The Octopus gets incredibly excited by new music, and we’re constantly on the lookout to bring you the best of it. In fact, the whole electronic scene is very ‘of-the-moment’, and this can make even the best tracks seem somewhat disposable. Well, no more! We’re taking a stand, and every Thursday, we’ll present to you an album, song or artist that you’ve probably forgotten about. It may be from a few years ago, or even just a few weeks ago, but every Thursday there’ll be some old, forgotten treasure - y’know, the sort of thing that would make you go, “Ahh, I remember that!” if it came up on shuffle. So without further ado, here’s this week’s #TBT.
Wolfgang Gartner has long been a favourite artist of mine. He has an extremely unique, melodic style, and he certainly knows how to put out a massive tune. Go back three years to 2011, and you'll find Weekend In America, Wolfgang's only album to date. You don't often hear of it now, but I rediscovered it the other day, and thought it would be good to take a closer look.
Weekend In America, it's fair to say, was probably not what people were expecting from Wolfgang's first album proper. Vocal tracks were abundant, and it had an extremely radio-friendly feel to it. I always thought it was a shame that it didn't make more of an impact in the mainstream, actually - though that's not to say it wasn't successful.
Despite this, it still couldn't have come from any other artist. It was probably his boldest, brashest music to date - a collection of absolute bangers, each one hugely memorable. Also in it's favour was that it contained a few of his tracks that are now considered classics, most notably Illmerica, which was released the previous year.
Tracks like Still My Baby and Forever may not have been to Wolfgang-purists' tastes, but it's undeniable that even these are great pieces of electro-pop, even if one of the collaborations was, um, 'questionable'. *Cough* Will.I.Am *Cough* Though it did give us what might be one of the weirdest/most disturbing music videos ever.
Aside from that, there were also some great through-and-through electro from tracks like The Champ, Shrunken Heads and The Way It Was, ensuring that there was something to please everybody.
Three years later, Weekend In America is still a fantastic album, and it's a shame that it doesn't seem to be remembered that much now. Maybe it's time for you to go and give it another listen, you might just be surprised by how good it actually is. It's been a very quiet year for Wolfgang so far this year, with only a single track released as a free download so far. It'll be interesting to see what he's got coming up next.
Writer, musician, and all-round top guy. I set up Excited Octopus. Currently, I'm on a one man team. It gets lonely sometimes. But I don't mind, because I love you all.
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