Album Review: Bola - D.E.G.

[stereoman]

Here it is. One of the best unknown electronic musicians - Darrell Fitton aka BOLA (Manchester,England). Why one of the best ? Simply because to make a good electronic music it takes much more than a music maker installed on your PC. Patchwork (Spirit Zone), Rechenzentrum, Sensorama - these great German electronic groups have simply their own unique style that conveys extremely well made and intelligent electro music. BOLA (though not from German school of electronica like the previous mentioned groups) is an excellent musician of his own genre. His albums convey this great futuristic sound but also a sound that is bathed from the beginning to the end with his own uniqe samples and mastered to the point of being almost (like German "Patchwork" or "Amon Tobin") sterile. BOLA presents sound escapades that often touch a sombre and dark ambient regions but almost always with a beat in the background. There is something more to it. BOLA always tries to instill his music with certain melody that makes each tune also unique so that the listener does not get the repetitive same tune all over the album. Even if the tune spreads in 3 pieces, each will have its own unique melody to it. So how does it sound then ? Imagine yourself left in a proverbial alien spaceship lab, on Mars in 2100 or in a medieval castle alchemy dungeons for tourists and you will get more or less the gist of it. Excellent compositions, well mastered sound, unique style - fully recommended for each IDM electronica fan.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Genre: IDM/Ambient/Electronica

Links: https://open.spotify.com/album/0AF5jWhAXCgcCi1GZNTmYK

 

[davidf]

I haven’t heard any of Bola’s stuff since Shapes - I’ll have to scout around and see what’s on TIDAL/Qobuz/Spotify and see which of their following albums are worth purchasing

 

[stereoman]

I haven’t heard any of Bola’s stuff since Shapes - I’ll have to scout around and see what’s on TIDAL/Qobuz/Spotify and see which of their following albums are worth purchasing

Hi David. Nice to hear you know it. Mind please - Bola has rarely if at all bad albums but the the new album is really his best to me since "Soup"...Check out "Evensong".

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

Ive had a listen stereoman 2-3 times, and I like the dynamics of some of the tracks and some of the tracks like the first two, but it seems to go in a similar direction all the time, without much variation. The rhythms and loops aren’t that original a lot of the time, very computer generated sounding, there isn’t any pleasing electronic melody I can latch onto too in my own mind. If it meets this test I can replay it in my mind then it’s halfway there to being great, but this doesn’t do that, simply because there isn’t anything of substance in this respect. It may be pleasing sounding on listening, but for me to come back to it, it has to be more than that. The track polomen vapour 3 is just someone changing chords, a piano note, not much talent. If it’s meant to invoke a feeling inside me by its impression or spacey airiness it doesn’t do so if it’s not musical.

This is only my opinion of which I’m only one, and not to lower your enthusiasm for reviewing I’d probably give this 6 out of 10 or 7 if I was really generous.

 

[davidf]

Just having a listen now - wasn’t on TIDAL unfortunately, so listening on Spotify.

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

Probably best to post in the ‘what have I been listening to’ section of this site, as not much interest of people doing this on the hi Fi section.

 

[stereoman]

Ive had a listen stereoman 2-3 times, and I like the dynamics of some of the tracks and some of the tracks like the first two, but it seems to go in a similar direction all the time, without much variation. The rhythms and loops aren’t that original a lot of the time, very computer generated sounding, there isn’t any pleasing electronic melody I can latch onto too in my own mind. If it meets this test I can replay it in my mind then it’s halfway there to being great, but this doesn’t do that, simply because there isn’t anything of substance in this respect. It may be pleasing sounding on listening, but for me to come back to it, it has to be more than that. The track polomen vapour 3 is just someone changing chords, a piano note, not much talent. If it’s meant to invoke a feeling inside me by its impression or spacey airiness it doesn’t do so if it’s not musical.

This is only my opinion of which I’m only one, and not to lower your enthusiasm for reviewing I’d probably give this 6 out of 10 or 7 if I was really generous.

I understand 13th, that is why we mentioned before that all reviews are pretty much subjective and they will never reflect other people's tastes. To me Bola is fantastic whereas to other ones can be at most mediocre...