Review Summary: With it’s smoky beats, strange voiceovers and fragile sounds, Lemonjelly.KY is the perfect album to relax to.
chill out
v :
to become quiet or calm, especially after a state of agitation
‘Chilling out’ is an essential part of everyday life, a part which many people no doubt forgo in order to focus on the more productive (or so they think) sections of life which involve such things as work and exercise. But science has proven that chilling out and relaxing is helpful in combating stress related illnesses whilst also increasing one’s ability to think.
Lemonjelly.KY is an exercise in relaxation with DJ duo
Nick Franglen and
Fred Deakin incorporating psychedelic sounds and random sound bites, with relaxed beats, which one can’t help but drift off into.
Lemon Jelly songs are generally ambience music, in the vein of
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, although nowhere near as long or epic (or haunting).
Lemonjelly.KY is a compact disc collection of
Lemon Jelly’s first three vinyl EPs.
The root of this album is based around the beats that Franglen incorporates into the songs. Because this music is generally background music, a strong beat is required to keep the interest levels up, and Franglen delivers excellently in this respect. The beats are most noticeable in songs like
Homage To Patagonia, which sounds suspiciously like that horrible song, Las Ketchup, except much, much (much!) better. The strong tribal-like drums and percussion, help to keep the song going, whilst what sounds like an electric piano keeps the song progressing. It is due to these beats that
Lemon Jelly songs, although repetitive and long, never cease to be interesting. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but for ambience music, this album is surprisingly interesting.
The sound bites are also a key element in
Lemon Jelly’s music, with all sound bites being noticeable, yet not interrupting the flow of the song, and none of the sound bites are ever boring. The pick of the glorious bunch, in terms of
Lemon Jelly sound bites, would have to be in
Page One, where the song starts with a beat and some electronic noises. This continues on until roughly the 1:20 mark, where a classical piano enters. At the 3:00 mark, a sound bite is heard, asking the reader to think about what it would be like to have no possessions whatsoever. It then asks the question, what if there was nothing? Nothing in existence. A so called “Page One”. At the 5:00 mark the song takes a step up in tempo, with Deakin adding his personal flavour to the song, with some sweet scratching of the voice over, which does nothing but add to the texture of the song. This song is just one of the many long, complexly layered tracks. It is obvious that a lot of love has gone into these songs, and, as a listener, one can’t help but feel grateful.
KY also has some good instrumental work, with tracks like
A Tune For Jack having a very nice little piano ‘riff’ playing to go along with the beats and the electronica. In any given track there is a number of different instruments playing, be they a keyboard, maracas, bongos or an acoustic guitar. Indeed, an acoustic guitar is what forms the basis of the best track on the album (at least in my opinion),
The Staunton Lick. It starts with a voice-over explaining how to play something named the ‘Staunton Lick’, which then leads into numerous other acoustics and a bass (I think) joining in. This then continues with trumpets, keyboards and various other instruments making guest appearances. Throughout the track, a sound bite speaking the words ‘This is the Staunton Lick’ are repeated, with the later versions being scratched. This adds a lot of character to the song, and creates one of the happiest moods on the whole album. It is also the shortest song on KY.
If there is anything at all wrong with this album, it would be that some tracks tend to run for a long time and it is sometimes impossible to identify either which track is playing at a given time, or when one track has ended and another has started. This is a very minor issue though, and doesn’t take away overly from the album. Some tracks also happen to penetrate one’s conscious, to be a bit intrusive, which I think destroys the albums purpose in creating ambience music.
Overall, I think
Lemonjelly.KY is a great album, one of the most original of its kind.
Lemon Jelly deserve a lot more recognition than they have, and I’m sure this album is available to buy for less than a fiver. It’s easy to imagine both people stoned out of their heads and the snobby upper class listening to this album. With it’s smoky beats, strange voiceovers and fragile sounds, KY is the perfect album to relax to.
