Dolby’s ON! Listening ears are ON! Roll sound

I believe one of the most rewarding parts of music exploration is when one finds an album that clicks instantly. Whether by chance, or by trying your hardest to find that feeling, the feeling is always rewarding. 

One time, the feeling came over me was when I was listening to the album “Dolby’s ON!” by Montreal-based Bataille Solaire. The album has a very wintery vibe to me, as if there’s a crisp wind on a January day.  

Opening track “Boul” both starts and ends with a glitchy sound collage. The way I see these sound collages is the track happens upon some chaos; it collects and transforms it over the course of the track and then loses control of it again as it separates into a new type of collage. The beat starts almost instantaneously, and it feels like a slow burn of sorts. Over the course of the track, Bataille Solaire adds enough elements to the beat to keep it fresh and interesting over the twelve-minute runtime.  

The first third of “Boul” starts minimal, but it adds elements slowly enough to where it feels like someone is finding details in a computer-generated 3D world in real time. The subtle static in the background, the blips which are only introduced once, and the almost staccato melodies all make the track fun to explore. It only gets more chaotic until the ending sound collage, and that’s when “B.M.B.S.” comes in. 

“B.M.B.S.” starts by sounding like a cold wind that hits your skin in all different directions. The immediacy of the icy ambient sounds put me in a trance on my first listen and keeps me in a trance to this day. The ambient sounds give way to an icy, energetic beat. The rest of the song is noticeably icier than “Boul,” even down to the drumbeats and samples used.

The drums here are faster paced and more staccato, feeling tighter and more controlled than “Boul.”  

A little more than halfway through the song, an icy-sounding drone comes in, with a sampled voice repeating “alright.” This gives way to an even faster and more subdued-sounding beat. This part of the song feels more at home in a cold server room, where you are more likely to be able to hear the humming and clicking of computers. All of these elements combined make this song my favorite on the album.  

The third track, “Lapino Club Mix,” combines elements of the two tracks before and creates a more danceable experience. The samples here really make the song come alive. If “B.M.B.S.” feels like a server room, “Lapino Club Mix” feels like the operating system housed on these server computers.  

The song’s beat and added samples really feel like the managed chaos of the functions of a server. This song is also more danceable than the previous two, adding skittering beats and a central hook throughout its runtime that makes it feel very grounded.  

The song eventually transitions into “Hyper Drive,” which is an ambient interlude that, through most of the first half, contains a synthesized voice monologue. After that, though, the ambience is drop dead gorgeous. The atmosphere feels like being in an icy cave with shimmering icicles. The light bouncing off of them hits the floor of the cave, and you’re mesmerized. It’s a great interlude, and it blends nicely with the next and final song.  

“Hom dans la ville,” is the most direct-sounding song on the album. It’s a wonderful conclusion, with the beat and background having a hopeful feel for what’s coming next.

The directness comes from the way both the beat and the background operate. Long gone is the chaotic-ness of “Boul” or the fast-paced ecosystem of “Lapino Club Mix.” “Hom dans la ville” delivers a great and hopeful conclusion to an already spectacular album. 

The album clicks with me primarily on its creative use of sampling throughout, which was ultimately great at sticking with the same vibe overtime. I also feel like it was texturally interesting to listen to. These textures manifested in many ways, such as the cold ambient sounds in “B.M.B.S.”  

As the sounds played in rapid succession, it felt like I could see the different way light was hitting a glossy surface. There was also lots of texture in “Boul,” like how the soft static in the background gave the song a nice fuzziness. 

I am lucky to have found an album that has clicked with me as instantly as “Dolby’s ON!” If you are a fan of wintery and digital-sounding worlds, I can’t recommend the album enough.