A fine album full of atmospheric, contemporay electronica. From the first notes the carefully constructed textures and the moody strings fascinate and please me. Deliciously floating layers of sound, both of electronic and acoustic origin. The general impression is a little hazy and misty, like you’re looking back at events of which you know they were pleasant, but you can’t remember the precise details. Songtitles like ‘An evening with friends’ and Saturday driving music’ enforce that impression. Or the background conversations you can hear during ‘At the old place’.
Though the music is dominantly electronic and has a very clear sound, the overall feeling it evokes is rather warm and pleasing. There is a rather strange sound source used on the album though: Dean Hinds was in the possession of a ‘beam-me-up’ pager, with rather unpredictible behaviour. One day he received 37 voicemail messages after another, all consisting of seemingly randome elctronic beeps and noises. These 37 ‘messages’ played an important role in the creation of this album, though you probably wouldn’t hear it if you didn’t know in advance.
The music on “37′ is quite tranquil, ethereal sometimes, with only sparse use of subtle beats, like on ‘To the point of obscurity’, which also uses wordless vocals, the voice as an instrument. A wonderful album, somewhere between electronic ambient and accessible IDM.
“37” is a self-released album by creator Dean Hinds, but available through a few larger music outlets.
