Zion I & the Grouch | Heroes In the Healing of the Nation

CD Reviews

Pantha du Prince | XI Versions of Black Noise

Rough Trade (2011)

By REYAN ALI | May 6, 2011

1.5 Stars

Outright blandness is the worst sin in all of art. If you're going to create something so colorless that it blends into the background, barely triggering any sensation, why bother creating at all? Clinging to the middle ground does no one any favors — the world is already full of grocery-store jazz and nondescript wallpaper. So it's an abundance of innocuousness that damns this remix collection of Pantha du Prince's Black Noise, where Animal Collective, Four Tet, the Sight Below, Efdemin, and others tinker with tracks by the German ambient electronica artist. Few dare to make any actual impression. The opener — Moritz von Oswald the One's take on "Welt am Draht" — has airy, cooing vocals, a super-soft, barely-there beat, and pretty much nothing else, looping aimlessly for six-plus sleepy minutes. The pointlessness is grating. XI Versions' final three songs do show signs of life — Animal Collective, Walls, and Pantha himself manage to work up a buzz — but they can't compensate for time killers by Lawrence, Carsten, and Efdemin that make inoffensiveness offensive.

Topics: CD Reviews , Music, German, New Music, More

| More

Add Comment

HTML Prohibited

Friends' Activity

Popular

Most Viewed

See more deals

view all

[ 06/01 ] Neon Trees + Limousines @ State Theatre

[ 06/01 ] Nighty Night + This Will Destroy You + John LaMonica @ Brighton Music Hall

[ 06/01 ] Ray Lamontagne & the Pariah Dogs + Brandi Carlile + The Secret Sisters @ Bank of America Pavilion

ARTICLES BY REYAN ALI

FACE TO FACE | LAUGH NOW, LAUGH LATER | May 25, 2011
Putting 1999's Ignorance Is Bliss aside, Face to Face still sounds the way they always have.

THE WORLD/INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY LEAD A PUNK CULT | May 20, 2011
If Ann Orrin had done some crafty editing on her 2008 documentary about the World/Inferno Friendship Society, it would have been easy to confuse the band with some fringe religion.

BLANK DOGS | COLLECTED BY ITSELF 2006-2009 | May 18, 2011
Mystique is a powerful tool, as Mike Sniper knows well, since it helped get Blank Dogs, his bedroom-project-turned-band, a healthy amount of press.

YOUNG WIDOWS SEEK BEAUTY AND MORTALITY IN NOISE | May 03, 2011
It's not much of a leap to imagine Young Widows hanging out in a funeral home.

PANTHA DU PRINCE | XI VERSIONS OF BLACK NOISE | May 06, 2011
Outright blandness is the worst sin in all of art.

See all articles by: REYAN ALI

Most Viewed

Most Emailed

LOOK AT THIS FUCKING HIPSTER WEDDING
If you liked it, then you shoulda put a bird on it.

EDDIE VEDDER | UKULELE SONGS
Unless your name is Tiny Tim or you perform with Michael J. Epstein, you shouldn't be putting out an entire album of ukulele songs; something just feels weird about it.

MY MORNING JACKET | CIRCUITAL
If there's any band in the universe that knows the meaning of power, it's Kentucky's My Morning Jacket, a five-piece that thrives, more than anything, on the thunder of five hairy men playing instruments together in a room.

THE BIG HURT: BIEBER'S SCENT, FOSTER THE PEOPLE'S KICKS, DYLAN'S SMACK, TYLER AND SARA'S TIFF
Though our wee lad is scarcely old enough to develop a musky scent of his own, he's already prepping his second commercial fragrance.

SPITTING A FIERCE HIP-HOP COVER, KARMIN USE YOUTUBE AS A LAUNCHING PAD FOR SUCCESS
"Literally everything is different now," writes Noonan via e-mail. "No more daytime naps!"