Search - Solex :: Pick Up

Four and a half

Zachary Howard | 06/27/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"i like the part where she goes, "i saw you, come on a-buddy-buddy-buddy-buddy," but then i can't understand the words, and then there's this one song where it's just her and this weird ethereal sound backing her up, and she's echoing all over the place...so damn beautiful. you should maybe give this cd to your grandmother and see if she paints anything interesting while listening to it, because mine didn't, and i was disappointed."

Pure genius....and IMPOSSIBLE to dislike!

Mel Matsuoka | Honolulu, HI USA | 04/07/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am not really a fan of contemporary "electronic" music, but ever since I picked up (no pun intended) this CD on a whim a few weeks ago, it has not left my CD player. Solex is the most refreshing and original "band" that I have ever had the pleasure to hear, and having discovered them purely by accident just makes this CD all the more special.Solex is definitely not just another pretentious "electronica" outfit putting out boring, repetitive techno beats with pseudo-hip samples bleeping and blooping all over the place. In fact, this barely sounds like an "electronic" album at all. Elisabeth Esselink has an amazing talent for "playing" her samples as if it were a real life musical instrument (and from what I understand, she actually does NOT use sequencers when recording or playing her songs live and triggers all the samples manually, which makes her talent all the more amazing). In fact, if you didn't know that the bulk of the sounds on her records come from sampled bootlegs of live musicians and obscure "unsellable" CD's and LP's, you would think that Solex is an actual "band", with real musicians playing all the parts. What sets Solex apart from the typical breed of electronica yawnmeisters out there today is that Esselink actually can write a compelling SONG, complete with memorable, insidiously catchy melodies, shifting drum patterns and very unusual, yet highly compelling vocal stylings. The fact that the samples she uses are *really* cool (theres a LOT of neat samples of different jazz licks) just adds to her already-solid composition skills.Admittedly, her lyrics are ridiculous. But that's part of the appeal of Solex. Esselink sings seemingly nonsensical strings of English words with a Dutch accent that borders on being cute and kitschy (at least for wierdos like me who find european malapropisms spoken by females to be adorable--I just love the way she sings "His cyoote onn-dies..." in "Randy Costanza"), and at times, her voice is an absolute dead ringer for Harriet Wheeler of the Sundays. But don't bother trying to distill any sort of deep dadaist meaning out of her nonsensical lyrics. Esselink herself has admitted that she gets a lot of the words and phrases for her songs directly from American TV shows, which she writes down and ultimately uses in a song, simply if she thinks that the phrase "sounds" cool. The lyrics themselves become the canvas for her wacky, yet highly melodic vocal phrasing, instead of the other way around. It's very reminiscent of some of the better hip-hop and rap artists that have really stupid lyrics, yet deliver them in really interesting, rhythmic ways.Standout tracks include the aforementioned "Randy Costanza", "Oh, Blimey!" (what an AWESOME bass sample!), the plucky "That's What You Get With People LIke That On Cruises Like These", the pseudo-industrial "Snappy and Cocky", "The Burglars Are Coming!", and the uncharacteristically punky (and catchier than all hell) "That'll Be $22.95". Admittedly, there is some boring "filler" material on "Pick Up". But the number of gems far outweigh the amount of mediocre stuff, so I don't think you'll find yourself skipping tracks very often. Solex's music is challenging, make no mistake about it. But, unlike most supposedly "avante garde" music, Solex is completely devoid of any type of pretension, and has enough incredible hooks and groovy beats to ensnare listeners of even the most mainstream of tastes."

Solex and some Internal Conflicts in Medieval Thought

catoblepas | 08/01/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"To my mind, there's nothing as good as "Solex in a Slipshod Style" here--though the first two tracks come close--but it's much less uneven than the previous CD, and the arrangements are more varied and playful. She sounds like she's having lots more fun this time around! Still, despite all its charm, there's definitely a certain sameness to "Pick Up" after a few listens. My solution was to compile a half-hour CD by choosing my favorite tracks from this one and "Hitmeister." I have to point out that despite what many reviewers have claimed, "Solex vs. the Hitmeister" had live instruments all over it! Four musicians are credited on that CD (they play drums, piano, guitar, cello, bass, melodica, saxophone, and clarinet). Recorded surreptitiously in the back of a record store? Maybe some of it was...the samples, perhaps. On this release, there are guest musicians as well, and yet Amazon's description above says that it consists entirely of music "bootlegged" from obscure records. Obviously Elisabeth herself is not trying to hoodwink anyone, since she lists her collaborators prominently. So do people just read Matador's press releases and believe whatever they say, or is it a case of desperate music fans hypnotizing themselves in order to find something more about Solex to love?(Regarding an earlier review...I'd say that Solex sounds more like a cross between the Mo-Dettes, Malaria, and the Bachelors, Even. And I think it's Dubuffet rather than Russolo who's dancing in some supercelestial realm...but gee, perhaps I'm being just a bit pedantic?)"