Aim - Hinterland
A review of Hinterland, the genre-hopping second album from trip-hop producer Aim (Stephen Turner).
Artist: Aim · Year: 2002 · Rating: ★★★★
The second album of Aim (a.k.a Stephen Turner), Hinterland, sits in an interesting place from a Monkey Radio provenance standpoint.
The provenance
My (admittedly fallible) memory was firmly in the “these tracks were here” camp. The album was released in 2002, but is present on neither the 2002 playlist nor the 2005 snapshot of the station’s m3u, meaning it would have been added well after its release.
And, as it turns out, songs from the album were in play: while the YouTube and Spotify lists featuring “Good Disease” aren’t strictly authoritative, the more trustworthy vinyl playlist also noted the track… but the go-ahead was the Wayback scan of currently playing songs, which caught “Hinterland” mid-play. This established that by 2005/11/24 at least one song from the album was in the rotation, and lends credence to the other sources.
That’s good, because I love this album.
The sound
The jazzy, sample-y intro establishes triphop bonafides, but “The Girl Who Fell Through The Ice” transitions into a soaring string-laden chorus over Kate Rogers’ vocals that flirts briefly with cinematic pop before reestablishing its breakbeat fundamentals (“ok, now my timing’s off on everything” still makes me smile). The next track (an explicit reference to What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry) wears its samples on its sleeve, sounding like a mix of DJ Krush and Fatboy Slim; “No Restriction” (and its remix) and “The Omen” by contrast are distinctly hip-hop affairs.
And that’s really the strength and weakness with this album: at times, it feels like Aim is trying to decide if they want to appeal to the smokey, gritty basement triphop crowd that spins Krush and Kid Loco, or a more mainstream audience across one of a couple of approachable radio stations.
It makes for a mildly confusing listen if you drop in at random, but Aim does a surprisingly good job of building a flow from song to song with these fairly disparate vibes. “Fall Break” naturally follows “No Restriction” and calls back to the string-heavy second track. This is, for all of its identity crisis, an album, and if you’re a fan of the several genres they drew from you’ll enjoy it end to end.
Regardless, there are great tracks to pull from it for your own mixes: for my money “Good Disease” is the album-winner (and a Monkey Radio track); Stephen Jones’s chill falsetto is burned into my brain; be aware that singing “Baby don’t worry I’m a good disease” out loud out of context can earn you some odd looks from passers-by. Hinterland is the other Monkey Radio track, and is sample-laden downtempo triphop.
Verdict
This is one of a few Monkey Radio albums I explicitly hunted down in vinyl (for my taste, give me the K&D Sessions, Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi, and Hinterland and I’ll give you a night of excellent tunes). At the same time I can’t help but acknowledge that for people with narrower tastes, this is a piece of wax that will be hit-or-miss at times.
I’ll call this one 4 stars for the broader listening public. Know that I have a fifth star for it in my heart of hearts.
Monkey Radio Tracks: 2/13
- Aim - Good Disease
- Aim - Hinterland
