This is the second album from Denmark’s Jens Berents Christiansen as Rumpistol. Mere Rum is a listenable but boring album. Each of the eight tracks are forgettable. They work as background music they're but definitely not anything I could sit down and listen to properly again.
Rump
Mere Rum is on one hand a laid back electronica album, not unlike the thousands churned out every year by every schmuck with a laptop but on the other hand it also other elements peppered through the album to add a little spice. I hesitate to use the term “experimental” but there are leanings towards using unconventional sounds and structures. Granted these days that odd meters, washes of noise (such as the water-like sounds on “Tape Swamp” and “Vintertog”) and glitches are about as 'experimental' as eating hot food but it's enjoyable when they are used well. On “Plus3dub,” Christiansen uses a lot of these techniques tastefully and in less than usual contexts, the drum programming wouldn’t be out of place on an Autechre or Aphex Twin release but here the BPM is turned way down and combined with a melody, unlike the epileptic assault of the other two. Alas, he may be using these techniques well but he doesn’t show any innovation of his own.
However, at no point during the album do I feel this is ever more than a bedroom project made for himself alone. Nothing ever makes it past slightly interesting mediocrity. Attempts to bring some excitement to the music by using traditional instruments along with the electronics make it sound even duller. Glockenspiels, saxophones and electronics are a tired combination. Very occasionally there was a nice little bit of guitar, such as on “Overtone.” Apart from that, there is little in the way of originality.
Mere Rum is destined for that bottom shelf of the CD rack reserved for the releases I have no particular urge to listen to again.
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