Jimmy Tamborello is one of those people who seem to have been destined to play music. At a young age his father, a jazz saxophonist and flutist, purchased him a drum machine, a sequencer, a keyboard and an eight track, solely for the purpose of allowing his son to create music by himself. In 1994, Tamborello did just that, donning the name
Dntel . 7 years would pass before
Life is Full of Possibilities , Dntel’s first full length would be released, but I’m not writing about those seven years, am I? No, I’m writing about the product of them, and this is what I think about it.
A quiet voice comes through the speakers, before anything else. Amid glitches, it sings
“You can turn the city upside down, if you want to, but it won't keep you dry.” . Said voice is of the album’s first guest, Chris Gunst. After more or less repeating himself, Gunst is joined by an ambient organ line and a jittery drum machine.
Umbrella , being the first track, is one of the more conventional songs on the album. While hardly a normal sounding song, it is certainly more normal than say third track
Pillowcase , a 3 and half minute drum less, bass less organ crescendo. This is one of the things I find most enjoyable about Life is Full of Possibilities, the variety. On one hand you have songs that are so strange and ambient it’s almost painful, yet on the other you have some incredibly poppy numbers that wouldn’t be out of place on The Postal Service’s (another Tamborello project) new CD.
A host of guest vocalists aside, Life is Full of Possibilities would be nothing without Tamborello’s stellar production.
Last Songs , the last song (whoa, look out), is a perfect example of how Dntel doesn’t need anyone other than Tamborello to make a superb track. Driven by a very pleasant looped acoustic guitar, the song, while not having a very dark feel at all, sounds very sad. The pretty string arrangements that come in later on just strengthen this feel. Other instrumental tracks are the total opposite though.
Fireworks is a dark, bouncy, highly danceable track. Using essentially nothing but a quiet, slightly distorted bass part and clicking “drum” beat. Whatever style, their really isn’t badly produced song on the album. Come to think of it, there isn’t a really a bad song on the album at all.
Even if Tamborello’s production is superb, the guest vocalists still to come to his aid on many songs. Without Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard’s contribution to
(This is) The Dream of Evan and Chan the song would get fairly dull, despite having a fairly awesome beat comprised of hard to hear keyboards and multiple drum machine parts. This being the song that kick started The Postal Service, that’s sort of the sound you can expect from this song. The combination of great guest vocals and superb production earns Life is Full of Possibilities a 4 from me.
