Artificial Death in the West by The Cartridge Family (Plainview)
Sorry it took a bit to get this out, I wanted to make sure I get a couple strong listens in before reviewing since this is a pretty long and varied album.
1. Childhood: Maybe could've cut that intro a little bit but overall it's fine. Really interesting use of the Bjork sample, it fits excellently with the string synths and beat. Are the drums a sample or did you record them in-person or did you map it out electronically? Regardless it sounds great and fits perfectly in the mix. I love the subtle development over the next couple of minutes. Really a beautiful track and a great use of sampling for sure. It definitely feels like it's made with a sense of childlike wonder. Very nice jazzy piano near the end which leads into a
seriously sick piano riff at the end that I absolutely love and I think you should've utilized more. I think you could base an entire track around this, it'd sound great with a beat and some vocal samples. Sucks that I don't get to hear it for long, it's really nice. Overall you start off with a blue though.
2. In Love (With a Feeling): Absolutely love the jazzy piano on this track mixed with the hip hop influence. This is a style of music I ****ing adore from artists like Nujabes and some of Kendrick's recent work. This one just really works the whole way through, so have another blue.
3. Happiness Inc.: Name's a lot like Feel Good Inc. Is that an Animal Collective sample? Oh **** fam I'm seriously digging that droney synth mixed with the beat here, I could listen to this all day. Pretty awesome when that leaves and is replaced by some horns that sound a little more hopeful. The six minutes of this one just fly by, I really love the whole track. Probably the best so far.
4. Breeze/Morning: Really interesting sounds here, the sort of Asian sounding influences are pretty cool. Frantic drums come in and this feels way, way different from the previous three tracks. The end is pretty cool, it's awesome what the simple sounds of some boys playing basketball can do for you. Great imagery there.
5. All I Wanna Do: Definitely some strange trip hoppy stuff going on early here. The style and mix is much more in-your-face than the subtlety of the earlier tracks, and I was liking those more. I definitely like this one but I don't love it, not much else I really have to add.
6. On My Way/Divine Stylings: Interesting use of the Fragment Two sample by These New Puritans. It works fairly well as the focus of a song, I never would've considered that really. There's kind of an underwater cavern-esque sound to the little drips and kind of echo-y beat. This one has a very unique flavor to it. It's hard to figure out what the vocal sample is, but that might be a good thing honestly. Really nice track here.
7. memory's faaaade: One little note is that I think this album is kinda quiet over all, you could afford to turn basically every track up a little bit. I don't often have to have my laptop's volume maxed out to feel like I'm hearing all the details. Anyway this is a really interesting vocal sample, I like it a lot but it does get played a bit too much over the course of the track I think. Pretty solid one again though
8. i WiSH i WiLL: Interesting dark ambient which leads into a cool beat with some twisting and turning sounds that I like a lot. Oh damn I really love that little riff being played on strings, is that a sample or what? It's beautiful, and some bass is used really effectively in this one. Not a huge fan of the abrupt change around 2:30 back to exactly what we had heard earlier, I wanted those darker sounds developed more. It's interesting to create a sort of dichotomy within the song though. Kind of a spooky ending. This one's real close to a blue but doesn't quite get there I think.
9. Unearthling: I love the little flute in the background and the beat is pretty nice. Cool sense of atmosphere to start this track. Very interesting piano and bass section that kicks in sort of suddenly. Pretty solid one overall but nothing mind-blowing.
10. Celestial Architect: Cool song title. Kinda ballsy to sample Sunday Morning I feel like, I'd probably tend to stay away from Velvet Underground. That might be some weird personal bias and I shouldn't use it as a knock against the song. There's some sorta faint sax going pretty crazy in the background here and there, but a lot of this is sorta boring and playing the xylophone from Sunday Morning too much. Things get more interesting in the second half and I like it a lot, but then we go back to the same thing from earlier which wasn't doing a whole lot for me. Overall this has to be an orange.
11. Take My Freedom: Nice soft little jam going on in the beginning here but then I start hearing a cacophony of some spooky sounds. Pretty neat effect there having it kind of in the background. Suddenly I'm hearing a Radiohead sample which is sorta interesting, and Thom Yorke is still in there way back in the mix. This section doesn't feel different enough from the Radiohead song to me which isn't a great thing. The rest kind of bores me to put it simply, so I think this end up an orange as well.
12. Dead Flag Greens: The sound of a gun? Kind of cliche. This one starts off pretty weird but gets quite soothing when we have those slow guitar strums that are sort of ambient. Cool track overall, we're back to green.
13. Turiya/An Exit: Cool choir sound at the beginning, I like that a lot. Kind of an interesting end track. It's pretty short but seems to pack a lot in at the same time. Pretty nice fairly emotional seeming ending but I think it ends kind of abruptly too. Still a nice track to end things.
Overall I think the first half of the album is quite a bit better than the second but I liked the whole thing quite a lot overall. You seemed laser-focused on those first few tracks and that is reflected by the fact that my three favorites are the first three tracks. Is it a great thing to pack the best of the album so early? I'm not sure, maybe spreading those out would've made for a greater overall listen. Still though you show a huge amount of potential in this genre and this was a real pleasure to listen to, so thank you Plainview.