Search - Scanner :: Delivery

Heartrending melodic confessions from the airwaves bandit.

03/05/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The peak recording of a disturbed, talented, flawed artist. Tracks can be split into 3 groups: (a) short, experimental, uninteresting, (b) ambient ones overdubbing the real phone dialogs stolen off the air (yes, voyeristic-but compassionate, not salacious) (Heidi, Affaire), and (c) earnest, poignant beat and synth tracks like Throne of Hives and My Lost Love....While the group (b) are really the culmination of Scanner's earlier voyeristic work and as such are incredibly powerful, concentrated ambient pieces, it's the (c) ones that make the disk worth buying. This is perhaps the most emotional music ever to appear on electronic / experimental scene. The arrangements are masterful and somewhat over-the-top in their bleeding, tearful melancholy. No cheese, though -- not because of artistic self-restraint but rather because of how earnest, sincere they are. As a friend of mine said, this music is so earnest and emotional it's impossible to review.Scanner is more of an exhibitionist here than a voyeur, and it's still all good."

No longer cell phone crazy, but more honest

N. P. Stathoulopoulos | Brooklyn, NY | 12/09/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is probably the only Scanner disc that ever got reviewed in Rolling Stone, way back in 1997, when the 'electronica' revolution (created by the useless hacks of the music press) was supposed to blow America away.



Stepping back, this is a good Scanner album, for as the previous reviewer noted, the tracks are fairly split up into what Robin Rimbaud does well, would continue to do, and was looking to the future to do.



The cell-phone scanning terrorism is kept to a minimum, though the tracks that do include it are spaced out very well, the most eerie of the lot being 'Heidi', which features only one side of a desperate phone call about a dying relationship. It's edgy, but not guilty...we can only imagine what Heidi is saying, or not saying at all. Affaire also features tapped conversation, this time a little more restrained, hinting that something is happening under the voices of these quiet people.



The rest of the album includes some very lively electronic tracks with steady beats. They're not cold, they're not complicated, but they're rather honest, since Scanner would go on to explore more types of sounds and experiments. Not a one-trick pony, Rimbaud is a genuine artist working in soundscapes. Granted, some of his material becomes blindingly dull at times, especially since Delivery (he's had quite a bit of output), but I still find myself drawn to what he's doing.



Recommended, if you can find it. It's short, but it's a nice statement from Rimbaud following the heavily-tapped mobile phone terrorism of his earlier works (Spore, Sulphur, etc.)"