So I’ve been working on a review for Totakeke’s latest album, The Things That Disappear When I Close My Eyes. It’s going to take me a while because it’s a double disc set with twenty-six tracks that’s not only lengthy but exhausting. It will be a challenge to submit this review in under a thousand words. While I never got the chance to put together a write-up for last year’s magnificent eLekatota – The Other Side Of The Tracks I did review its remix companion, Forgotten On The Other Side Of The Tracks.

With those releases I references the Future Sound Of London but for this one I’m reminded of a lot of the early to mid Nineties work of The Orb. It has a lot to do with the bubbling rhythms and the way the songs are structured.

In any event the review is forthcoming. But one thing that strikes me about this work, along with much of the material coming out of Tympanik Audio, is that while I really like the music there aren’t individual tracks that come across as the sort of brief moments I want to include on a compilation CD or in an iPod shuffle. This is another of those albums that compel you to sit and listen to it from start to finish. While album-oriented music seemed to be a dying form for some time it would appear that the quality and depth requiring you to invest your time in something more than a quick three to five minute single is making a comeback.

Yet it begs the question: in our contemporary society built upon haste and instant gratification can this kind of music gain a foothold, even within the Electro/Industrial community? Are there those who have the patience and wherewithal to enjoy seventy minutes of great music or so in one sitting? And if it’s not geared toward the club floors do you even care?

I’d like to believe there are a number of thoughtful, intelligent individuals who can appreciate what goes into these elongated expressions within the scene but I also know it isn’t as though the sales of these sorts of albums are beating out the standard club fare. Where do you stand?