Review Summary: Liem brings warmth even on the coldest days with Grace Days
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1sBpsyRNfM
The video above shows a time lapse of two of Robert Serra’s sculptures (Respectfully the Torqued Ellipse IV and Intersection II) being installed in the Modern Museum in NYC. These minimal art pieces bring a cold vibe giving an open interpretation reflecting society (or however you see it). However, when I watched this I couldn’t help but get a warm fuzzy feeling despite the vague pieces sitting in the cold snow. Quite frankly, as the video opens up with “Friction on Teeth” the innocent bloop-bleep sound effects slowly spread the warmth over the video’s cold artsy depiction. So much that by the time the synths fill the warmth will have you completely engulfed.
The song Friction on Teeth is one of the standout tracks on I Am Robot And Proud’s
Grace Days. Aside from some more sounds, and some minimal acoustic’s:
Grace Days is more of the same as seen in
The Catch/SSAW. However this barely is a flaw as Shaw-Han Liem manages to hit the formula well on all 9 cuts on this album. The music can be described as childlike, innocent, warm, fuzzy, and cute. The album opens up with the sleepy and laid back mid paced "Grace Days", which opens with a lush Rhodes-like keyboard intertwined with a soft folksy guitar mimicking the chords. The song builds in a typical IARAP fashion with the one instrument being added or subtracted every time the chord progression cycles until it hits the 1:37 mark-where it focuses in on the folksy acoustic guitar playing the song progression in sparse chords. It eventually builds in a cute-like bridge with a twinkle like keyboard taking the lead with the song spacing out into a sleepy feel.
"Learn From Mistakes" jitters with its shaky keyboards until it gets splashed with a funky bass line. "Her Version" gently pulsates with a major fifth interval as the song builds and revolves around it creating a nifty spaced out feeling till in the end it gently cools down. The most interesting song here is actually "Friction On Teeth" which comes over you like a warm fuzzy blanket with its building bloop-bleep keyboards-progressing into lightly distorted tremolo section and then bounces in an up-tempo feel with a Postal Service-esque feeling.
Aside from those described, most of the pieces on the album are quite similar in approach. Though when listening this is hardly a problem. As Fall and Winter approaches us here in North America-and the weather gets colder. Grace Days (in addition to Liem’s other albums) are worthy to check out. The warm fuzzy tones that flow throughout the album can take your coldest days and make you feel all warm and gushy inside. Highly recommended for indie/electronic/pop fans.
