Andre 3000

Full disclosure: I've been listening to Brian Eno since at least the mid-1970s and discovered Harold Budd (through Eno) around 1980. I've been listening to ambient, electronic, and experimental music - and experimental electronic ambient music - for over 40 years.

I've seen in the news that Andre 3000, formerly of the hip-hop band OutKast, has released a new album "of all flute music."  Every track is him on flute or some variation of the flute.  The local news (OutKast is still a big thing here in Atlanta) was asking "What was he thinking?" and late-night talk-show hosts were laughing at him. On one of the shows this morning, they played a 10-second clip, and the host said, "That's the kind of thing I like to listen to... if I'm trying to fall asleep."

I listened to the album today. Andre 3000 has not only made an ambient album, he's made a fucking great ambient album. I'll resist the superlatives and won't say "the greatest" - Music for Airports and The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid still exist - but Andre's New Blue Sun has nothing to be ashamed of.  

The album contains eight extended tracks, each averaging about 10 minutes in length - the longest is 17:12. It's not at all monotonous - he plays woodwinds on every track, but the other instrumentation varies and the textures are all very different from one another. In fact, if I wasn't told that it was a "flute album," I'd probably consider it an electronic record. If you played it to me blindfolded, I would have guessed that it was unreleased tracks by the late Jon Hassell.

Track titles are almost as long as the tracks themselves and are frequently hilarious.  The full title of the video above is That Night in Hawaii When I Turned Into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn't Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild.  The opening track, revealingly, is titled, I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a "Rap" Album But This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time.

I admire Andre 3000 for bucking trends and releasing something of limited commercial appeal (you won't hear these tracks at the club or between plays of an NFL game).  I admire his bravery in the face of snickering newscasters and talk-show hosts. I'm impressed that his musical interests are wide enough to include all the varied influences that can be heard in this album.  

In the vulgar tradition of music reviews, I give it five out of five stars.