The Lorax - Slouching in Your Chair

The Lorax is Joshua English and Slouching in Your Chair is his debut album and is being touted as Down Tekno. Now I have no idea what down techno is supposed to mean, but if I was to guess I would say that it is Techno’s equivalent to Psychill. Not quite ambient and not always relaxing but music played at a lower tempo while still keeping quite a techno feel to it. Some tracks are like glitch ambient, others have more of a lounge feel to them, while yet others feel like they are just techno that has been made slower. A lot of the tracks have potential, but for me most are a little too glitchy. I sometimes like glitch used in music but it is very difficult to get right and I feel that the glitch used in this album is just too random for my taste. It puts me in mind of what a downbeat techno album would be like if it was made by someone who was really into freeform jazz. A lot of the tracks have that kind of lack of structure, I think, and although there are some good ideas, nice melodies, funky beats and nice sharp sounds, I find that the execution of these ideas are overly random. I think this is the intention of The Lorax and I am sure that a lot of people will enjoy this but for me most of this is just too glitchy. The album finally picks up during the last three tracks which are smoother, warmer and more atmospheric than the rest with a lot less glitch.

The best track by far is the title track Slouching in Your Chair (T9), it has a funky sci-fi melody as well as a traditional Indian one, a sample that fits very well. Nice beats that make the track quite steady & enjoyable. There are some glitchy sounds, but it is all much more ordered than the rest of the album Nueva York is also more pleasant with some nice smooth beats and the sounds of birds tweeting in the background. There is still quite an urban feel to it though and it sounds like I am in a city park, trees near me and skyscrapers in the background. The Way of the Bang (T11) is a nice short ambient piece to finish with, once again it is smooth with just a little bit of glitch in the rhythm.

Recomendation:  If you like very glitchy music with a lot of randomness then you’ll probably like this. If you want your music to be smooth and to flow like a journey then this probably isn’t the CD for you. There are some nice ideas but overall I find that most of the tracks either don’t have enough or the ideas are not executed with much finesse. This is not a bad album but it’s not particularly good either. This is quite average in my opinion with 3 good tracks at the end.