Forum Member Album Reviews

[YorkeDaddy]

Alright I've listened to this twice now. It's very short and so the review probably will be fairly short as well.

Track one starts off with a very nice little arpeggio guitar and some cool atmosphere. The male lead vocal is pretty deep and I like it a lot, and the part where a female voice comes in is really neat. The production and writing on this track is just awesome all-around. Track 2 "Flags" is another cool jam. It's hard to tell what's being sung and I'm kind of curious what this album's about lyrically. Some sweet guitar shredding in the latter half of the track, although at this part I think the mixing needs some work as the cymbal crashes are a little too overbearing but that's just my opinion.

We get a little more strange with "Fed a Spider". The opening is quite trippy, and the slower feel throughout compared to the previous tracks works well in the context of the album. Moving on, I don't understand why the "(acoustic)" clarification is needed for two of the tracks on here, unless there's a non-acoustic version around or something? Either way Oneironaut is a really cool track, probably my favorite thus far. This whole album has really strong atmosphere and just feels comfortable in its own shoes if that makes sense, which makes it a uniquely enjoyable experience.

Cats n' Dogs is the longest track on here. I absolutely love the circus sounding intro, I don't really know how else to describe it. Great use of that organ sound. Helps to differentiate this track but it doesn't feel out of place either. Track 6 "Pile of Guts" opens up with a nice little rock guitar riff. The vocals here feel so whimsical and fun, if this is your voice Xurtio you have a seriously great one for this type of music. This album sort of reminds me of Ween's "The Mollusk" which is an all-time favorite of mine so that's a very good thing. The closer again feels the need to tell us it's "(acoustic)" which doesn't make sense to me but doesn't detract from the album or anything so whatevs. The guitar playing on this track is really excellent and feels kind of epic, quite fitting for a closing track. A nice electric bridge of sorts near the end and then we're done.

I frankly loved this little album. I wish there was more to be honest. If you make another album I'll be one of the first to be checking it out. Great work Xurtio.

[Xurtio]

Thanks Yorkedaddy! Yes, there are electric versions of Oneironaut and Trees In The Wind*. I actually have a live recording of Oneironaut if you like. The acoustic versions came at a time when our drummer had abandoned us.

The lead vocalist is the rhythm guitarist, I do lead guitar and classical guitar and organ/synth (I also do the femme vox on Pull). Everybody thinks that's a female, and I'm proud of that :p

My bandmates are super stoked to be compared to The Mollusk! Much appreciated man, I'll get to yours in the next 40 hours.

Oneironaut proper:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B00...w?usp=drivesdk

*edit: misread that sentence

[YorkeDaddy]

Awesome, that makes now 4 promised reviews that I'm waiting on :P :P :P

[Xurtio]

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1074490172_10.jpg

Obsolescence

A hopeless daunt under falls of trickling anguish, and an imminent sense of unforgiving destruction are what the melodic phrasing is telling me. But somehow by the end it resolves, and everything is ok - but I’m still left with a disturbing sense that the resolution was a facade.

Existing As a Silent Film

This track features a competition between two narratives. One is personable, charming, and open to its own vulnerabilities - but the other seems to be what had escaped from obsolescence. And while the main character seems to be the charming one, they appear to be always overshadowed and upstaged by the trickling anguish that never really was resolved in Obsolescence, but instead appears to have escaped into a silent indie film where it could pretend to life a mainstream life.

Nailed Down:

Confusion, drugs, Charlie Brown. I don’t know. But eventually space - or mindspace, phaser set to slow. Some muffled words of reassurance lead me safely out of this maze.

Ataxia:

Creeping anxiety is overcome by a thoughtful dissociative fugue. Near the end, the melody is determined to teach us something, but leaves quickly before questions can be answered.

Happy Madman:

A careful neural dance elaborately rationalizes each point of its thesis, demonstrating the method to the madness. At the pinnacle of the speech, cloaked in fire, arms raised, breathing acid, the climax is achieved and the conclusion is stated plainly given the new context. Then there is nothing.

Last Daze

Here the story takes lyrical form and the same sombre darkness reflected in the melodic expressions are now carried by tongue, reinforcing the essence of bereft loneliness that saturates the air molecules around me.

Paradox Nights

A meandering break from the constant struggle. The mind is fragmented, each lobe depicting it’s own interpretation of their shared history.

Brink
Tortured compulsion, somewhat anxiety inducing

If We Could Levitate

A modest proposition, a request made alongside stories of future abundance and freely roaming. But, as one might suspect having seen the tone of this album so far, the distortions crackle about those promises of abundance and carefully masked scarcity is all that remains. There is a determination that rises from this manufactured desperation, but it too is crushed.

Savior Signals

A tranquil form of beat poetry lingers in the air, drenched in wind. Washed away by a creeping blight that runs like a steam engine, leaving modulating wakes in digital waves. The waves synchronize, and decouple; a beacon.

Fixated

Ivory rain drops. A syncopated shower. Small, controlled explosions move in motions, up and down. A delicate dance balances two voices, one overbearing and consistent, another struggling to maintain structure as it bubbles diffusively away from its liquid prison.

Rising Time

A chapel in the wood calls the masses to rise an attend. Once all are seated, the sermon begins, in poignant phrasing. The cloak casts his line, demonstrating the state of things in the world, especially the suffering. He proposes a cause to the suffering, and thus a solution. And the masses say Amen and return home, obeying his words.

When Our Winter Ends

10… 9… 8… You are coming to your senses now. Your fingers are tingling, then your arms… 7.. 6.. 5… your chest your head, your legs your feet … 4… 3…. 2… your tour guide comes into focus… 1… you are reacquainted with the natural world and its significance in the context of your experience is highlighted before you are left in the cold.

[YorkeDaddy]

Wow that was an awesome read. Really cool interpretation of my album. Thanks a ton Xurtio!

[YorkeDaddy]

Don't want to sound annoying but can I get some sort of ETA from Tristan and Mondo? I mean I completely understand if you've been busy but I kind of obsessively check this forum every 15 minutes or so and it's been a source of some fairly painful anxiety for me over the past couple weeks tbh. I can't really help it

[MicShazam]

I can see the stuff that I make doesn't fit in with the stuff you guys make at all. I'll just sneak the album I finished working on recently in here anyway:



Purely instrumental. This is my 12th full disc, but I feel its somewhat more refined than my previous ones.
I like my music plenty myself - but it quite possibly has little in the way of legs to stand on outside of my head

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Negative ones too!
I'm not a frail artist and criticism promotes growth, in theory anyway.

EDIT: Track time-codes added to the youtube video notes.

[MicShazam]

I'll write a bit about this one too, as I've been listening to it a handful times today.

1. Pull 02:32
A very calm, pretty track with a slightly trippy backdrop.
There's a simple guitar plucking melody that alternately ascends and descends across three notes. Male vocals up front, soft female backing vocals occasionally in the background. I really like the voice that comes in past the midway point and sounds kind of mellotron-ish. The male lead vocals sound kind of lethargic, but in a way that seems intentional and works well.

2. Flags 01:54
Nice shuffling drumbeat. The male vocals almost reminded me of Maynard James Keenan for a split-second, but maybe that's just me! After a couple bars of singing, a guitar lead plays a fill. Then a couple bars more of vocals (this time a wee bit more agitated and Maynardey), then some more unhinged soloing and boom: the song ends. Structurally it makes good sense, but I do feel like it could (should?) have pushed past the barely-two-minutes mark and gained from it.

3. Fed A Spider 03:16
There's some weird sounds in this one. Sounds kind of like a saw being played, but then again, I can't quite decide. The point is that it sounds odd.
There's a couple soft guitar chords being played over and over again with the bass guitar doing a bit more of the work as far as driving the song forward goes. The moany, slightly Nick Cave like vocals bind it all together and I think that the general flavour of this track could really go over quite well if it was featured in a movie or something. Good track.

4. Oneironaut (acoustic) 03:57
Familiar sounding guitar strumming territory here. What catches my interest here is mainly the low, flute like sound in the background. Quite ominous. The vocals sound somewhat like the singer is not in his natural voice here. Still, it works well as the melodies sung are quite nice. Some hand drums (or guitar body tapping?) plus some spanish guitar plucking come in late in the track, the joins the previous vocal part until the finish. I like this one quite a bit too.

5. Cats n' Dogs 04:24
Loving the start of this one! The start of the track sound like circus music. Superficially, this track makes me think of Faith No More's "RV". The vocals here are not quite that strange, though, even if there is a slight trace of Tom Waitsian edge at times. There's a drum transition just around the 3 minute mark that sounds pretty awkward to me, but I like the guitar that comes in just after it. At 3:51 the music quiets and an electric guitar gently plays us out. Nice, but it somehow seems like the least interesting song yet.

6. Pile of Guts 03:18
With that title, I expected death metal! It isn't that, but a bit wilder it is. Let's call it upper mid-tempo rock with quieter verses and lots of reverbey guitar leads underneath and above most segments. A bit jam-like in style. Grows a bit more conventional as we move deeper into the track, but I'd still call it quite a good track. Maybe the guitar riffs in the second half could have been better - it just feels like it needs a little dash of something there.

7. Trees in the Wind (acoustic) 03:19
Quiet track after a loud track to end the album on. Nice choice. Sombre acoustic guitar plucking and slightly monastary like singing (monastic? monk like? ahh, don't know the proper word here) lends it some gravitas. Like Oneironaut before it, the singer isn't quite in his natural voice here, but it does sound good despite it. We get a bit of soloing and the song ends - a bit suddenly too. The track is over three minutes long but it feels like it could have taken its time to let the mood sit for a couple more minutes. Wouldn't have minded a word-free vocal harmony part in the end, or something else that would fit the mood and style of the song.

Closing thoughts:
I liked all of the tracks more or less and the album certainly doesn't manage to really outstay its welcome at a mere 25-ish minutes. The most impressive thing is probably the sheer variety of styles and not least vocal styles - even if the singer does not always sound like he's in his element. The only negative thing I feel like isn't pure nitpicking is really just that the songs often feel slightly underdeveloped. Better too short than too long, no doubt about it, but a few more minutes spread out across some of these tracks could have done wonders.

[Mondo Bungle]

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

Don't want to sound annoying but can I get some sort of ETA from Tristan and Mondo? I mean I completely understand if you've been busy but I kind of obsessively check this forum every 15 minutes or so and it's been a source of some fairly painful anxiety for me over the past couple weeks tbh. I can't really help it

I have no reason for not writing it, I'm just a very unreliable person with very little internet access anymore. I listened to it some time and thought it was good.

I just lost everything I had that had any shred of importance in my life so I might be busy being a bitch instead of reviewing.

edit: never mind I'll just do it right now

[Tristan_Geoff]

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

Don't want to sound annoying but can I get some sort of ETA from Tristan and Mondo? I mean I completely understand if you've been busy but I kind of obsessively check this forum every 15 minutes or so and it's been a source of some fairly painful anxiety for me over the past couple weeks tbh. I can't really help it

Sorry, I actually have been a bit busy, I'll listen to it by the end of the week, sorry for the hold up. Lot's of grad preparation and other goings on.