I can never get past track 1 of Devlab. I like some weird, noisy, experimental music from time to time but I just can't get into Devlab.
The Hummer is decent background music.
Yeah the first couple of minutes actually seems to be there to throw people off. After that the crazy manipulated drums return maybe once or twice, but the album is full of great soundscapes, some drones and great buildups of tension with amazing releases of wonderful ambience. I like it better than most of his regular albums.
Maybe so you guys will have some guidance I'll write down my thoughts:
The album basically starts after 1:30 of crazy stuff, and gets pretty right away. Mostly electronic stuff, some layered vocals, with a hint of processed (sometimes with a very beautiful envelope filter) piano every now and then.
After minute 6 the song quiets down, and starts building up with some organ and just random noise (including stuff sounding like the intro, but way more processed, slowed down, down-pitched etc.) every now and then. When the track again seems to get ugly (intro-like), around 10:30, you get a couple of extremely low hits, slamming you back into the (again quieting down) trip.
After around 14 minutes you even get a short dance like section, swiftly swallowed by a lot of reverb and delay, only to be punched down by a incredibly heavy drone, but that quickly gets taken over by some over the top screaming, and directly back into the void.
The next 10 minutes is a buildup to some trance-like electronics. Dev seems to have experimented with this more often, but this sort of electronics rarely made it onto his albums.
From 30 minutes onward stuff gets darker. It really slows down, with some no-tempo ambient, and a sample of reversed vocals, at 35-36 minutes you slowly wake up again. Once more a deep punchy synth, and a nonsense Devin vocal should make you pay attention to the next section. The next bit is more vocal-laden, layered stuff with a lot of reverb.
From 40 minutes on one of the most beautiful parts of the album takes off. A big major chord, with sometimes shifting bass notes, with something that sounds like a movie dialogue on top of it.
Around 45 minutes one of the only clean cuts of the album happens. Although this is supposed to be one long track, this seems to be something new starting off. From 40 minutes on this has become more beautiful step by step, but this is really one of the highlights. Although it's just IV-I over and over again, played by some sequenced or arpeggiated synth, the way everything finally reaches a musical resting place is amazing. I even dare say that the beat coming in afterwards makes it too much of a song. But it is possible that that piece (around 53 minutes) will suit the regular music fan the most.
The last couple of minutes fits the 'fever dream' concept, up until the very (pretty disturbing) end.
PS. I loved reading reviews online 'there are not real keyboard or guitars on this record', 'this is not actual music', 'meaningless loud noises compiled together'