Recording A Tape The Colour Of The Light
by Bell Orchestre
Metascore
74

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. AllMusic
    70
    A debut that sounds a lot like New York urbanites the Rachel's and the Clogs, but a little more dangerous.
  2. Delusions of Adequacy
    80
    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.
  3. Junkmedia
    70
    A timely twinkle of apple crisp bells, hearth-warming handclaps and belly-rubbing brass.
  5. Magnet
    90
    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]
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  6. Mojo
    70
    There's a beguiling musicality at play that puts pleasing melody at the centre of even the most outre detour. [Dec 2005, p.102]
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  7. Neumu.net
    65
    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.
  8. Pitchfork
    78
    Whether the album achieves its titular synesthesia is debatable, but Bell Orchestre tap into a wide, mesmerizing range of the spectrum.
  9. Slant Magazine
    70
    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.
  10. Splendid
    70
    Bell Orchestre don't always make good on their ambitions, but the results are often excellent, despite (and usually because of) their sloppiness.
  11. Stylus Magazine
    67
    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.
  12. Under The Radar
    80
    Recording's musical vignettes display equal parts languor and incitement. [#11, p.105]
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  13. Urb
    70
    There's just enough rock spirit here to keep Recording A Tape... too weird for Barnes and Noble background music. [Dec 2005, p.104]
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  14. Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
    91
    [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.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.1

Universal acclaim- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. davem
    Oct 6, 2006
    8
    Solid album, see them live, it's fantastic.
  2. kurtt
    Mar 5, 2006
    9
    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!!!
  3. coolerstillr.muckfluck
    Feb 6, 2006
    4
    yeah...not quite. no.
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