Populous is bedroom laptop composer Andrea Mangia, a young producer who creates laid-back, hip-hop informed IDM, and although the second track with Doseone is entitled "My Winter Vacation", Queue for Love's gentle electronica evokes the first rays of spring and the slow thawing that follows.
From the first track, it's clear Mangia is a talented imitator: "The Breakfast Drama" lays down the same layered, organic sounds as the opener to Four Tet's Rounds, without the sophisticated percussion. Later, "Pawn Shop Close" recalls Prefuse 73, from its hiccuping beats to the clipping of the string sample over top.
Populous plunders the same bottomless musical mines as his more accomplished contemporaries (Four Tet, Prefuse, DJ Shadow), taking samples and beats from late 60s/early 70s soul and jazz and creating immaculate constructions. But while those artists dazzle technically, their samples, beats, and timing also unravel minor epiphanies, where repetition meets melody in a moment of euphoria. Populous has the samples and the skills-- "Maqam Saba" alone proves it, moving from multi-layered growling percussion to airy jazz guitar in the space of three minutes-- but Queue for Love is starved for those kinds of memorable moments.
Guest vocals help the cause, but even the lovely tenor of Matilde (of Studio Davoli) on "Bunco" or "Clap Like Breeze" is a passionless texture. The best tracks are mysteriously back-loaded: "Canoe Canoa" loops graceful classical guitar over breakbeats, and "Drop City" is the funkiest this mild-mannered album gets.
"My Winter Vacation" fares better, with Doseone relaxing his flow and turning subtle vocal modulations into self-harmonizing, as the ringing triangles and laid-back beats congeal into an inviting pastiche. From Queue for Love, there's no way to tell if Populous can use his sample library for distinct ends, or if he's just another non-face in the crowd, but I'll continue to play "My Winter Vacation" long into the summer.
