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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Recording A Tape The Colour Of The Light
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Rough Trade
Release Date: 15 November 2005
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock, Instrumental
Summary
This is the long-in-the-making debut album for the instrumental Montreal band that shares two members (Sarah Neufeld and Richard Reed Parry) with the Arcade Fire.
Also By This Artist: As Seen Through Windows
Also On Metacritic
MUSIC: Arcade Fire: Funeral
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
[Bell Orchestre] varies its cunningly sequenced, gratifyingly brief instrumental tracks with such old-fashioned amenities as textured melodies, pleasing dynamic shifts, and passages that, if they don't actually r-o-c-k, at least bound down the road in an excited manner.
Read Full Review >Magnet
Capacious, intimate and brimming with both whimsy and tension, Recording A Tape is what classical music might sound like from some advanced alien civilization. [#70, p.86]
Delusions of Adequacy
While it drifts away from the listener somewhat during its middle section, Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light is, for the most part, a captivating listen.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
Recording's musical vignettes display equal parts languor and incitement. [#11, p.105]
Pitchfork
Whether the album achieves its titular synesthesia is debatable, but Bell Orchestre tap into a wide, mesmerizing range of the spectrum.
Read Full Review >Splendid
Bell Orchestre don't always make good on their ambitions, but the results are often excellent, despite (and usually because of) their sloppiness.
Read Full Review >Junkmedia
A timely twinkle of apple crisp bells, hearth-warming handclaps and belly-rubbing brass.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
The first third or so of Recording A Tape lags a bit, mostly because Bell Orchestre seems reluctant to show all its cards right out of the jewel case. However, once you reach "THROW IT ON A FIRE," the horns and percussion begin to drive, and the album grows progressively stronger.
Read Full Review >Mojo
There's a beguiling musicality at play that puts pleasing melody at the centre of even the most outre detour. [Dec 2005, p.102]
All Music Guide
A debut that sounds a lot like New York urbanites the Rachel's and the Clogs, but a little more dangerous.
Read Full Review >Urb
There's just enough rock spirit here to keep Recording A Tape... too weird for Barnes and Noble background music. [Dec 2005, p.104]
Stylus Magazine
Less sparse than open, the songs resist the build-and-release structure that most other Montreal acts utilize, and they also refuse to ride a groove or play with distracting orchestration.
Read Full Review >Neumu.net
Their record runs through a range of instrumentalist archetypes and quietly surprising turns-for-the-worse, from electrified screech to tape-op minimalism, through pastoralism and soundscapery, to numbers where they knock out all manner of feigned sturm und drang.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
At its best, Recording a Tape still sounds like little more than the product of a few precocious marching-band dropouts, an empty warehouse, and good intentions.
Read Full Review >Spin
Flavorless chamber pop. [Jan 2006, p.91]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
dave m gave it an8:
Solid album, see them live, it's fantastic.
kurt t gave it a9:
I personally find it quite refreshing and I love how the album has a whispy unity that works as a whole. It really has grown on me!!!
coolerstill r. muckfluck gave it a4:
yeah...not quite. no.
Sean T gave it a9:
very excellent orchestral post rock. easier to listen to in one sitting than godspeed and its nice to see something really deeply musically talented coming from a member of arcade fire. let's just hope he is just as good in Islands
Taylor E gave it a9:
These guys are awesome. The CD is a bit boring in parts, but I don't give, I don't have ADD or anything. Plus, they're essentially an instrumental branch of my favourite band, The Arcade Fire
Raphael A gave it a9:
This score reflects the fact that I listened to the album after hearing them live. They are fantastic live.
