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1 day ago

Albums

Colder, Again

Colder is Marc Nguyen Tan, a Parisian producer and designer who, yes, probably has every single Factory Records album in…

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Andrew Womack
Andrew Womack is a founding editor of The Morning News. He is always working on the next installment of the Albums of the Year series at TMN. You can and follow his Twitter updates here.
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Colder is Marc Nguyen Tan, a Parisian producer and designer who, yes, probably has every single Factory Records album in his record collection. You guessed it  – this stuff sounds a lot like Joy Division et al. But instead of being yet another love letter to Ian Curtis and post-punk stylings, Again is inventive in very much its own right. And much of this is due to Tan’s keen understanding, unlike everyone else who’s stuck in a 1977–1981 timewarp, that the current state of music is in a world that knows Warp Records, that’s not still post-punk, but also post-pop, post-electronica, post-rave, post-jazz, post-acid-jazz, post-hardcore, post-post-post-punk, if you think about it hard enough. (We tried, and we can’t, thanks.)

Much of the album floats in stark minimalism, but hardly the kind that leaves a listener feeling cold (heh). It’s all very inviting, with soft, effect-laden vocals, pleasant keyboard leads, driving bass and drums. Also present are elements of dub and reggae, which connotes a direct interest in the very influences that Joy Division and New Order held. In fact, what appears to actually be happening here is that Colder takes a philosophy of music that’s bred from the same place as JD/NO and the rest of ’em: similar influences, similar outlooks, with results that aren’t really the same, but different and very much brilliant.

Ultimately, Again isn’t simply music that makes you pine for a bygone era, as much as it’s a stunning release that makes you think of new, altogether more interesting possibilities for the future.



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—Published September 8, 2003