Pritchard, Mark / Under The Sun
Album: Under The Sun   Collection:General
Artist:Pritchard, Mark   Added:Jun 2016
Label:Warp Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2016-06-27 Pull Date: 2016-08-28 Charts: Electronic, Classical/Experimental
Week Ending: Aug 21 Aug 14 Aug 7 Jul 31 Jul 24 Jul 17 Jul 3
Airplays: 1 2 2 1 1 2 4

Recent Airplay
1. Apr 05, 2018: Lucid Lightning: Power Hour
Beautiful People Feat. Thom Yorke
4. Aug 20, 2016: Narnia
Sad Alron
2. Jul 03, 2017: deep storage
Light Bodied
5. Aug 13, 2016: Narnia
Beautiful People Feat. Thom Yorke
3. Sep 29, 2016: subwoofer etc
Ems
6. Aug 10, 2016: Brownian Motion
?

Album Review
Mr. Tumnus
Reviewed 2016-06-26
Ambient/soft electronic. An ambitious album from a veteran English ambient/house producer. There is a cameo appearances from Thom Yorke, some spoken word, and lots of flavors of synth. Production value is extremely high, and many of the tracks build stunning ambient worlds. It kind of reminds of Space Odyssey 2001, in its ambition, its length (well over an hour), its perfectionism, and (of course) its synth spaciness. The textures are really smooth. Things fade in and out and leave ripples behind them. Synth harmonies orbit some central melody--or sometimes nothing at all. Lots to like here, and I find that I’m liking it more with repeated listens.

Recommended: 5, 16, 7, 2, 14, 1, 15, 4, 9, 11

1) * “?” (6:04): Sustained rumble to start. Great ambient. Kind of reminds me of a refrigerator running, or a helicopter flying. Guitar plays a spare melody.
2) ** “Give It Your Choir” (4:26): Carbonated opening settles into a languid electronic soundscape. Male choral-style voices. Reminds me of Panda Bear. Everything submerged underwater at the end.
3) “Infrared” (2:04): Radar scanning a landscape. Military radio voice. Almost establishes a beat. Flows smoothly into next track.
4) * “Falling” (3:17): Videogame-style synth climbing a scale. Gradually builds up a rich counterpoint, then fades to nothing.
5) *** “Beautiful People” (6:02): This track features Thom Yorke. Catchy flute at the beginning loops into itself. Straightforward 4/4 beat, synth flares. Thom’s voice bent out of shape. Sudden end. Wonderful.
6) “Where Do They Go, The Butterflies” (3:26): Kind of a swirl of synth pulses.
7) ** “Sad Alron” (2:37): Quavering synth, little hopeful pulses. Breathtaking.
8) “You Wash My Soul” (5:29): Acoustic guitar. Lightly altered female voice. More lyrically focused: “You wash my soul.”
9) * “Cycles of 9” (4:01): Organ pulses. Strings in the background. Like a series of whole notes.
10) “Hi Red” (1:28): Highly altered voice saying hi to different colors. Kind of a novelty track, I’m sure someone can find a use for it.
11) * “Ems” (8:20): Like looking at a cluster of insects with a foghorn blowing in the background. I don’t know, how does anyone describe this stuff? Creamy, slightly spacey ambient.
12) “The Blinds Cage” (5:03): Mostly a spoken word piece with slightly campy sound effects. Melodramatic lyrics.
13) “Dawn of the North” (1:34): Notes being bent up and down.
14) * “Khufu” (3:23): Quavering, gentle, like watching sunrise on an alien world. Gets eerie and dark at the end.
15) * “Rebel Angels” (3:08): Bouncing, distant beat. Off-balance feeling subsides into peaceful quiet.
16) ** “Under the Sun” (6:31): 19th century English woman’s voice chopped up to provide a stunning atmosphere. The sound gets a bit watery.

-- Mr Tumnus

Track Listing
1. ?   9. Cycles Of 9
2. Give It Your Choir Feat. Bibio   10. Hi Red
3. Infrared   11. Ems
4. Falling   12. The Blinds Cage Feat. Beans
5. Beautiful People Feat. Thom Yorke   13. Dawn Of The North
6. Where Do They Go, The Butterflies   14. Khufu
7. Sad Alron   15. Rebel Angels
8. You Wash My Soul Feat. Linda Perhacs   16. Under The Sun