The Field – Yesterday And Today
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The Field – Yesterday And Today
Holdrons Arcade
135A Rye Lane
Unit 11 Holdrons Arcade
London SE15 4ST
United Kingdom
Label: Kompakt – KOMPAKT CD 72
Format: CD, Album
Country: Germany
Released: May 18, 2009
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Shoegaze, Minimal, Tech House
Following the near-universal acclaim of From Here We Go Sublime — a 9.0 on Pitchfork, called by the BBC "one of those rare albums that makes you wonder how you ever got by without it" — Axel Willner returns as The Field with his sophomore full-length on Kompakt. Yesterday And Today expands the palette considerably, continuing the oblique sampling strategy of the debut while building up the rhythmic architecture and bringing in a group of different musicians. On the title track, Willner collaborates for the first time with Battles drummer John Stanier — a pairing that gives the record a propulsive, rock-inflected energy that sits unexpectedly naturally within the looping, blissed-out framework.
Six tracks, each one given the room it needs. Leave It is the standout for many — eleven minutes of epic, loopy, dreamy minimalist electronics with a rock spirit, a bassline that arrives and refuses to leave, the early Pantha Du Prince spirit pushed somewhere more physically immediate. The More That I Do returns to the DNA of the debut with upgraded craft, while I Have The Moon, You Have The Internet and the title track rank among Willner's finest compositions. Sequenced closes the record at fifteen minutes — ambitious, occasionally demanding, entirely in keeping with a producer whose loop-based minimalism has always rewarded patience over instant gratification. A legendary piece of art, still sounding mind-blowing.
