''Throbbing Pouch'' is a
studio album by English
electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
musician
Luke Vibert
Luke Vibert (born 26 January 1973) is a British electronic musician and producer, also known for his work under several aliases such as Plug and Wagon Christ. Raised in Cornwall, Vibert began releasing projects in the 1990s across varied genres ...
. His second studio album under the alias Wagon Christ, it was released on 20 March 1995 by
Rising High Records
Rising High Records was a leading British record label, established in 1991, specializing in rave, techno and ambient chillout music. Founded by Caspar Pound, who had chart success with A Homeboy, a Hippie and a Funki Dredd, the label went on t ...
.
Musical style
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...
critic Sean Cooper described ''Throbbing Pouch'' as an album of "eazy-listening
instrumental hip-hop" music "scattered with dime-store
samples and goofy melodies".
Release
''Throbbing Pouch'' was released on 20 March 1995 by
Rising High Records
Rising High Records was a leading British record label, established in 1991, specializing in rave, techno and ambient chillout music. Founded by Caspar Pound, who had chart success with A Homeboy, a Hippie and a Funki Dredd, the label went on t ...
. The artwork for the album was designed by Jon Black.
Critical reception
Reviewing ''Throbbing Pouch'' for ''
Select'', Gareth Grundy described the album as a "missing link" between
Aphex Twin
Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic styles such as techno, ambient, and jungle. Journalists from publication ...
and
Mo' Wax
Mo' Wax was a British record label founded by James Lavelle in 1992. The label was not co-founded by Tim Goldsworthy, as is often reported. Steve Finan became co-owner shortly after.
Mo' Wax came to recognition for being at the forefront of ...
.
He stated that "Vibert creates beautiful, evocative slivers of contemporary
electro that manage to be both soothing and engaging."
At the end of 1995, ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' listed it as the year's 26th best album.
For AllMusic, Sean Cooper said that on ''Throbbing Pouch'', "Luke Vibert's arranging skills are in rare form, reordering elements and dropping tracks in and out with liquid, barely noticeable aplomb."
Cooper noted that the album "has long been regarded as one of
trip-hop
Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic fusion of hip hop and electronica with slow tempos ...
's most influential releases."
Kembrew McLeod
Kembrew McLeod is an American artist, activist, and professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa.
He is best known as a performance artist or "media prankster" who filed an application in 1997 to register the phrase "Freedom of E ...
cited it as "a classic of the trip-hop canon" in ''
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide
''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...
'' (2004),
and it was included at number 37 in ''
Fact''s 2015 list of the best trip hop albums of all time. Turk Dietrich of the American
experimental music
Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...
duo
Belong
Belong may refer to:
Music
* Belong (band), an American experimental music duo
Albums
* ''Belong'' (Kevin Walker album) or the title song, 2013
* ''Belong'' (The Pains of Being Pure at Heart album) or the title song, 2011
* ''Belong'', by San ...
wrote that ''Throbbing Pouch'' "may be the only LP that rivals"
DJ Shadow
Joshua Paul Davis (born June 29, 1972), better known by his stage name DJ Shadow, is an American DJ, songwriter and record producer. His debut studio album, '' Endtroducing.....'' was released in 1996.
Biography Early years (1989–1995)
DJ Sh ...
's 1996 release ''
Endtroducing.....'' "in the genre of
sampledelia
Sampledelia (also called sampledelica) is sample-based music that uses samplers or similar technology to expand upon the recording methods of 1960s psychedelia. Sampledelia features "disorienting, perception-warping" manipulations of audio samp ...
." Similarly, critic
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his professional career on the staff of ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He has since gone on to freelance and publish a number of full-length books on musi ...
stated in ''
Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'' that ''Throbbing Pouch'' "easily rivals" ''Endtroducing'' "as a masterpiece of emotive,
down-tempo
Downtempo (or downbeat) is a broad label for electronic music that features an atmospheric sound and slower beats than would typically be found in dance music. Closely related to ambient music but with greater emphasis on rhythm, the style may b ...
sampladelia."
Track listing
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1995 albums
Luke Vibert albums
Trip hop albums by English artists
Instrumental hip hop albums
Sampledelia albums
Downtempo albums
Electro albums by English artists