Daydreams in Cold Weather

Daydreams in Cold Weather

Editorial Reviews
From URB Magazine
There really isn't too much cold weather in Los Angeles, the city techno producer John Tejada calls home. It's sunny most of the year, so if you're going to be a prodigious musical shut-in who makes strange experimental electronic music, you've got a lot of perfect weather to resist. Which means that leftfield electronic music in Los Angeles is often just a slightly retooled version of the psychedelic trance and breakbeat that desert rave hippies grow out in the Mojave. Either that or it's so caustic — check out anything on Dimitri Fergadis' furious little Pthalo label — that it's only digestible to a core group of hardcore technicians.

So that makes the pleasant electronic music of John Tejada's Daydreams in Cold Weather a bit of an anomaly. Tejada spans the gap between raw anti-social experimentalism and the pretty synthetic sounds equally beloved, ironically, to wide-eyed trance consumers and high-falutin' IDM archivists. Those emotive sounds first sprang from Detroit techno, which is seemingly Tejada's muse, though he adds guitar, his opera-singing mom and seminal LA hip-hop seer Divine Styler to different tracks. But it's not really a paean to Detroit techno, either. Daydreams could almost be a greatest hits compilation from British techno icons Plaid: Each track burbles over with juicy synth melodies and rhythms that are interesting enough to pay attention to, but are not so overwhelming that they only belong on a dance floor. On the contrary, Daydreams is snuggly home-bound electronic music, even if its city of origin rarely provides an excuse to stay inside.

Daniel Chamberlin

Tracks:

To The West
Stop The Mechanism
Create Fixate
Shited
Young
Summer Rain
Count The Seconds
Rehearsing Disaster
Abre Los Ojos
The Silence Of Us
In Coach
Some Would Know Why

Customer Reviews:

Just what I have been looking for.......2002-10-04

'Daydreams in Cold Weather' is one of the finest purchases I have made in quite a while. Perfect for relaxing, reading, working on the computer, and of course, daydreaming. It is similar to Plaid, but more subtle. The album is very well rounded and even features the legendary Divine Styler on a track. Plug Research appears to be on top of their game. In fact I would say there seems to be some really quality American electronic labels now, with Ghostly International and Schematic doing their thing. If you are sick of chaotic, pretentious, so-called experimental, this is what you are looking for.

Good.......2002-09-19

For fans of Soulo, Two Lone Swordsmen, Aphex Twin, Jean Michel Jarre, Future Sound Of London...this is something you can not miss. This is not your average electronic record. Tejada sets his own genre. I enjoy it after a hard day of work, even during work I enjoy it, it relaxes me, as well as bed time story for me to be put to sleep by. I love this cd, I hope you enjoy it, if you already own it, I recommend Soulo.

If you are looking for fast attacking beats, this is not for you, if you are looking for a chill out, ambient style, then look no further.

Later

Low-grade ... retro electronica.......2002-06-12

I bought this CD with the anticipation that I was going to hear something in the same style as Tejada's track "The Matrix of Us", featured on the 'Panatone' compilation. What I ended up hearing on this CD was a series of what sounded like a blind-folded goofball toying with a Yamaha keyboard at the local music store.

Each tune, which none qualifying as "songs", lacked originality, depth, and tonality, as well as groove (which I thought was Tejada's trademark).

John, go back to the studio and redeem yourself! I still have faith!

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