakes (Boats Remix)” has some static-drenched vocals, strings and glitchy guitar bits. “You Didn’t Expect Me To Care” has woodwinds, small clicky beats, bass, and some filtered vocals, and these elements swirl around a bit and you’re not entirely sure if it works at first. “May Our Enemies Never Find Happiness (Boats Remix)” has more heavily static-ed vocals and a tiny beat that blips panned left/right in the speakers.
The Answer Is In The Beat 
Leave a comment