Dialog - Run Silent, Run Deep [Album]

Lo-Tek

October 17, 2009, 04:58 PM

Views: 274   Comments: 3

Now I have to admit, the very concept of 'chill-out' music does nothing for me. I'm all for chilled out music, but when it's marketed as such it invariably turns out to be bland, repetitive nonsense. However last night I had a rather heavy one which resulted in a large period of memory loss and waking up this morning on a strangers sofa cradling a pillow... so a bit of chill-out music was something I was actually looking forward to this afternoon. Dialog (London based producer Andy Smith) deals in down-tempo, low-key electronica that closely resembles the early work of Boards of Canada and Orbital and as an exercise in cinematic soundscapery "Run Silent, Run Deep" is a resounding success. As entertainment though it falls flat on it's arse.

The tracks shift seamlessly into one another, one warm bed of sound after the other as the sweet, sparse title track folds into the shuffling 'Ghosts' almost without registering. There's also a dark, ambient streak which runs right through the album, a neat little tie that holds the record together. It's all very professional sounding and even has a supposed concept involving water and sea monsters (bullshit) but after a few very similar songs had faded in and out of soft-focus I was left feeling a little bored. Everything starts to seem so calculated and bland and that feeling barely subsides over the course of the albums generous 50 minutes. The beats of all 8 songs here are all very similar and very rarely change throughout the course of a track and there is an unfortunate amount of genre box-ticking going on. We run the gamut with deep house grooves, dub bass, broken beats and soft synth washes which sound like presets to my ears. It's all been done before and better so what's the point?

It's not all bad news though, pick of the (bad) bunch for me is mid-album highlight 'One Upon A Time In West London' with it's comatose guitar and gently building atmospherics. At 8 minutes long though it nearly outstays it's welcome, a sin every track here is guilty of. One would assume that music of this nature needs room and time to breath but the running times are astronomically generous.

There are moments of style over substance too, such as the barely there 'In Limbo' which never seems to go anywhere and the creepy, Hellraiser sampling 'Lament Configuration' which comes across more as more of an idea than a song. 'Taking The Easy Way Out' meanwhile is 'Bluelines' era Massive Attack without vocals and suffers by comparison.

So Dialog have struck out with "Run Silent, Run Deep," an album which might work perfectly as post-club comedown musak.... but why buy this when you can grab a second hand copy of "Music Has The Right To Children" for 2 quid on Amazon?

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