Electronic music's IDM/Glitch subgenre, with more and more frequency over the past couple of years, has proven to be highly compatible with other, seemingly unlikely genres: folk, hip hop, funk, psychedelia, etc. Glitch, rather than fading away as a late-nineties phenomenon, has demonstrated itself to be a resilient form of musical expression that integrates nicely with other musical forms.
Toronto's Mike Milosh is a musician specializing, for the most part, in summery, positive-sounding IDM-meets-R&B music. On You Make Me Feel, Milosh attempts to combine electronica of the overtly glitchy variety with R&B of the straightforward, '70s variety. The record's production is immaculate: Milosh's laptop skills are as finely honed as those of the best of his peers. His use of sampled junkyard percussion provides an added warmth to the album that helps to take some of the inorganic edge off many of the tracks.
An unusual record for the Plug Research catalogue, You Make Me Feel unfortunately proves itself to be more of a gimmick than a terribly serious effort. "Something Good," for example, comes off a little too forced for its own good -- one cannot pretend to have soul. You either have it or you don't, and Milosh's faux-soul stylings frequently stray towards the gratuitous and pretentious. The album also has the misfortune of becoming less memorable with each repeated listen, rendering it more along the lines of an experimental curiosity than an effort to transcend the limitations of a supersaturated genre. As IDM, it's rather "middle of the road," and as R&B, it's somewhat pedestrian fare as well.
Occasionally the album becomes more interesting when it slips into minor key. "Simple People" is a slightly haunting track that recalls the darker proponents of the IDM genre: Boards of Canada, Squarepusher, etc. The record also features an interesting and catchy instrumental, "Creepy," which helps to break up the homogeny of the album somewhat.
You Make me Feel is not, by any means, a terrible effort. Rather, it's a fairly ambitious record that fails to satisfy the framework it attempts to impose. At any rate, it is a light-hearted diversion for people who don't need their music too serious or intense.
1. You Make Me Feel
2. Your Taste
3. Simple People
4. Push
5. Creepy
6. Something Good
7. The Sky is Grey
8. Your Voice
9. Do You Like Me
10. Time Steals the Day
11. Frozen Pieces