Daniel Meteo Peruments

It's a testimony to the dangers of information overload that radio stations denoting themselves purveyors of "chill" are popping up across the United States. Hell, in my own comparatively small city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, we even have our own chillout station, "Blu 102." Computers, instead of making our lives easier and workdays shorter, have complicated our very existence by bombarding us with information, some useful, most not, to the point where we leave work in a fried-out state of mental pseudo-impairment — the end result of nine hours of staring at a computer monitor from a distance of maybe two feet. Theoretically, this "blue" or "chillout" music emanating across the radio waves therapeutically takes away some of that edge. As an added plus, these tracks frequently have a vaguely European vibe to them, giving us the added comfort of feeling hip in addition to mentally sedate. It is with this aesthetic in mind that Peruments, the debut self-released long-player from Daniel Meteo, seems to operate.

Meteo is a Berlin-based producer specializing in dub and electronic music. He is also one half of the German electronic duo Bus and has worked with Dntel, The Orb, and many others. His own label, Meteosound, purportedly specializes in experimental dub. Peruments consists of 12 tracks of crisp, pristinely produced contemporary European dub with a downtempo edge composed and engineered by Meteo. Fundamentally, the album is pleasant, agreeable, and inoffensive. Peruments sounds great and is clearly the work of an artist with technical expertise of no small consequence. As background music, it breathes a little life into the (prematurely) stagnant dog days of summer, and it kind of makes you nod your head a little bit when you're listening to it in the car. But what the record more than compensates for in terms of production gimmickry and textures, it lacks with regard to melody and substance. This is music that you really want to like; it sounds great, but you ultimately don't take very much away from it, despite the number of chances you give it.

The pieces on Peruments range from the banal ("Peters Bounce [Eps]" and "Save Music") to the dramatic ("[Peru Arrives] Just in Time"). Peruments' first three tracks adhere to a more traditional electronic dub formula, while Meteo brings out the guitar and adds a little live instrumentation towards the end of album. The title track shows Daniel Meteo at what is perhaps his compositional best. It's a fairly complex piece on which he employs every dub production technique in the book — delay, backwards guitar, blunted-out beats, etc. In fact, it is on "Peruments," as well as the shorter "Rendered Buildings," where Meteo waxes cursorily experimental, although it rather seems more likely that Meteo consciously decided to strategically throw a little "weirdness" into the mix for good measure. The album's highlight is "It's Maybe Late for You," with its sampled, crackly hip-hop beat and lovely yet subtle guitar textures.

But the ephemeral nature of Peruments has the unfortunate effect of making you think, "This is kind of cool," only to leave you trying to remember later what it was you found so noteworthy about the record. Perhaps there is something that becomes lost in translation when the dub idiom is coupled with the Teutonic sensibility, but there exists a certain sterility on Peruments that is hard for the listener to transcend. The level upon which Meteo's album is most effective, however, is its ability to showcase his skillful, crystalline production. Daniel Meteo knows how to make music sound good. Imbued with a little more focus and passion, Meteo's future endeavors could be capable of something outstanding.

1. Music Ohne Sound
2. Without Don't it Ain't
3. Chop Stick
4. Ghost Story
5. 1000 Miles
6. Save Music
7. Rendered Buildings
8. (Peru Arrives) Just in Time
9. Peters Bounce (Eps)
10. It's Maybe Late for You
11. Peruments
12. Good Bye Nice Try