The Final CHAOS - A2 - fange 9 - Hippiedrill 9

[osgood]

A - Archie Shepp - Attica Blues

B - Alcest - Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde

[bungo the mungo]

i normally find shepp hard work, but attica blues is one of his more accessible tracks. i'm not mad about it. another track which relies more on the groove than the tune.

i went into B with an open mind and really wanted to get behind it. it started off reminding me a bit of gainsbourg but then became a one-dimensional dirge. urgh.

A

[morgan]

I didn't care for A at all, a decent enough groove but too much screeching.

B was more to my liking, six minutes was a bit longer than necessary but it built up nicely.

B

[Deleted]

A has been picked a lot over the years, but I can't get bored of it. I just love the way everyone's blasting on full power, particularly the frenzied vocals..it makes for such an exciting listen.
B is very 80s shoegazey, strong echoes of MBV and AR Kane. I quite enjoyed it, but it kind of faded into the background a bit, albeit in a very loud way! I felt there needed to be a more tangible element to grab onto, but a better contemporary selection than we've had for a lot of the competition.

A

[toomanyhatz]

Yeah, this time the Preludin-approved track is just so much better it can't be denied. B is very much not my thing. Obvious or not, A very much is.

[~ / % ? *]

A

[DarknessFish]

We've had Attica Blues before in cups, I'm pretty damned sure. Safe, stodgy pick, not even picking Archie at his jazzy best, but going for a more preludin-friendly soul-slice. To be fair, it's a very good example of what its doing, but we do get a hell of a lot of this stuff.

Well, I've already mentioned how sublime this album is in a previous round, so it's obvious which way my vote is going. Is this the first time a finalist has picked a track by an exact namesake? A glorious, glorious wall of fuzzed up beautiful guitar melodies and delicate folk-inflicted lead lines, a wonderful stately, elegant thing, the entire album is a masterpiece.

B

[Crunchy Col]

A came up in a cup not too long ago. It's at least two good songs crushed together and the result is a fuckin mess.


B was one of those tracks that you can't work out, and I like that. It reminds me of early MBV or something. Works.

[osgood]

Agree with JC to some extent about A. A is more than a bit overbusy, but I liked it. A mess but a good one in my view.

But B was glorious. A most excellent pick and certainly a keeper.

B

[fearlessfreap]

I actually preferred A, but it has been used too often --I thought it had been used already in this cup, but
I must be mistaken. I'll have to take B

[DayoRemix]

Vote B

[fange]

I often have a bit of a problem with French pop, but this one has the vocals low down in the mix, letting the shoegazy guitars do most of the heavy work. Works well for me - good choice, cheers picker! It's hard for me to vote against A though, just a glorious tune.


A

[sloopjohnc]

A

[Sneelock]

I'm really not into those droney vocals on B but there's a lot of other stuff going on and, the good but somewhat obscure soul selections are just leaving me cold all of a sudden. somebody get up and close the window.

[clive gash]

Archie

What pushes this forward is the mania, without that it’s just Shafty. Niceness, niceness.


Alcest

Digging the circular Cocteausish form but the cooingly mimsy vocals lack presence without a Fraser to belt ‘em.

A