Hailing from Prague, Czech Republic, Praguedren is a duo (Thomas e, Sector 17) who create what they call "indietronicambientdub", which I guess breaks down as "indie/electronic/ambient/dub". The 8 tracks that make up Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder were recorded in a basement studio of an apartment building where the fuses from the washers and dryers had to be removed in order not to blow the building's circuits. Why do I include this tidbit? Because I guess it's suppose to give this disc some sort of "street cred".
In a age where just about anybody can produce and release a CD and send it around to various webzines in order to get some sort of feedback, it stands to reason that the quality of the products received to be reviewed can and will vary greatly. Unfortunately, this disc ranks in the lower echelons of the material I have received. Let's take the label they've given themselves and break it down:
Indie- Yep…definitely. That whole basement story cements their claim to that fame.
Electronic- Yes again. This disc is made up of nothing but electronic sounds and beats.
Ambient- The trifecta! The music is primarily composed of loops of electronic instruments over which the duo adds "effects". Unfortunately, the "effects" seem to be more along the lines of "Hit that button! Cool! Do it again!" as opposed to any kind of structured music that sounds like it was composed and is meant to have a beginning, a middle, and an ending.
Dub- Not getting this one though. "Dub" usually means the re-working of existing songs through the manipulation of the original song, such as removing/adding lyrics, changing the tempo, etc… I'm not recognizing the songs being "dubbed" here, so I'll plead ignorant on this one.
All these elements combined make, in this reviewer's opinion, a rather listless CD. It never seems to go anywhere. There isn't one track that stands out from another. I'll be quite frank, when I've spun it on my iPod during my commute home from work, I've usually fallen asleep by the 5th track. All this being said, maybe some of you will totally get into this. However, I think a serious quantity of absinthe will be required before your heart grows fonder of this disc.
Track Listing:
- Fog
- Absinthe
- Nod
- Magik Realizm
- Bell Towers
- Magik (Ambient Mix)
- Primitive Dub
- Eastern Blok
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