Hi humans!

I just want to inform you all that "Warm Robot" is a masterpiece. I have spent all day listening to the album and when writing this I have to pluck up my jaw from the floor all the time... It´s so rich of emotions. Warm, sad, happy. And over it all is Jens wonderful voice hovering in layer after layer.

You humans with good taste will love this album. Let´s hope that quality also leads to quantity in form of selling shitloads of records!




PS. The song "Robot Boy" is for the moment my fave, but I don´t tell why!

p.s.s.t I think I know why!

p.s. I agree with everything you said about the album. Brilliant beyond belief.

Mitch, and what a lovey song it is...

Magic sprinkled all over the album. Quality in every detail. I could go on forever. But I really don´t have the time. I have an album that waits for me. Ha, ha.

Seriously, I get back with more about the songs. See it as a warm up before the release, humans!

Some albums are impossible to resist. "Warm Robot" is one of those very few that you directly feel that something very special is going on. You just have to surrender and listen over and over again. Take for instance the song "Querquehouse" in which Jen sings "give me something to smile about" followed by something sounding like a big kind bumblebee (at least to my imagination). And yes, then you just have to smile. At the same time there is a lot going on in the background.

I´m so glad that Jen found Andy and that Andy found Jen!

Hey Per! Am I being stupid... but i cant find any mention of jen's album being released. In fact not much mention of jen at all on that APE site. So is this the old unreleased album or the new album or am I in an alternative universe where nothing make sense.

please do tell!

Mr Human Tein, it´s of course the new album. Don´t worry, it will be released soon. I am here just to tempt you and prepare you for something beautifully extraordinary. Right now I listen to track 11 "Wafflesons Dream" and in fact the whole album is like a dream. Floating, dreamy, bubbling sounds that just move you to an other place...

how did you get that!!!! Not fair!!!! Is wire wire on it?

He got it the same way I did, which is from someone very close to the top of the APE. I would also add that it is the best album you've heard (but not yet) by anyone in several years.

Yes, "Wire Wire" is on it.

Well - far be it from me to add to the frustration of those who are yet to hear the album...
but.....I was lucky enough to be granted a hearing - and I can only agree with the praise that's being heaped on it so far.

Here are some words that spring to mind. Some of them contradictory (yes, it's that sort of album).

Fresh. Complex. Layered. Mind-blowing. Minimal. Tribal. Pure. Funny. Devastating.

If I had to choose one word - then "sumptuous". Especially (like all great albums) with headphones on ;-)

I really REALLY hope this album makes the mark it deserves to make- for Jen's sake and Andy's sake. You can hear the care and love they've poured into the making of it.

wow...

Hi Woozy and welcome to the forum. If I had to choose one word it would be a simple "beautiful". And yes, let´s hope that "Warm Robot" becomes a success! I have a feeling it can happen. Even in this crazy world can true quality now and then be rewarded...

Fave song right now is "So Funny". I wish I could describe it, but it´s impossible. You humans have to trust me when I say that it is damn good!

The last song "Here I Go" is a wonderfully constructed song with an uplifting feeling. I love how the drums enhance the whole song. Oh, and lovely lovely vocals as on all the 12 tracks. Please help me someone, I just can´t stop listen...

Reading this thread is awful. It's like watching your dinner companion tucking into their meal while the waiter informs you that yours will be a "few more minutes".

Oh well, at least the wine is good.

Spidey, when this musical meal arrives you will be very pleased. A sweet wait that will make the dinner even better. I promise.

I trust you, Per - you've never steered me wrong yet.

Can't agree more.

I'm now just getting a bit frustrated by the amount of carrots being dangled in front of those less fortunate!

well here's a carrot you CAN eat!.....i just heard Lighterthief's Up On Hi on APE radio...and if i'm not mistaken that's the warm fuzzy tones of Jen in the middle 8 bit


wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
perfect summer sounds...i'm sure it's on heavy rotation on there..

Yes, "Up On Hi" gives you a very good hint what Jen can do. "Warm Robot" is still on heavy rotation here och will be so for a very long time...

Right now the favetrack is "Wafflesons Dream". Once again a lovely constructed song with almost painful but still hopeful lyrics. Great flute playing, btw.

I´ve had a period without spinning "Warm Robot" and what a great welcome back it was hearing the first bares of "Boulevard". Sorry if I keep on teasing folks, but you will forgive me when you soon will be overwhelmed by an album that is so good that I really can´t find words for it. Jen Olive is a natural talent and with the help of the head for everthing APE is all that talent now evident in the digital grooves...

Right now is "So Funny" oozing and Jen sings:

You look so funny when you´re coming,
You look the same way when you´re spending money.

Hhm, something to think about...

Does anyone else in here think that "Robot Boy" could easily pass for an Andy song? The brilliant chords are quite Partridgean to my ear. It's a coincidence of course, and you can see why Andy felt such a spark of attraction. Still waiting on my hard copy .....

I stumbled on this nice little piece.
http://www.adequacy.net/2010/04/debut-albu...andy-partridge/

Debut album from Jen Olive with Andy Partridge
April 12, 2010 by Jen Stratosphere Fanzine
Category: News
Jen Olive is the latest in that select group of handpicked artists signed to Andy Partridge’s Ape House record label. Jen Olive, described by Andy as ‘’this astounding allegro algorithm from Albuquerque”, has conjured up an album that’s as singular in style as in its manner of recording, a collaboration between Jen and Andy from across the world. The result, Jen Olive’s debut album, Warm Robot, is scheduled for release Spring 2010.
Jen was born in California but “raised everywhere”; her mother was a lounge jazz singer, her father a trombone player. “We probably moved about 35 times before I was 16″, she explains. Having eventually settled in L.A., she then moved to Albuquerque a few years ago to meet her dad’s “crazy jazz” family (her uncle is the lead saxophone player for the Count Basie Orchestra).
Warm Robot is Jen Olive’s first “official” album, despite some low-key, self-released recordings in the past under different names. Jen first hooked up with Andy Partridge back in 2007, sending him an exploratory e-mail after a friend suggested he might be open to ideas. “After hearing the initial songs”, continues Jen, “Andy asked if he could arrange and mix them, as they were a little too raw and unfinished-sounding.” When she sent each new song to Andy, Jen sketched out the album’s intriguing percussion parts using rocks, wine bottles, her kid’s blocks – anything she had to hand. Andy reimagined her basic percussive techniques and then added other effects (such as a choir at the end of “Set It On Fire”), as well as some spooky keyboards here and there.
Jen Olive is a songwriter first – a singer-songwriter in the loose tradition of those classic, only recently rediscovered seventies artists such as Ruth Friedman and Judee Sill, except she’s very much in the here and now. Like Kristin Hersh or Bjork, Jen Olive’s vision is modern and unique.

Well we have listened to it and can only agree with what everyone has said...it is a beautifully layered masterpiece and she deserves to go very far indeed.
All credit to everyone involved!

I can't wait until I get off work! I downloaded "Warm Robot" yesterday (along with TMHB's Dog-eared Moonlight and the two Lighterthief EP's), and I plan to listen to it in its entirety while I walk home. I especially look forward to finding out which song will be playing as I walk through the forest, alongside the rushing stream.

A very interesting album - dreamy, intricate, textured and layered. Dense vocal harmonies and arrangements. Christ, it must have taken a long time to record all those vocal parts! My initial faves include Robot Boy, Claustrophobe, Querquehouse and Waffelson's Dream. I suspect it will take a long time to discover all the little gems hiding in these songs. All in all, a superb debut.

Her first album was good too

You better be careful, Teiny, or I'll have hummingbird kick your arse!

I'm having trouble deciding who I like the best... Veda or Jen?

Oh! I don't have to choose?

There's only one way to find out...

Jentastic !