Zach Hill
Face Tat
1. What were your VERY FIRST impressions on listening to the album, say from the first five minutes in?
Scattershot. There was no time for a concrete impression since the tracks have only a few seconds of consistency to them. Whether you liked, loved or hated an specific passage of music, it would be sent to a farm upstate and would never be heard from again.
2. What did you think of the opening track?
Fairly indifferent, but the synths were a a bit too atonal.
3. What did you think of the next track?
Better, mostly because the synths/no drum parts were less atonal.
4. Did you like the vocalist? Hate him/her? Any impressions?
Barely noticed them, even less than usual. But the vocal effects worked well with the rest of the music.
5. Did the music (only) generally appeal to you, or not?
I've never heard Zach Hill's solo work or his work with Hella, but I am a big fan his rap group Death Grips. I think Death Grips actually forces Zach to keep his focus and keep things a bit more in line, and he's better off because of that. My main takeaway for Face Tat was that I liked some of the ideas, and if I wasn't on-board with the general idea of the song/passage, I found little to nothing redeeming about it.
6. Did the album get better or worse as you listened to it (first time)?
A little bit better, but not that much.
7. What did you think of the lyrical content?
Hwat?
8. Did you like the instrumental parts?
Kinda. Again, I could really like 20 seconds of a song and then hate the next 20 seconds. So, yes, there were parts that I liked.
9. What did you think of the production?
Seemed to work fine for what they wanted.
10. Did you know of this artiste prior to listening to the album, and if so, did that foreknowledge colour your perception of this album?
Like I said, I know and really like Death Grips. So I expected Zach Hill's manic drumming style. But again, since Zach has to hold something resembling a beat in Death Grips, it gives the music a sense of direction and consistency. I definitely prefer that to what I heard here, not that I completely disliked it.
11. Is this, generally, the kind of music you listen to or not?
I wouldn't call it unappealing, but I wasn't eager to seek it out and probably wouldn't if I had heard any of it before this.
12. Assuming you listened to the album more than once, on repeated listens, did you find you liked the album more, or less?
About the same. Since my listening experience was about each consistent segment rather than a whole song, I picked up on parts that I liked, and parts that I didn't like. But only a few specific parts stuck in my head each time I listened to this.
13. What would you class as your favourite track, if you have one?
There wasn't a single track that I completely liked. The one that probably had the most parts that I enjoyed was the title track.
14. And the one you liked least?
Just about every other track had about the same ratio of good/bad ideas. So there isn't a specific track that I disliked.
15. If the album in question is a debut, did that fact allow it, in your mind, any leeway, and if so, was that decision justified or vindicated?
All I know is this album is post-Hella and pre-Death Grips.
16. Are you now looking forward to hearing more from this artiste, if you have not heard any of their other material?
Solo Zach Hill... possibly, but probably not. Hella... maybe. Death Grips... definitely.
17. Were you surprised by your reaction - positive or negative - to the album?
Not really. I had a vague idea of what this would be like when I first heard about this album when I first got into Death Grips. It's mostly what I expected.
18. Did the album end well?
It's relatively mellow for the album. I do think the album ends better than it starts.
19. Do you see any way the album could have been improved?
Since I feel like the artist was able to execute their mission for what they wanted this to sound like, I have no comments/criticism. Also, the genre is not something I'm familiar with enough to feel comfortable making any suggestions.
20. Do you think the album hung together well, ie was a fully cohesive unit, or was it a bit hit-and-miss?
The ideas are hit and miss. In the macroscopic level of looking at this as a whole album, it belong together.
I'm gonna give it a
5/10, because I while I didn't enjoy the album as a whole, I think my lack of enjoyment was more about not understanding the album rather than finding fault with it. In that case, I'd rather not punish it for that.