Golden Living Room – Post-Internet
Recommendation: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Golden Living Room’s Post-Internet is an excursion into hyper-produced ambient computer music, with birdsong faintly sitting on the threshold. The seventeen-track, hour-long album is the fifth full-length by the father and professional music teacher, who first became active with 2013’s Plug In, Drop Out. This will well-please fans of spacey video game soundtracks such as Portal, Kairo, and Ether One; as the synthesized tones and prominent utilization of nature sounds have much in common with recent releases in “post-” fiction. In fact, “Malon Goes to Heaven” sounds a lot like something out of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.
The track lengths generally range from between three and four minutes which is just enough time for these pieces that don’t need to spend all their time on evolving into something huge and grand. Many of the tracks on Post-Internet sound like small windows into another world, especially the singing-bowl-and-waterfall of “Tune in / Vibrations.” Some might find the occasional trap flourish annoying (e.g. “GOLDEN LIVING ROOM & ULTRA ウルトラ – F a n t a j ī エミュレータ”) and the nature sounds repetitive (e.g. “Tech”), whereas others might find that they add just enough spice to each sound.
There are two problems. First, this album is almost certainly way too long: several tracks (e.g. “Al’Teau,” “A New World,” “Lonely,” and “Sunday May 3rd, 2015”) could have easily been cut with no net negative on the release as a whole. Second, the album ends with a totally out-there instrumental hip-hop track featuring 회사AUTO with irritating monkey calls. It completely ruins the flow of the album, and is better off entirely forgotten.
This is music for a frosty, fall morning spent watching the sunrise in a grand city park.
Tracklist
1. Tech – (2:53)
2. First Contact (feat. OSCOB) – (3:22)
3. Tune In / Vibrations – (3:57)
4. GOLDEN LIVING ROOM & ULTRA ウルトラ – F a n t a j ī エミュレータ – (2:53)
5. A New World – (6:28)
6. Midi Jungle – (2:27)
7. Precog Prenotion – (2:39)
8. Interdimensional Chocobo – (2:57)
9. The Seeker of Water – (3:19)
10. Lonely – (3:53)
11. Sunday May 3rd, 2015 – (3:30)
12. Midi Wind – (1:16)
13. Lodollite Dreams (for the Princess – (6:48)
14. Al’Teau – (3;26)
15. Malon Goes to Heaven – (4:17)
16. Branches of Leaves – (4:26)
17. Android Online (feat. 회사AUTO) – (4:12)