Vocalcity
Vocalcity is an album by Finnish electronic music producer Sasu Ripatti, better known as Vladislav Delay, and the first to be released under his stage name Luomo (though the album is credited as "Produced by Vladislav Delay"). First released on Force Tracks on May 23, 2000, the album was reissued in 2005 on Ripatti's label Huume.[1]
Vocalcity | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 23, 2000 | |||
Genre | Microhouse, deep house | |||
Length | 76:39 | |||
Label | Force Tracks, Huume | |||
Producer | Vladislav Delay | |||
Luomo chronology | ||||
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Reissue cover | ||||
2005 re-release cover |
The album has been described by critics as an influential release in the subgenre microhouse, which emphasized the minimal elements of house music.[1]
Reception
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Muzik | 4/5[3] |
Pitchfork | 9.7/10[1] |
Spin | 8/10[4] |
AllMusic stated that Vocalcity "offers a powerful statement of purpose: glitch can indeed be funky and soulful without forsaking any of its forward-looking clicks + cuts aesthetic," and called it "the sort of album you can safely recommend to anyone."[2] Writing for Pitchfork in 2005, Philip Sherburne praised the music's expansiveness and Luomo's influence in "seduc[ing] the tinkerers away from their mouse pads and back to the land of goosebumps and sex," stating that "what you hear now, after the demise of clicks + cuts, aren't the pinpricks but the enormous, inflated sounds of everything else-- bass, pads, and of course those vocals."[1]
Vocalcity was named the thirteenth best album of the decade by Resident Advisor, which called Luomo "arguably the first artist to successfully meld next-level production techniques with a rich, emotionally-charged soul," stating that "it set the tone for a decade that would see the conservative boundaries of what we once knew as house transformed beyond all recognition."[5] The A.V. Club included it in its list of "The Best Electronic Music of the '00s," writing that "warm, enveloping, and riddled with doubt, the debut of Luomo remains one of the decade’s most audacious mergers. Deep-house beats and (especially) bass merged with glitch-techno methodology and dub production technique."[6]
Track listing
- "Market" – 11:59
- "Class" – 12:32
- "Synkro" – 13:59
- "The Right Wing" – 16:08
- "Tessio" – 12:08
- "She-Center" – 9:56
Personnel
- Luomo – music, composition, production
- Luukas Onnekas – executive production
- Jukka Turunen – photography, design
References
- Sherburne, Philip (September 8, 2005). "Luomo: Vocalcity". Pitchfork. Retrieved October 1, 2009.
- Birchmeier, Jason. "Vocal City – Luomo". AllMusic. Retrieved October 1, 2009.
- Mugridge, Tom (September 2000). "Luomo: Vocalcity (Force Tracks, Germany)". Muzik (64): 102.
- Rubin, Mike (November 2000). "Luomo: Vocalcity". Spin. 16 (11): 208. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
- "Top 100 albums of the '00s". Resident Advisor. January 25, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2010.
- "The Best Electronic Music of the '00s". The A.V. Club. Retrieved March 8, 2018.