Number 81 - Drink the Sea by The Glitch Mob

 Number 81: Drink the Sea by The Glitch Mob

A new era of electronica

Release: May 25th, 2010
Genre: Electronic/Glitch
Favorite Tracks: Drive It Like You Stole It, A Dream Within A Dream, Bad Wings

 

Where I heard it: 

My life changed forever in late 2010 when I heard Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites by Skrillex for the first time in my high school band's storage room over an amplifier. I'd never had electronic music (much less any music at the time) awaken something in me so deeply after hearing it. I didn't quite understand what I was hearing, but I loved it. What would ensue afterward is an approximately two-and-a-half year obsession with dubstep, drum & bass, and EDM in general throughout high school. My best friends and I would drive to the town over every weekend so we could hear some no-name local DJ play a subpar set which we thought were so amazing every time. It even got to the point where we were experimenting with making our own music with home studio equipment and stuff we borrowed from our band room as we saw necessary. Those were some really great times, looking back. One of my good friends was nice enough to lug me around everywhere in his Kia Rondo, and he always made sure to have the appropriate mix to play on a CD he burned. The sound system on such a dinky little car like that was impressive to say the least, and electronic music definitely resonated throughout the entire vehicle when the volume was cranked up. One of the more memorable tracks on our most played disc entitled the 'Epic Playlist' was a song by the Glitch Mob entitled Bad Wings, and it stood out to me primarily for its futuristic sound that went great with a little joyriding. This friend of mine began to sing praises of this group increasingly often, and I too became a fan shortly after hearing a handful of songs from their debut album Drink the Sea.

"Drink the Sea is not the first electronic album to evoke an urban, nocturnal tone. However, the Glitch Mob is consistently successful here at creating a bird’s eye perspective of this hypothetical nighttime cityscape."
~ Fake Plastic Tunes

What to expect:

While the Glitch Mob's success rode the coattails of dubstep's sudden wave of popularity in the early 2010's, they comparatively function quite differently from dubstep. The Glitch Mob specialize in an electronic subgenre called glitch, which is characterized by the heavy utilization of digital equipment that is then modified to sound corrupted, or 'glitched'. I'd consider dubstep a more modern subsect of electronic music that emulates the verse-chorus-verse structure commonly used in pop music, while glitch harkens back to the roots of electronica like techno and house by layering several tracks in a progressive format. Each song starts with a basic idea that develops throughout its runtime, slowly building towards the big drop where everything all comes together masterfully. By the climax of each track, it feels like watching a well-oiled machine operate at full capacity: several moving parts, but each serves its purpose towards keeping the engine running. The Glitch Mob are experts at creating impact with a mellow tempo, allowing the listener to truly enjoy each harmonic line without feeling too overwhelmed. The blast from the bass drum delivers different tones with the inclusion of both synthesized and studio-recorded bass drums, integrating a tribal feel with a modernized twist in songs like A Dream Within A Dream. Although busier sections can be in-your-face, the low fidelity sound that comes from the digitized edits prevent most songs from being too jarring of an experience. Every song is meticulously constructed to ensure the maximum amount of groove with a level of comprehensibility that doesn't exceed the casual listener's range. The decision to primarily record instrumentals lends towards this same idea of focusing on the production side of the music, not songwriting. Again, this seems like a choice that favors tradition over trend toward the oversaturated female vocalist paired with EDM. Drink the Sea is an exciting, prolific album that opens the gate for anybody that appreciates an upbeat, energetic type of music. Dare I say...epic?

 

"Drink the Sea fully defines itself with [a] collection of bleeps, samples, and beats, displaying a dizzying onslaught of enjoyable aimlessness and embodying the group adage that the orthodox is to be avoided at all times."
~ URB Magazine

Why it's my favorite: 

Perhaps there's a certain lens of nostalgia that influences my ranking of Drink the Sea on this list, but as I listen through the album again for my retrospective, I could never justify leaving it off. It's just a fortunate perk that so many of these songs have commemorative value to me personally as well. The Glitch Mob are another grain of sand on the beach of DJs, but their luster shines a bit brighter even if buried under the surface layer. There was nothing groundbreaking accomplished in the grand scheme of it all, but I simply cannot overlook the amount of care and effort that went into Drink the Sea at the end of the day. For aiming to sound intentionally flawed, the execution of the Glitch Mob's beats are super clean and catchy. I forgot just how many of these hooks will get stuck in your head over the course of the day. Hearing a repeated line snowball into something mind-blowing will do that to you. There's so many moments throughout the album that make me smile with their ingenuity. Sometimes it feels like staring at a collage full of cut-and-pasted scraps that may be meaningless individually, but project something entirely different when arranged anew. The nuance of Drink the Sea simultaneously amazes and satisfies me with every listen, even to this day.