{"id":564,"date":"2007-05-21T18:27:41","date_gmt":"2007-05-21T17:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/?p=564"},"modified":"2007-05-21T18:27:41","modified_gmt":"2007-05-21T17:27:41","slug":"paul-hartnoll-the-ideal-condition-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/?p=564","title":{"rendered":"paul hartnoll &#8211; the ideal condition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text\/html; charset=iso-8859-1\"> <META content=\"MSHTML 6.00.6000.16441\" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE><\/STYLE> <\/HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>being the debut release from one of the  ex-<STRONG>orbital <\/STRONG>brothers you may think you&#8217;d know what to expect for  this beautifully packaged release. <\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>in other words, lots of joyous&nbsp;technology  music, consisting of a few looped vocal snippets, and a dancefloor throb.  <\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>thankfully, for a few tracks at least, these  ingredients are provided and so the demands of the&nbsp;fans will be met.  <\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>however, there is a lot more to consider here, as  paul has decided to step up, and really go for it with the whole <EM>electronic  music vs orchestra<\/EM> thing. <\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>o<\/FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>f course, this  means&nbsp;paul has run the risk of being accused of reviving the long lost form  of orchestral prog-rock, but i would like to think he doesn&#8217;t give a toss, as  the opening track, <EM>haven&#8217;t we met before<\/EM>, of this concise 40 minute  album, takes the word excess and just rips up the rule book. massed choirs, full  orchestra, and a heart stopping melody make this a stunning way to open the  album, despite the concerns that this can at times sound like an updated modern  take on a <STRONG>rick wakeman<\/STRONG><EM> <\/EM>track. this instrumental epic  is followed by one of the more straight ahead tracks, <EM>for silence <\/EM>with  its delicate melodies and gorgeous female vocals perfectly settling the pattern  of the album where half the album reconnects the love of orchestral instruments  and techno, while the other half its about the craft of the pop song. guest  vocals&nbsp;are provided by <EM>robert smith<\/EM> for the albums electro-pop  highlight, <EM>please, joseph arthur <\/EM>on the gritty and somewhat out of  place track<EM>, aggro, <\/EM>and <EM>akayzia parker <\/EM>for the brilliantly  understated beauty of <EM>nothing else matters, <\/EM>that simply has to be  lifted for a single, despite the fact that&nbsp;it&#8217;s probably too good for  radio.<\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>the&nbsp;vocal free tracks though are what are  going to cause certain electronic dance fans to recoil in horror, as the  marriage of traditional instruments and the trademark hartnoll production tricks  makes for interesting listening that rarely threaten a dance floor. in fact, the  mood is often downkey and restrained, so <EM>simple sounds <\/EM>gives an excuse  to check out <STRONG>philip glass<\/STRONG><EM> <\/EM>again as the minimal use of  melody, and repetition suggests that paul has been checking out philips methods  in the last few years, whereas the evocative atmosphere of the chamber  quartet&nbsp;<STRONG>penguin cafe orchestra<\/STRONG> styling&#8217;s of&nbsp;<EM>the  unsteady waltz <\/EM>would provide the perfect soundtrack to a cup of earl grey  tea in betty&#8217;s cafe in picturesque ilkley, that or a merchant ivory period drama  that has yet to be made.<\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>for those that require a few more pounding beats,  this album is not going to be on your lists, however, for those that like to  hear genuinely beautiful music played on a combination of modern studio toys,  interacting with pianos, strings, oboes, flutes, and yes, lots of those shiver  up the spine inducing choirs, then <EM>the ideal condition <\/EM>could easily be  your album of the year.<\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>more detail<\/EM> : <A  href=\"http:\/\/www.paulhartnoll.com\">here<\/A><\/FONT><\/DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><\/FONT>&nbsp;<\/DIV><\/BODY><\/HTML><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>being the debut release from one of the ex-orbital brothers you may think you&#8217;d know what to expect for this beautifully packaged release. in other words, lots of joyous&nbsp;technology music, consisting of a few looped vocal snippets, and a dancefloor throb. thankfully, for a few tracks at least, these ingredients are provided and so the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ireallylovemusic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}