Search - Mocean Worker :: Aural & Hearty

Moceanless

FlangeMechanism | 02/26/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Mocean Worker's website hasn't been updated since September of 2000, when Aural & Hearty came out, for reasons somewhat obvious when you listen to the album. I immediately disliked A&H when it first came out, but after reading all the glowing reviews here I decided to give it a second chance and picked up a used copy. Some other reviewers here interpret A&H's sound as a self-conscious parody of the crossover attempts of Moby and Fatboy Slim, but after having listened to it closely I would argue that the album is nothing more than just such a crossover attempt, and an inferior one at that. There are pockets of Dorn's usual inspired brilliance, but on this run they're surrounded by track after track of sheer padding.



A&H starts with a completely unnecessary throwaway track (even at 28 seconds, it goes on way too long), and it's a mixed bag from there. "Hey Baby" is a catchy little number, but with it Dorn immediately shoots himself in both feet: it's as fluffy as cotton candy, melting in the mouth and leaving nothing more substantial behind than a few grains of sugar, sure to disappoint the fans who loved the dark complexity of "Rene M." and "Son of Slam", while at the same time diverging too far from his customary sound to set any kind of tone for the rest of the album. Sure enough, on track 03 there's more trouble: "Air Suspension" is muffled and clumsy, too much beat and not enough bass, and has nowhere near the finesse to justify dragging on for nearly six minutes. Also, the use of Dorn's trademark analogue feedback noises, the smooth driving wheel of Mixed Emotional Features, is cumbersome and obnoxious here. Even then, this might have been a decent track, but the breathy, unintelligible vocal by Bono (did he not want to be recognized?) turns me off every time.



Things pick up a little with "Tres Tres Chic," which is almost as fun as Dorn probably thought it was going to be when he first conceived of it. "Intothinair" (which you may recognize from the club scene in "The Bourne Supremacy"), the longest track, is all right; it reminds me of a faster version of Slim's "Next to Nothing." Again, though, the feedback bass comes off as a square peg crammed into a round hole. Hey Adam, do you want to cross over or not? The exact same sample shows up to haunt the otherwise porno-funky "Thick Interlude". "Cha Cha Cha" starts with excessively hard tub-thumper beats, and then collapses under the feedback effect, which cuts through its kitschy samples like a buzzsaw. "Velvet Black Sky" is an altogether smoother affair, but it just makes me want to listen to the far superior "Counts, Dukes, & Strays". "Astroglide" is a decent enough excursion into jazzy d'n'b, one with a more toned-down feedback effect, but it also sounds like Dorn forgot he'd already included "Intothinair" and tried to make it over again. In "Waiting for Verdeaux," the feedback sounds tired by this time but Adam works it into the song's structure enough to almost pull it off. "Step" is awful from start to finish--there's no progression at all--and the only reason I can imagine for Dorn including it was that he had four minutes to fill and absolutely nothing else to fill it with. "Lighten Up Again" ends the album on a completely forgettable note.



The more I listen to this album, the more I think that, not too long into production, Dorn realized what a total mess he had on his hands, got irrevocably frustrated and depressed, and slapped things together just enough to make Palm Pictures happy and satisfy his contract, giving up all aspiration of living up to his usual amazing standards. "I never had such fun in all my life," the sample says at the end of "Boba Fett"--unnecessarily, since it's perfectly obvious that Dorn had all kinds of fun crafting each track on MEF. And it's equally evident that he had no such fun with A&H. If you're totally nuts about the Worker, I suppose A&H is worth a look, but it's depressing to think that the genius behind "Times of Danger" and "Floating" would end his career on such a mediocre note, not to mention one which is a clumsy and transparent attempt to get to a place he had no business being. Sometimes the crossover thing works--see BT's highly underrated Motion in Still Life--but mostly it's a recipe for disaster.





EDIT: It's been four years since I made this review, and Dorn, now fancying himself "the MoWo," has put out two new albums. And, surprise! they're both fantastic. They're both crossovers, but unlike A&H, they're crossovers that worked. Rather than the ignominious, crash-and-burn end to a promising start, A&H has become the troubled transition between two wildly enjoyable pairs of albums in two wildly different genres. That said, I stand by my trashing of it. This album was a mistake. But it's a mistake that Dorn learned from."

10 Stars (out of 5)!

stevo | Seattle, WA USA | 11/11/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Without a doubt, the most fun you can have with your clothes on (of course, that doesn't have to stop you from ripping them off). By track three, they may spontaneously fall to your feet anyway.Far more than a mere rumpshaker, Aural & Hearty is a deep and complex listening experience laden with hooks and brilliantly edited. The record flows, winds and ultimately deposits the listener gently on the side of the road before veering madly out of sight and sound. Don't let the inevitable comparisons to Fatboy influence you. This is twice the fun with half the pretense!"

Two snaps up !!

avb1 | NY NY United States | 09/28/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Doing easily what others find difficult is talent;doing what is impossible for talent is genius. We all knew Mocean Worker could rock the house with his previous breakbeat and drum and bass albums, but Aural and Hardy gives us a soupcon of insight into what a true genius he really is. Rather than becoming pigeonholed into a specific genre of music, the young cynosure has opted to manifest his broad range of ability by writing an outstanding album of tunes that are light-hearted, housey and fun.While at first a bit surprised, as it was not what I was anticipating, I nonetheless grew more and more intoxicated by this album as I listened to each track. One can only imagine what he has in store for his next album- I only hope he follows on this path of diversity with something even more unexpected."