Immolate Yourself

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Immolate Yourself album cover
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EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 10   Total Length: 46:11

eMusic Review 0

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Yancey Strickler

eMusic Contributor

01.30.09
Far and away the best album of their career. And with the death of member Charles Cooper, maybe their last
2009 | Label: BPitch Control / Finetunes

The Chicago-based, New Orleans-originated Telefon Tel Aviv are respected, but not loved. Their first two records made clear that they have exceptional taste — and isn't that 50% of why you make a record? — but knowing what moved them didn't exactly make for a moving experience on the listening end. And that's ultimately why Fahrenheit Fair Enough (2001) and Map of What Is Effortless (2004) didn't stick around: there wasn't much of a foundation beyond what they sounded like. There wasn't a deep emotional hook — it was too easy to walk away from the albums without feeling anything one way or another. For a piece of art, there are few worse fates.

With the excellent Immolate Yourself, Telefon Tel Aviv are now a very, very different group. Musically, there is a dramatic shift from the soundtrack-friendly IDM of TTA's past to a dreamy, sweeping synth-pop feel currently most closely associated with M83. The reason Immolate Yourself succeeds where its predecessors failed has a lot to do with that stylistic change. The aesthetics of synthpop carry an implicit emotional burden; the lush sounds, resigned vocals, languid pace and enveloping depths of great synthpop invariably sound like exact, aural… read more »

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Immolate Yourself

cploeg

I live about 300 feet from the location the cover photo was taken. The creator of the sculpture is the fantastically creative soul Jerzy Kenar who's been at this location for about 30 years. I showed him the cover one day and he said he'd never heard of the band, been approached by them or even knew his work was being used. What a bummer. He's a special person, a lover of all things creative and a huge fan of music. He constantly helps artists and musicians and rather than being asked for permission, he got to see a photograph of his work – including a brass badge with his name on it! – out in the world. Does anyone have a physical copy of this album? Does anyone know if credit was given there?

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Terrific

eJDL

So glad I picked up on the buzz surrounding this terrific album prior to the sad news that followed its release. Fans of Four Tet or Apparat might want to give this a try.

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More synth and pad than other albums

jordancolburn

Big sound change from previous albums. Leaving the rhodes behind, they branch out to other synth textures, while still staying true to their laid back electronic sound.

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...take me out of where i am

4ad

found them through links a la windy & carl, etc. these guys were/ are amazing. i like this album the best of the two i've downloaded. the album has more of a message or connection. it's a "piece" not a group of songs. It's part vocal, part techno, part noise, part minimalist... and they nail it all perfectly. Disappear into my earplugs and say good bye.

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Headphone Commute Review

Headphone_Commute

What follows below is a review for an album whose title has been rendered regretfully apt. The sudden passing of Telefon Tel Aviv’s Charlie Cooper only two days after the group released their long-awaited third full-length studio record is a coincidence suggestive of a sacrifice: an untimely departure at the arrival of something so great, yet so final. The well-deserved reception of Immolate Yourself, made public on 20th January, has since seen TTA fans buzzing with excitement across music forums worldwide. Full review only on headphonecommute.com

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Background music

Deutschehund

I agree with patrickjd2000. This is the soundtrack for everyday living. Is it what Eno had in mind when he started creating electronic music in the 70s? Probably not, too much latent emotion, but a decent attempt at music as part of the environment and not overwhelming it.

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meh

Silentist

I actually prefer the earlier dubby-glitch stuff like Fahrenheit Fair Enough. I downloaded 'Immolate' and just not diggin it sorry

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BOOK STORE Browser

patrickjd2000

This is great music for going about your daily routine (e.g. browsing in a bookstore). It shimmers away and then suddenly grabs you with a wonderful moment.

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Unexpected delight

Whimper

I've nurtured a mild interest in Telefon Tel Aviv mainly for their glitchy Aphex-Twin flavoured remixes and singles. This album is not that- it's something altogether different, and wonderful. It's a completely realized album with a uniform and complex sound- like 80s synth rock grew and matured for twenty years, like good wine.

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Insulate yourself with 'Immolate Yourself'

TheSkyIsATelevisionSignal

Insulate yourself from everything and lose yourself in the detached and mercurial galaxy of Telefon Tel Aviv's bittersweet final album. These songs are best absorbed within the context of the album, not individually, because there is an enchanting and rather mysterious trail that weaves this album together from the first second to the very last. Think early '80s New Order updated with 21st century music technology. Give this album time... it's a grower -- and very good.

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eMusic Features

Who Are ... Telefon Tel Aviv
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Who Are … Telefon Tel Aviv

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic Contributor

[Editor's Note: Shortly after this feature was submitted, Charlie Cooper, one half of Telefon Tel Aviv, passed away in Chicago. We have taken care to leave all of his quotes largely untouched.] Telefon Tel Aviv formed in 1999, six years after high schoolers Charlie Cooper and Joshua Eustis met in New Orleans. Relocating to Chicago in 2001, the pair began capturing attention via remix work for Nine Inch Nails, Bebel Gilberto and jazz vet Phil Ranelin,… more »

They Say All Music Guide

Charlie Cooper and Josh Eustis’ second and third Telefon Tel Aviv albums are as different from one another as their first and second albums. Fahrenheit Fair Enough’s fractured, melodic instrumentals morphed into crisp song form on Map of What Is Effortless, with vocalists and string arrangements helping to shape alternately jagged and sweeping productions into tense glitch/R&B torch songs. Following Map, Immolate Yourself — released on Ellen Allien’s Bpitch Control label — increases the pensive energy and tension, with both conveyed through snapping beats, taut sequencer patterns, sheet upon sheet of textural elements, and vocals that come across as desperate and/or pained, even when barely audible beneath all the consuming sounds. These are chilling sounds from a dark place that, nonetheless, shelter the listener. Between the European and stateside physical releases of the album, Cooper passed away. Knowledge of that could only intensify the album’s most passive spins. – Andy Kellman

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