Lemon Jelly

lemonjelly.ky (Impotent Fury)

Behind Lemon Jelly are Nick Franglen and Fred Deakin, an experienced-producer-and-DJ duo from the UK who have worked as session musicians for the Spice Girls. It’s hard to describe the nine tracks of this garishly colored, surreal album, which is a compilation of the previous three Lemon Jelly EPs: The Bath, Yellow and Midnight. Their sound is minimalist, downtempo, chill-out acoustic ambient music, both monotonous and strangely charming at times.

“Homage to Patagonia” (Yellow) offers an interesting array of Eastern instrumentation blended with complex percussive work. “His Majesty King Raam” (Yellow) opens with a bewitching keyboard melody reminiscent of a nursery rhyme. The tracks from the other EPs, while filled with an similar, more commercial assortment of gentle, sleepy beats and merry melodies, spliced with the most random of random vocal samples, fail to inspire as much enthusiasm.

Occasionally Lemon Jelly’s sound becomes too Muzak, too effortless—like their name, too cloyingly easy to swallow. “Nervous Tension,” in particular, with its ceaseless pounding bass, is just plain dull. There’s always a tendency to doze off while listening to this album, which is not at all displeasing, but does not make for the most exciting music. But the simple keyboard melodies, looped around the urban beats and guitar riffs, lend a peculiar ambience to the entire album. It’s just a bit boring (or should I say soporific) at times. Perfect to fall asleep to. —Tiffany I. Hsieh

Rammstein

Mutter (Republic)