Tunes Consumed: the Poutine Silver Platter

Today is very much an ambient day.

When I think on genres, and I think of them fondly, one that always comes up in my iPod playlists is of ambient. Its ability to squeeze into so many different rooms, situations, moods is what characterizes the vibe, and its conception dates back to Brian Eno’s imagining of the idea in the 1970s (perhaps most notably with Music for Airports).

Music is a social catalyst. If you take your typical university party, and break it down into elements you’re left with three main components: drugs, people, and music. Often the best parties have the most popular music, which is why where we’re from, you won’t see a party on Reid go without the Chili Peppers or Bob Marley. It’s a strange brew to be sure, but they both carry the same weight in this sub-culture and since they’ve been listened to so very many times by everyone in attendance, they are so easily tuned-out, left to become part of the heightened blend of sensations that is the party.

I believe it is precisely that kind of mentality that breeds ambient music, only instead of going for the brain-dead approach, it tries to garner a translucency on the first listen. What that means is there still is something there you haven’t heard, but you can choose to listen for it or completely ignore it; go back and forth. It allows a room to go without intermittent silences, and is a conversation piece that can be used to pick up and go somewhere else because it’s so effortlessly overridden by conversation (or any other activity). Even as a solo listening experience it can take your mind places, or simply accompany it; like the concilatory rub of a kitten.

Enough genre blather though. What’s important is that with the artists that sprout up from these roots, I can get especially excited by artists like Paper, who, with their debut As As were able to maintain the genre’s opaque nature even while layering so much electronic noise, and folding jazz drums & post-rock guitar into the mix.

I especially like tracks like “Love,” which is so obviously built for headphones, with synth-in-brass drones that completely submerge one ear, leaving the other side of your brain to thread everything else into a whole picture. It’s hypnotic, in a way. The nerves are laid by its repetitive oompa-synth, and the spine is built on vocals and violin, making for a decisively fleshy track. And, while I usually find something irking about most sequencing in this genre (the artists tend toward formula, and it reflects that), here it’s a little different; the follow-up to that fleshy “Love” drone is “Underground,” a rhythmic drum-laden, mellow acid-bass track that is as much Caribou as it is Eno.

It continues in that fashion, and further down the line its most break-out attempt from being pinned down is with “Mountain” in all its drum & bassy goodness. Again… Caribou? Yes… yes. The title track “Boy” is almost just as pleasant, including some mysterious female guest vocals. It would seem that even if you’re the kind of person with a mind like a ninja, deciding to go out with this on a solo listening adventure, this album won’t fail to keep you on your toes, or can play to the knives & forks, so to speak, and be some easy-go dinner atmosphere.

On a final note, I discovered that the two lone members, Aaron & Adrienne are also part of a group called Landing. A group who, despite the larger cast and somewhat lo-fi recordings, carry a similar vibe (no doubt because of the Snow brothers’ spearheading there as well). It seems after reading the Landing news page though, that sentence may need to be past-tense. Paper may be more than just a side-project of the Snows in the future.

mp3:
Paper - Mountain
Paper - Boy

see also:
Paper get some Love over at Obscure Sound.

As As is out now, and can be had direct from States Rights for a mere $12.