Alder And Elius - Parental Guidance FLAC download

This album is cool,love it and do not agree with earlier critics.

I TOTALLY second that man! I remember being in the middle of my IDM (don't think that term had even been coined yet) phase and this album always stood out as one of my favorites including (but not limited to of course), Vendor Refill's Stable LP, Autechre's LP5, and Slag Boom Van Loon. And I'm talking REAL time here y'all, as in when the albums CAME OUT. I was living it, breathing it, and most importantly DANCING it! ;-)

Alder & Elius' debut, PARENTAL GUIDANCE, seems part and parcel of the early Skam aesthetic: standard beats, angular melodies. "Sickness In Gandahar" has a definite 80s electro influence to its percussion before the bits of icy melody creep in, while "Luna Pier" sounds like an attempt to liven up a factory work line. "Hung Merci Tear" has a subdued twitchiness and the longer drawled tones of "Baretta" sit atop a more aggressive rhythm. The chopped up voice of "Terry's Medication" adds a slight paranoia, but the sharp high tones and solid kick drum of "Alarm Tatter" bring a steadiness. "Avatar Blackwolf" goes further into outer space with its sample (though its percussion keeps it defiantly earthbound), while "Preclovis" chugs along like a slow steam engine. The deeper "Irie's Eyes" has a delicate edge to it, and the quasi-tribal rhythms of "Realization Of Kira" take the album out on a more thoughtful note. While pleasant, the album doesn't quite stand out much from the run-of-the-mill IDM pack.

Interesting reviews here. I haven't listened to this in nearly ten years, but I dug it out and gave it a spin. I recall rather enjoying it when it was new. Sound-wise it's definitely a product of its time, but of course that isn't a bad thing at all; this was produced during one of IDM's golden ages. The melodies and percussion remind me of Funkstorung and David Fakesch's solo stuff (now there're two acts that seem to have sadly disappeared -- though I'm dating myself, naturally). I think the comparisons to Boards of Canada are off-base. The sound isn't that close; and it's not fair to say that they tried to "cash in," especially (A) considering that this genre of music doesn't exactly fly off the proverbial shelves and (B) pretty much nobody could live up to BoC at that time.Anyway, this is a pretty decent album. Which is funny, since it isn't rated highly. But when you compare it with some of the pure nonsense that Skam has published in the ensuing years (Wevie Stonder anyone?), I don't see how you can really fault this record. I now remember making an association with it and 9/11/2001 because that's around when I first heard it. Being a somewhat dark piece of music, its more ominous tracks echo for me the terrible events of that day. Some of the more combative tracks like Baretta, Terry's Medication, and Alarm Tatter conjure up almost military images -- and certainly they remind me of watching news reports of the subsequent Afghanistan invasion. Could Avatar Blackwolf (one of my favourites here) be a codename for a covert operation in the Hindu Kush?

I havent the slightest idea what type of equipment these two use but sounds in this album remind me of old Front 242 with the 1/4 percussion repeats/rolls and low bit note/drones. Very nostaligic for today (except for you electro-pop seekers) but you could get sick of the format in about 3 songs. How they got aquainted with Skam records seems perplexing as simple and uneventfull as their music is.

SKAM’s first truly dull full length. Alder & Elius try to cash in on the sound of Boards Of Canada by merely copying and pasting nostalgic sounding sythnlines throughout all fourteen terrible tracks. I will give them some slack though, there’s no way of topping the two albums prior. Music Has The Right To Children and Soup are the two most fantastic albums on SKAM and on any label for that matter. Please do me a favor, don’t waste your money.