The Amorphous Androgynous - Alice In Ultraland (2005)

genre: neo-psychedelic, ambient, post-rock
1. The Emptiness Of Nothingness
2. The Witchfinder
3. The Witch Hunt
4. All Is Harvest
5. Prophet
6. Indian Swing
7. Seasons Turn
8. High and Dry
9. Yes My Brother (You've Gotta Turn Yourself Around)
10. In the Summertime Of Consciousness
11. Billy the Onion
12. Another Fairy Tale Ending
13. The World is Full Of Plankton
14. The Wicker Doll

So, in finally preparing my second full-on review for this thread, I knew it wouldn't be long before I got to not only another favourite album of the decade, but one of my favourite albums of all time from one of my favourite groups of all time (an album that would easily have made the higher reaches of my top 100 thread had I heard it about a year earlier).

Before breaking it all down into songs though, as ever, a good slice of back story's necessary. Basically, the Amorphous Androgynous here, as well as a few other names in the field of electronic music you may or may not have heard of before like the Future Sound Of London, Yage, Humanoid, Stakker and so on, are all the brainchilds of the Mancunian DJ duo; Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. They'd first made a name for themselves at the centre of the acid house scene in the late 80s and early 90s, with two massive hits of club anthems to their name, before recording a handful of very well-received (and selling) such albums. Very good albums too, but it starts to get truly profound and interesting in the mid-90s with the release of their monolithic, Mezzanine-soundalike album (released four years before Mezzanine, incidentally) by the name of Lifeforms, which found the duo approaching a much more ambient, down-tempo and dark territory.

Cobain and Dougans did what every artist with the money of a few hit singles and albums and a faithful label and fanbase behind them should do - use that backing to take daring new steps into a new, unexplored world of music. Even the brilliant Lifeforms couldn't have prepared their audience for what was coming next though. In the earlier part of this very decade, the duo revived their Amorphous Androgynous moniker and released an even more ambitious double album, this one called the Isness and Otherness. To cut what's already a longer review than I had in mind a bit shorter, they went from this and this to this and this. While it was a hell of a stylistic curveball to throw, this one into a neo-psychedelia/progressive house sort of area, the resulting music was still very song-based, with each tune having its own individual identity, much like a lot of rock albums.

And then along came 2005's Alice In Ultraland; a show of the more ambient side of the Cobain/Dougans partnership, delivering an album that blends together seamlessly to form one of the masterpieces of the decade. It finds the pair using the Amorphous Androgynous moniker to deliver an ambient psychedelic kind of album that wouldn't really be expected of the Future Sound Of London, although there's not a lot of that side of the equation on show during the opener, the Emptiness Of Nothingness - a tune that still sets the tone for some of the album ahead with its danceable rhythm, richly-layered atmospherics and unconventional (and sparse) use of vocals.

The track just kind of melts into the Witchfinder and Witch Hunt; two tunes which meld together so perfectly they might as well be the same song. More importantly, this is where the Eastern influence on Alice In Ultraland's sound first becomes obvious, which is basically a whole lotta sitar and some terrific atmospherics which really do just take you away so to speak. It's also home to one of the heaviest use of vocals on the album.

It's followed by the chilled All Is Harvest; a gorgeous little chillout beat beneath a repetitive guitar figure and fittingly non-intrusive use of strings and heavy studio treatments. It's a calm, contemplative moment's peace before the barrage of synth, guitar motifs and a loose electronic beat that is Prophet, which itself builds up towards another sitar-laden show of Cobain and Dougans' love for psychedelic music. Indian Swing then is another laid-back instrumental piece, and another show of the album's strength in that it creates a kind of sound that's at once relaxing and eye-opening at the same time.

Seasons Turn is just a nice, 61 second package of labyrinthine, psychedelic eccentricity before the fantastic High and Dry. Featuring Cobain's lead vocal, it's easily the most accessible track on the album. A guitar-led song with a conventional verse-chorus-verse structure should be a standout, but all the credit goes to Dougans and Cobain as not only the composers but also producers for how it isn't, all for the fact that blends seamlessly the next track, Yes My Brother (You've Gotta Turn Yourself Around) - a delicious, acoustic guitar-led instrumental (well, the vocal is sparse enough to deem itself as another instrument anyway) with a few Eastern flavours added to it.

In the Summertime Of Consciousness, again lead by Cobain's nasal vocal, is pretty much Seasons Turn taken to about 6 minutes' length. It's another gorgeous lump of psychedelic weirdness, complete with an almost chaotic, skewiff rhythm, saxophone, flute, sitar and piano overdubs, among so many other mixing desk atmospherics which make another truly great tune. The following Billy the Onion does the very, very strange thing for an album such as this by adding a dash of country slide guitar and harmonica to the mix with a fuzzy, synthesized bass figure ascending and descending throughout the whole thing. Yet another real headfuck of a tune.

Another Fairy Tale Ending calms proceedings down significantly, giving off the air of a stunning work of chillout in the typically complex style that the album as a whole uses. The World Is Full Of Plankton carries that toprch onward, this time introducing a heavily-treated guitar to the mix before some typically eerie, not-so-accomplished-yet-strangely-beauitiful vocals kick in. Wicker Doll puts the lid on this clamer section of the tracklisting and the album as a whole as another tune with no beat, relying wholly on the synthesized atmospherics and the potency of the mixing desk to carry it out of your speakers with real panache.

Alright, so this review has been far longer than I first hoped it would be, so I'll keep the old conclusion short. To say 'get this album as if your life depends on it' would be a bit pompous of me, so let's try and make sense eh. Basically, even if you're no huge fan of psychedelic, post-rock or ambient music (like I'm not), this album is definitely worth a gamble. It's endlessly rewarding for all the twists and turns that not only the album as a unit but each track themselves takes (you'll sit there thinking you're listening to a folk-influenced chillout tune with a steady beat before it does an ambient breakdown, layered vocals kick in or something), but also for the fact that it's a masterpiece of studio production. It's a credit to the talent of the Dougans/Cobain partnership as producers that they can make such a complex and stylistically diverse album blend together as one glorious whole (as if being easily two of the most talented composers to emerge from the house scene).

If you're the type to read the last paragraphs of these things, I'll just say here that, despite the fact it's an oxymoron to say so, this album truly is a modern classic and an absolute masterpiece. If instead you've actually read all that, I applaud your patience!

Anyway, this album =

YouTube - Garry Cobain talks about Alice In Ultraland