The Contino Sessions

Bull****

This Trip-Hop album feels like wandering through a deserted industrial district at night, with distant machinery rumbling behind shuttered buildings and occasional flashes of light revealing something strange in the shadows. Death in Vegas combine slow, hypnotic beats with distorted guitars, fuzzy synths and murky psychedelic textures. The guest vocalists drift through the sound like different characters passing through the same bleak landscape, sometimes adding menace, sometimes a little warmth. The music gradually builds and shifts, but its repetitive grooves and drawn-out arrangements can make the journey feel longer than it needs to be. I keep walking, waiting for the scenery to change into something more inviting, while the same dark atmosphere follows me from street to street.

Pretty standard trip hop stuff, still great though. I like how it doesn't just stick to one genre, it changes quite a bit in the second half. :3

I got really excited at the beginning, because I love a good hard 90s beat..with a little moody and grungy. But then I realized it's too electro for my taste and it made me sad.

It's an interesting listen. I didn't hate it or love it. I don't really like the singer's voice though.

wierd mix between Electro und rock, some interessting songs

I didn’t know this one going in and it really surprised me. I instantly recognized Bobby Gillespie on Soul Auctioneer. Good album, I liked it.

pleasant enough, not likely to return to this. Very late 90s though - maybe background for a very specific kind of evening

So much potential with some interesting musical ideas but ultimately, poorly executed

Not my taste…

Put this on and had a panic attack

Well that was something a bit different. Not sure if I like this or not. In parts it's hypnotic and at other stages a bit annoying

This was very cool. I'm not sure what genre it even belongs in -- electronic? synth pop? I don't know, probably none of those, what do I know? Anyway, I was groovin along to it all day and although it did make me go "what the fuck is this?" several times, I really did enjoy it. But I don't know if I would listen to it again -- it was kinda chaotic and sprawling. Four stars.

"Aisha" and "Dirge" both still sound as chunky as ever. But the rest of the album, feeding off the 90s obsession with genre bending, is an electro-goth-kosmiche-trip-hop-industrial-drone-rock-shaped mixed bag. You can tell it's made by DJs: the beats are hard, the sound design is impressive and cinematic, and the builds and drops are perfectly structured - but there is a tension here: it's rock music made within the forms of dance music. Sometimes it works well - the six-minute cresendo of "Dirge" is stunning, and "Neptune City" is a cool update of the "Tomorrow Never Knows" 2-chord template - but at other times, some pure musical argument would be welcome. Call me an old man, but I wanted a song or two. There are a few attempts, and most of them fall a bit flat. Bobby Gillespie's Mark E Smith impression on "Soul Auctioneer" (which also features the sound of a squeaky gate repeatedly swinging - and yet somehow that isn't the most irritating sound on the track) consists of a single phrase of tuneless whingeing; while on "Aladdin's Story", poor old Dot Allison (from the brilliant One Dove) is made to interpolate "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen", a melody with an entirely different chord progression, which doesn't make sense. I know that the craze for mashups meant that for a few years nobody gave a shit about harmony, but guys, you have instruments: you can fix something like that. "Broken Little Sister", with Jim Reid, works better, updating the Jesus and Mary Chain formula into the digital era, like the Velvet Underground with a sampler. So yeah, some great moments. But overall too patchy to be a great album.

Never heard this at the time or since but I really liked it. Dark, gothic, brooding, intense. Interesting sounds. I suspect it might not hold up to repeated listening. 8/10

An odd mix of electronics and industrial rock, almost but not quite in the way trip hop worked. Bonus points for a song with Iggy and for Poe with the best track which only has two words.

Slow electronic music just does nothing for me. Actually really enjoyed soul engineer, but other than that it it’s very much background music

I'm vaguely aware of this artist, but don't recognize any of these tracks by title. So I'm mostly going into this blind. This is just boring. I'm not sure what other people are seeing in this album. It looks like this gets the genre Shoegaze applied to it, but that doesn't seem right. It's much more electronic than shoegaze.

Good electro rock album. Mostly instrumental. I enjoyed the beats.

Achei bem bacana, na verdade é um dos primeiros álbuns meio eletrônica que eu tenho gostado de fato como recomendação do site. Nao é algo que eu vá ter nas minhas playlists, mas é interessante ter contato com esse tipo de música. Mas assim, daí entra no meu questionamento “entre os 1001 melhores álbuns?” Daí é foda, mas tudo bem.

A fairly underwhelming electronic album

Pretty decent background music but also enough to sink into and enjoy the instrumentals.

This album goes back and forth from having a cool vibe to being really annoying. I don't quite know what to make of it. As soon as I get in a groove it starts to get irritating.

Nice to be reminded of this one - pretty sure I have it on CD somewhere but had forgotten all about it. Holds up well - and a bonus point for Iggy...

2/5

Good, but still just barely a 3/5

Forgettable.

I really like Dirge and the tracks with Iggy Pop and Jim Reid were good too, although there are also a few pieces on here which drifted into one another.

630/1089 - Sometimes seeing what made it into this book gives me a huge confidence boost about my own music.

Hybridisation of genre is such a sexy idea, and in the late 90s it was all about techno meets rock. This album pulls it off extremely well, by quickly becoming it's own thing all together. Trippy, driving, druggy, desert music for robots.

Got better a couple of songs in, darker trip-hop sound is cool. Flying was a good listen.

There were too many songs where either the whole song or the background instrumentals were just annoying sounds. I can't say that I like this album and although it was manageable leaving it in the background, I did not have fun.

To me, this gives shades of a b-sides Gorillaz album. I actually like it quite a bit, but I didn't want to save any of the individual songs since they are pretty droning and repetitive for a more active listening/riding in a car experience. I'll give it a higher-than-average 3.

Oddly enjoyed this album

Best thing I could say about this album is that it’s incomplete. There’s something here and the sound is relatively interesting, but the songs never really seemed to go anywhere. Repetitive nature, this keeps me from actually really liking it

This whole album suits my tastes really well. Atmospheric, chill, heavy and gritty here and there.. and came out in a pretty formative time of my musical life so that gets me too. Will definitely be looking into their catalog more. 4.5/5

Snoozefest.

Not bad but not something I'll probably listen to again

hm?? uopće nisam očekivao da će mi se ovo toliko dopasti... dosta dobar vajb, na trenutke izvrstan. ugodno iznenađenje, slušat ću svakako još

Very cool. Liked this a lot. ML415

Kinda cool EDM/Psychedelic fusion. Mostly background music.

I quite enjoy this album, the first track in particular.

A nice downtempo/trip hop album. I know the name of the band but I don't know at what point they are influential. So I'm not sure if this an absolute must listen, but it's not a waste of time for sure.

Ok

An album that I owned at the time (on CD), bought off the back of the brilliant Aisha single with Iggy Pop. I must admit, it's been a long time since I've listened to it and I am wondering why as I'm loving reconnecting with it here. It's a cool blast of instrumental electronica, that brings to mind someone like Soulsavers, who I love and a little early-mid 90s Primal Scream which is brought into focu sthrough Bobby Gillespie's appearance here on Soul Auctioneer. Standout though is Dirge, which I'm sure people will have heard in film and TV; the build echoing something like Massive Attack's Angel which came out a year earlier.

Really difficult to listen to. For example, is the song Aisha among the stupidest songs recorded?

Just a question... Who is this for? Like, genuinely, who wants repetitive, over-synthesized, faux-intelligent, moody jargon. That being said, it was less than mid.

Shockingly, I didn’t dislike this as much as I thought I was going to. I’m not generally a fan of electronica or instrumental works like this. But some of it was actually pretty good.It’s long as hell, but after a while, I forgot that it was on and just enjoyed it in the background while working.

la la la no…

Not what I was expecting, pretty dang chill

Not my usual sort of thing but I enjoyed this. Undemanding but pretty good for a Monday morning.

Another album where I am going in completely blind. I have never heard of this band that I am aware of. The album has two lines on Wikipedia, truly a cultural juggernaut. This is one of the most baffling inclusions on this list, how did it end up here?? Was it because of the single track which was big at the time ,Aisha, with guest vocalist Iggy Pop? However, overall I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting to, from the slow build of the opener Dirge and Death Threat, another instrumental, likewise Flying and the next run of tracks. The second track, Soul Auctioneer, both in lyrics and singing style seems to be an outright parody of Bob Dylan but with very different trip-hop-ish backing, a combination of two things I really dislike, so minus points there. Also I am pretty sure I have heard Aladdin's story before. It reminds me of The Divine Comedy a bit, especially with the cheesy Hammond organ. The final track Neptune City rounds off the album very nicely as well, another slow build in volume and complexity, a mirror to the opening dirge. I still have no idea why someone thought I should listen to this before I die, but unlike most of the albums on this list, I genuinely enjoyed it, a very pleasant surprise.

3.75 Great to find them again via this list. Aisha was in heaven rotation back in the day.

The majority of this album I was thinking "oh yeah that's fine" and then there were sudden moments that kinda blew me away and took such an interesting turn, especially with the production. It was way more electronic and up my alley than I originally expected, especially on Flying, Aisha and Broken Little Sister. I don't know exactly how I would describe it but I thought it was so cool, kinda industrial?? Almost a bit Nine Inch Nails-esque?

Kind of cool, not sure I'll go back though. 3/5

Great electronic album with a moody vibe. Really enjoyed it. 3.5 stars

There were like 5 moments in this album where I thought it was another famous song but I was disappointed every time

Didn't finish the remixes.

OMG what a slog.

Indie ambient, at times seemingly influenced by the big beat scene. Enjoyable if occasionally wrestling too hard to be edgy. Low 4

Death in Vegas pull off the trick of keeping you listening just in case it gets interesting. It's just high quality background music, unlikely to offend or excite anyone. Imo

Death in Vegas had zero name recognition to me, coming in with no expectations I was absolutely blown away by Dirge. For whatever reason I’m not at all into trip hop but this psychedelic shoegaze variant of it is very much up my street. Together these flavours occupy a space I’ve never quite heard before and make The Cortino Sessions an absolute must listen. The different vocalists mean you can never quite settle into a groove, it’s great to hear each one work their way around the music, which vacillates between chill club and a fully fledged rock band. By the end you feel like you’ve been taken on a huge sweeping journey, it doesn’t end where it starts!

a high 3 from me, some of it really landing but a little too much of what felt like filler

I really liked this. Everything is super heavy and the crescendos really work. The synths are jagged and the guitars sound good. Not a big fan of the songs with vocals as I think they detracted from the great instrumentals. I like how Neptune Street ends the album on a positive note after the rather dark rest. Favorites were Dirge, Death Threat, Lever Street, and Neptune City.

2.5, Not bad but nothing memorable

Any time the album title includes the word “sessions” it’s sure to be a snoozer. Either too ambient or you couldn’t decide on a connective theme to make it all work. This one made both of those rules true, boring, uninspired 90s drab.

beginning was fine but by the end i couldn’t stand it. so repetitive

Equal parts goth and electronic dance (I prefer the goth), it is altogether wonderful. 4/5

Liked this a whole lot

Dirgey

I really enjoyed this as we drove to Calgary through the night. Made a good soundscape. Realistically probably a 3 but I want it to stand out and give it credit for enjoying more than I anticipated

I don’t know what genre this is considered. I’m not sure what the heck this is but I freaking love it! The instrumentals especially. Really don’t need the vocals, in fact they take away from the atmosphere. That and the harshness of Broken Little Sister make this not quite five stars for me. But I will be exploring this further. Very cool.

Never heard this before and not sure I’ll return but I might. For me, this is easily one of the best electronic albums on the whole list.

There's an occasional cool sound or idea, but none of these tracks are memorable in the slightest. It's like I got mind wiped by the Neuralyzer because I could not remember a single thing about this seconds after the last song.

Probably better than a 3, but not enough to grab on to for a 4.

An interesting group with some good music.

Man some of this I really liked, but then it would meander.

not bad, dragged a bit

Not bad, chill.

Not something that will enter into my rotation, but loaded with grooves. Some go on a bit long.

Aisha should have run, and so should I. This album has no reason to be on this list. The songs are uninteresting and feel like the singer’s attempt to do a terrible Bob Dylan impression or release his inner edgelord. Absolute pass, not listening again.

Гурт, який в мене викликає просто неймовірне відчуття ностальгії через пісню Scorpio Rising (одна з найкращих пісень де співає Ліам Галахер, як на мене), але альбомами я їх практично не слухав. Мені загалом сподобалось, хоча пісні де є вокалісти\вокалістки звісно ж сильно краще ніж інструментали. 3.5

Didn't like this i dont really know why but no

Favorite Song: Aladdin’s Story Least Favorite: Aisha

It's pretty good sort of mellow rock. Nothing really stood out but it's an easy listen. I actually put it on a couple of times at work since I feel like it's perfect for that. Some interesting electronic vibes on there too. It's something I'm sure I wil listen to again.

Loses steam after a while and just ends. Dirge dirge dirge. Meh.

I am not in Vegas ... but I think this album killed me

Better than I expected. Way too long though.

Neptune City is a jam

Perfectly fine background music

Never knowingly heard before. This is electronic music catering to a rock audience (I keep seeing "goth" but it's such a washed out term these days, it's difficult to tell) rather than dancers. I enjoyed it more than I expected.

The first track (Dirge) is haunting and beautiful. The rest of the album is OK but not quite that good. I'm not as into Aisha, which is the other popular track.

As I said to the people in my group: It’s like Gorillaz and Massive Attack had a baby and it didn’t live up to either parents expectations. Still, I didn’t hate most of it, just more like “why?”

Dirge and Blood Yawning were decent but everything else just flirted with sounding like better bands (Gorillaz in some parts, Moby/Paul Oakenfold in others.)

Interesting and engaging, but possibly a little too odd to return to much.

01) Dirge - 8,5 02) Soul Auctioneer - 8,0 03) Death Threat - 7,5 04) Flying - 7,5 05) Aisha - 9,0 06) Lever Street - 8,0 07) Aladdin's Story - 8,0 08) Broken Little Sister - 7,0 09) Neptune City - 7,5 TOTAL: 7,89 (79/100)

Some nice sounds and vibes on this

No standouts

It feels like it's made of musical elements that I like in other places but not so much here. Flag for a revisit.

Another artist who makes an appearance on the list because: 1. They’re British 2. Dimery is British 3. …? Just boring in my opinion. I was excited for the Iggy Pop feature and even that wasn’t great. Only reason it’s not a one star is I did actually enjoy Death Threat