The first time I heard of Adem was when I found my (very lovely) copy of Explosions in the Sky's All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone on my first ever trip to Spillers in Cardiff - he was one of the artists who remixed a song for the bonus disk. However, for the year and a half that followed, he remained just that because I never got round to checking out his own material. In 2008 I was living in Cardiff and was buying an LP every Tuesday from Spillers. One of those Tuesdays I stumbled across this record of Adem covering 12 songs from 90's. It seemed like a nice idea and I figured his music must be at least half decent to have ended up remixing EITS. On top of that, one of the covers was Starla by The Smashing Pumpkins and I decided that would be nice to hear, regardless of what sort of music he played.
So it turns out that Adam plays a very relaxed, soft indie-folk style, which works nicely. Despite not knowing most of the originals, the albums works well (or maybe that's because I don't know most of the originals) and they all work as acoustic-y folk songs. Even Aphex Twin, which you'd have thought would be a stretch, is pretty lovely. So much so, I'm pretty sure it ended up being used on a advert for nappies. The highlight of the album for me is the cover of dEUS's Hotellounge. The first few times I heard it I thought it was nice enough, but a few months later I'd listened to it just before going out, and the whole afternoon I had it in my head. I kept thinking what a great song it was and put it on as soon as I got back home. I eventually checked out the original, which I don't prefer (I even bought a dEUS album which turned out to be quite shit indeed). Also worthy of noting are Lisa Germano's Slide, the Pumpkins' Starla and The Breeders' Invisible Man. Incidentally, I've since picked up albums by Pinback and become a big fan of Low, although not directly through hearing them here.
I ended up buying both of Adem's other album and they're also pretty nice, but a little more rambling in places than any of the songs here. I also accidentally ended up seeing him play live just before I left Cardiff, which was a very pleasant surprise. Early on a Sunday morning I had a call from a friend saying he had a spare guest-list place for this all-day folk festival in Porthcawl. I think it had sold poorly, so they were pretty much giving tickets away to make the place a bit fuller. He had a friend driving down and the ticket was mine if I could get to his within the hour. I had nothing else planned, so figured it would be good. We ended up watching Adem, Aidan Moffat and Magnolia Electric Co., amongst others, and generally had a nice day by the sea. The venue was impressive and seeing Adem and Magnolia Electric Co. were really great treats (more on Magnolia Electric Co. another time, but I'm so pleased I got to see them before Jason Molina passed away). To add to my day of unexpected treats, Adem played Hotellounge which put a smile on my face.
I have no idea what Adem has been up to of late (he's also half of Fridge with Four Tet, but I've not heard much about them for a while either). I like knowing that I probably would have discovered Adem at that folk festival even if I hadn't ended up buying Takes that Tuesday in Cardiff, but you never know how these things will turn out. I'm very glad I chanced my £10 on an album just because it included a Pumpkins' cover.
Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 17/09/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
