UltraNormal

New music Friday!! I should have written about this instead of my Java vs. Tcl conflicts, but hey, I'm tired, have a headache and am hungry as hell, so forgive me - please. I went a little nuts on Amazon last week and bought a bunch of new music. The first batch arrived last night, and after listening to it all day, here are my impressions of these two albums by Lemon Jelly. Where did I hear them? Why, JazzMusique, of course. Usually, I don't check the track names of the songs as they play, but last week, three songs really caught my attention during the day, and they all happened to be by the same group. So, I bought 'em. Here's what I think of the albums:

• Lemon Jelly.ky: This is a collection of three EPs the group (two guys) put out. What's weird about knowing it's a collection is that the songs all flow together really well. It feels more like a concept album than a compilation. What do they sound like? They're a little like Groove Armada if you replace the vocals on Groove Armada's stuff with funny spoken word samples and add some more horns. It's trippy, groovy lounge music that's not at all boring. It has some pep to it, which is a nice change from some lounge music that makes you want to nap. I have no idea why, but it makes me think of late spring sun showers. It's raining, but the sun's out and I'm happy that it's raining. Yeah, I know, must be the allergy pills talking.
• Lost Horizons: A complete album, and you can tell. While there may not be an overarching theme (not that I can find anyway), there are riffs that show up in the background, and some of the voice samples are probably from the same source (sounds like the same guy anyway). This is great coding music. It's interesting enough to keep you focused, but not overpowering enough to distract. There are an insane amount of layers to the songs. You can hook into the bass line, the drums, the samples, or the other instruments hidden under the covers. It's perfect headphone music. Spacewalk and Ramblin' Man are breathtaking in the sheer beauty of the songs and the layers of complimentary sound they pack into them. If you're going to buy just one, get this one.

The one downside to both albums is the packaging. While both CD's come in fantastic looking cases, they're completely unusable. It's hard to get the CD's out, hard to put them back in, etc. Thankfully, I'm burning backup copies so I can put the CD's away in the "vault". I should get the other CD's from the splurge this weekend, so expect reviews of them next week.