Forum Member Album Reviews

~~MicShazam~~ · 08-10-2016, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mondo Bungle

.

This one goes on the list too

BTW, I looked at your last couple posts from back in June - that other project, Math&Science, is that yours too? (I'm assuming Trouble Salad is your band).

YorkeDaddy · 08-10-2016, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MicShazam

Yes I would! I'll write it down on a list next to my computer and see how fast I can get around to it. Just provide links and I'll bookmark it.

cool thanks d00d

https://daydreamsociety.bandcamp.com/album/daze-end

Key · 08-10-2016, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

cool thanks d00d

https://daydreamsociety.bandcamp.com/album/daze-end

Still love this album.

YorkeDaddy · 08-10-2016, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ki

Still love this album.

you're gonna really dig the next one. basically a post rock/shoegaze album

~~MicShazam~~ · 08-10-2016, 04:11 PM

Album Review: Trouble Salad - Medieval Cosmology
https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/al...eval-cosmology

(This one goes first, since Mondo Bungle has had to wait for a couple months. Yorkedaddy's project is up next.)

Listened to: 3 times in full on speakers, then spotwise on headphones while writing.

There's no way around this fact: I'm waaaay out my depth here. The amount of noise/ambient albums ever to grace my record shelves is zero. The only experience I have with the genre would come from a few curious clicks on Youtube over the years, plus soundtracks for movies and games that I have watched/played. It's hard for me not to compare this to the soundtrack of Silent Hill 1, because my frame of reference is so limited.
This limitation is going to directly affect how much and what I will have to say about these tracks, so keep that in mind if this review ends up seeming rather like I'm grasping for straws.

01. Arab Water Clock
We're off to a running start with a wall of white noise and what sounds like a constantly ringing bell - like one continuous chime. Various frequencies of sound slowly fade in and out over the course of the track (the general M.O. of this sort of music, I guess), but the bell chime remains. Interestingly, theres what sounds like a sort of creaky... insect like noise. Can't quite describe it, but maybe that's part of the appeal of this sort of music? That the noises collaged together are robbed of their context and thus become interesting to observe as they intermingle over time.
The whole thing sounds pretty creepy. I feel like I'm doing a disservice to the track by not being able to explain how it evolves over time better, because I can hear a lot of work must have gone into this.

02. Plutonium Bridges
Significantly quieter than the previous track, but just as unsettling. What sounds like a couple notes of bright strings being plucked return periodically alongside various sound effects. The most interesting thing here is how the bassy background is pretty subtly placed way in the back. At first listen, I didn't even really notice (had to keep the volume down). At the 2:34 mark distortion suddenly cuts through. I'm wondering if this is an electric guitar. I'm cathing what seems like a chiming metal sound again. Then... a soft bass note and what is clearly a guitar. Almost starts sounding more like conventional music, so to speak. A ghostly voice... or is that a voice? This bit is pretty cool! Mores distortion - pretty long track too - and I'm trying to get to grips with the repetition. Several genres deliberately make use of repetition to sustain a mood, but I'm personally disposed to prefer music that keeps moving forward. I wouldn't say I'm bored, but a mild sense of impatience does linger.

03. Cancer the Crab
If that was a children's TV show, I'd watch it. Ok, so there's a lot of new sounds to try end identify right off the bat here. Is it just me or does some metal still chime in the background? Very different overall expression from the previous two though. At the 2:10 mark I'm reminded of the soundtrack to the somewhat obscure PC game Eradicator. Oh boy, I'm going to have a hard time saying something unique about the remaining tracks, but let's try not to think about it and just, like, do it man.
I should point out we're still in creepy territory. Now with an added dose of sci-fi B-movie weirdness (4:35).

04. The Observation of Saturn
Chiming metal - this time very low-frequency. Then what sounds like garbled screams and stung robot-pigs. Then some kind of distorted howl. You're welcome to come up with a better description of the opening minute of this track! Huh, this one actually keeps things moving forward a lot more than the previous tracks so far. 3:10 = This is what a horror movie about grasshopper swarms would sound like. Then more sci-fi B-movie sounds all of a sudden. Can't help but think that sound is a bit silly. Lots of crazy noises in the final minute of this thing. At least it was pretty action packed, but your mileage may vary: I'd actually like to know what someone who understands this genre thinks of this! Feel free to chip in.

05. Tycho Brahe and His Celestial Globe
I'm not sure, but I suspect most of these sounds have appeared in the preceding tracks. They're not holding back on their insistence this time though. This feel like a bit of an aural assault. I like huge walls of sound if there's harmonic content to it (which, technically speaking, there will always be when all present sounds don't play the same notes, but you know what I mean), but this is more geared towards simply overwhelming you and challenging you to pick out something to focus on amid the cacophony. Given the title, I'd have expected something less abrasive, but naming instrumental pieces can be a pretty intuition based process.

06. The Magnetosphere of Jupiter
Some kind of weird alarm sound. Something around the 00:30 mark sounds like a loop of some kind of horn instrument. Having a loop recognizable as music actually makes this seem more repetitive to me. Just as I'm starting to feel impatient, a sharp sinus noise pierces my ears and another follows not long after. Unpleasant stuff! Halfway through it suddenly changes to something comparatively less grating, but a sharp tinnitus noise comes back and I'm having a hard time listening to that on headphones. This stuff is for people with different tastes than mine, that much seems clear! Impressive attention to detail, though. The final couple minutes feature what sounds like robot bleeps and someone blowing blades of grass through their fingers. Except it sounds less silly than I'm making it seem.

07. The Slower Rhythms of Man
Now this seriously reminds me of Silent Hill 1. Best game in the series, amirite? Oh dear god just stop with those sinus noises! They're seriously grating to my ears, I'm not kidding! Give me Napalm Death any day of the week; that's pure Norah Jones compared to these tinnitus esque noises. The track gets creepier and noisier later, but I'm feeling like it doesn't really find a new way of saying the same thing that several earlier tracks explored already. Perhaps it is necessary to regularly introduce new sounds with this style of music, or at least to juxtapose them with eachother in fresh, novel ways in every track. I found something to enjoy somewhat in every preceeding track so far, but this one struck me as the low point of this album.

08. Chariot of the Moon
Somehow, I'm thinking this one sounds suitably moon like - whatever the hell that means. Maybe I've played something or watched some movie that had something to do with moons or planets... that utilized similar sounds...? I have no clue. Maybe this whole experience is just starting to mess with my brain. I really can't wait to get back to something more like normal music! Please don't let Yorkedaddy's project be ambient noise stuff - I'll go mad! Aah, ok, gotta finish this in style. So, what's going on in this track? Well, I hear voices (in the track, I think) and half way through this 8 minute piece things get a lot quieter. I swear there's a track in Quake 1 that sounds somewhat like this part. You know what, that's the context in which I could appreciate something like this: As background music in a gritty game of some sort. More voices, btw, and way more intelligible this time... but not enough that I can hear what they say.

The album ends with a slow fadeout. Things seem awful quiet now after all that noise. This was a bit of a test for me, that's the terrible truth! Still, I found it interesting because it forced me to try and look at things from a different perspective. I'm all about harmony and melody, so this thing is actively working against everything I look for in music.
Things can easily get a bit too post-modern for me.
If someone else who actually gets this genre would do a counter-review of this thing, that would be really cool!

I've said it already, but I'll say it again so that this won't end on a sour note:
1) I'm clearly not the target audience for this sort of thing and 2) This stuff is really, really detailed. I wouldn't know how to make something like this myself at all!

Blank. · 08-10-2016, 04:14 PM

Hey shazam. It's not an album, but review this, please?

https://eerecords.bandcamp.com/track/distaste

**Frownland** · 08-10-2016, 04:22 PM

Do you have any music, MicShazam?

~~MicShazam~~ · 08-10-2016, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1blankmind

Hey shazam. It's not an album, but review this, please?

https://eerecords.bandcamp.com/track/distaste

Allright, added it to my bookmarks

~~MicShazam~~ · 08-10-2016, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Do you have any music, MicShazam?

Yeah, I got around 10 "albums" of varying sorts. Are of them are currently on my youtube channel, but mostly without timecodes in the descriptions (I should fix that). My last completed album is on soundcloud arranged in a playlist: https://soundcloud.com/micshazam/set...hed-early-2016

My second newest is only on Youtube (Now with timecodes for the tracks): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6p12aCLRJg

YorkeDaddy · 08-13-2016, 12:53 PM

I'll give a review to one of yours when your review of mine is donee

08-10-2016, 04:22 PM	#307 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,548	Do you have any music, MicShazam? __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

08-10-2016, 04:11 PM	#305 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,636	Album Review: Trouble Salad - Medieval Cosmology https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/al...eval-cosmology (This one goes first, since Mondo Bungle has had to wait for a couple months. Yorkedaddy's project is up next.) Listened to: 3 times in full on speakers, then spotwise on headphones while writing. There's no way around this fact: I'm waaaay out my depth here. The amount of noise/ambient albums ever to grace my record shelves is zero. The only experience I have with the genre would come from a few curious clicks on Youtube over the years, plus soundtracks for movies and games that I have watched/played. It's hard for me not to compare this to the soundtrack of Silent Hill 1, because my frame of reference is so limited. This limitation is going to directly affect how much and what I will have to say about these tracks, so keep that in mind if this review ends up seeming rather like I'm grasping for straws. 01. Arab Water Clock We're off to a running start with a wall of white noise and what sounds like a constantly ringing bell - like one continuous chime. Various frequencies of sound slowly fade in and out over the course of the track (the general M.O. of this sort of music, I guess), but the bell chime remains. Interestingly, theres what sounds like a sort of creaky... insect like noise. Can't quite describe it, but maybe that's part of the appeal of this sort of music? That the noises collaged together are robbed of their context and thus become interesting to observe as they intermingle over time. The whole thing sounds pretty creepy. I feel like I'm doing a disservice to the track by not being able to explain how it evolves over time better, because I can hear a lot of work must have gone into this. 02. Plutonium Bridges Significantly quieter than the previous track, but just as unsettling. What sounds like a couple notes of bright strings being plucked return periodically alongside various sound effects. The most interesting thing here is how the bassy background is pretty subtly placed way in the back. At first listen, I didn't even really notice (had to keep the volume down). At the 2:34 mark distortion suddenly cuts through. I'm wondering if this is an electric guitar. I'm cathing what seems like a chiming metal sound again. Then... a soft bass note and what is clearly a guitar. Almost starts sounding more like conventional music, so to speak. A ghostly voice... or is that a voice? This bit is pretty cool! Mores distortion - pretty long track too - and I'm trying to get to grips with the repetition. Several genres deliberately make use of repetition to sustain a mood, but I'm personally disposed to prefer music that keeps moving forward. I wouldn't say I'm bored, but a mild sense of impatience does linger. 03. Cancer the Crab If that was a children's TV show, I'd watch it. Ok, so there's a lot of new sounds to try end identify right off the bat here. Is it just me or does some metal still chime in the background? Very different overall expression from the previous two though. At the 2:10 mark I'm reminded of the soundtrack to the somewhat obscure PC game Eradicator. Oh boy, I'm going to have a hard time saying something unique about the remaining tracks, but let's try not to think about it and just, like, do it man. I should point out we're still in creepy territory. Now with an added dose of sci-fi B-movie weirdness (4:35). 04. The Observation of Saturn Chiming metal - this time very low-frequency. Then what sounds like garbled screams and stung robot-pigs. Then some kind of distorted howl. You're welcome to come up with a better description of the opening minute of this track! Huh, this one actually keeps things moving forward a lot more than the previous tracks so far. 3:10 = This is what a horror movie about grasshopper swarms would sound like. Then more sci-fi B-movie sounds all of a sudden. Can't help but think that sound is a bit silly. Lots of crazy noises in the final minute of this thing. At least it was pretty action packed, but your mileage may vary: I'd actually like to know what someone who understands this genre thinks of this! Feel free to chip in. 05. Tycho Brahe and His Celestial Globe I'm not sure, but I suspect most of these sounds have appeared in the preceding tracks. They're not holding back on their insistence this time though. This feel like a bit of an aural assault. I like huge walls of sound if there's harmonic content to it (which, technically speaking, there will always be when all present sounds don't play the same notes, but you know what I mean), but this is more geared towards simply overwhelming you and challenging you to pick out something to focus on amid the cacophony. Given the title, I'd have expected something less abrasive, but naming instrumental pieces can be a pretty intuition based process. 06. The Magnetosphere of Jupiter Some kind of weird alarm sound. Something around the 00:30 mark sounds like a loop of some kind of horn instrument. Having a loop recognizable as music actually makes this seem more repetitive to me. Just as I'm starting to feel impatient, a sharp sinus noise pierces my ears and another follows not long after. Unpleasant stuff! Halfway through it suddenly changes to something comparatively less grating, but a sharp tinnitus noise comes back and I'm having a hard time listening to that on headphones. This stuff is for people with different tastes than mine, that much seems clear! Impressive attention to detail, though. The final couple minutes feature what sounds like robot bleeps and someone blowing blades of grass through their fingers. Except it sounds less silly than I'm making it seem. 07. The Slower Rhythms of Man Now this seriously reminds me of Silent Hill 1. Best game in the series, amirite? Oh dear god just stop with those sinus noises! They're seriously grating to my ears, I'm not kidding! Give me Napalm Death any day of the week; that's pure Norah Jones compared to these tinnitus esque noises. The track gets creepier and noisier later, but I'm feeling like it doesn't really find a new way of saying the same thing that several earlier tracks explored already. Perhaps it is necessary to regularly introduce new sounds with this style of music, or at least to juxtapose them with eachother in fresh, novel ways in every track. I found something to enjoy somewhat in every preceeding track so far, but this one struck me as the low point of this album. 08. Chariot of the Moon Somehow, I'm thinking this one sounds suitably moon like - whatever the hell that means. Maybe I've played something or watched some movie that had something to do with moons or planets... that utilized similar sounds...? I have no clue. Maybe this whole experience is just starting to mess with my brain. I really can't wait to get back to something more like normal music! Please don't let Yorkedaddy's project be ambient noise stuff - I'll go mad! Aah, ok, gotta finish this in style. So, what's going on in this track? Well, I hear voices (in the track, I think) and half way through this 8 minute piece things get a lot quieter. I swear there's a track in Quake 1 that sounds somewhat like this part. You know what, that's the context in which I could appreciate something like this: As background music in a gritty game of some sort. More voices, btw, and way more intelligible this time... but not enough that I can hear what they say. The album ends with a slow fadeout. Things seem awful quiet now after all that noise. This was a bit of a test for me, that's the terrible truth! Still, I found it interesting because it forced me to try and look at things from a different perspective. I'm all about harmony and melody, so this thing is actively working against everything I look for in music. Things can easily get a bit too post-modern for me. If someone else who actually gets this genre would do a counter-review of this thing, that would be really cool! I've said it already, but I'll say it again so that this won't end on a sour note: 1) I'm clearly not the target audience for this sort of thing and 2) This stuff is really, really detailed. I wouldn't know how to make something like this myself at all!

08-10-2016, 04:14 PM	#306 (permalink)
Blank. Jacob Sartorius Join Date: May 2016 Location: Dank memes Posts: 4,034	Hey shazam. It's not an album, but review this, please? https://eerecords.bandcamp.com/track/distaste