Glancing Over...

[Schizotypic]

Dear god, I need to start saving this crap while I'm doing it, this was the third god forsaken time I've written this thing and it's killing my muse. Anyway...

Glancing Over...
Schizotypic's Journey Into Sound

To Find Music

Welcome to my Member Journal. If your here just for the album reviews and compilations feel free to skip down to Part VII, it'll sum it all up. However, if your interested, my Journal is themed around my personal musical enlightenment.

Story, Part I:
A little over six months ago (written at 5/30/09) I was musically retarded. By this I mean the best albums of my entire life were Opiate by Tool and Amputechture by The Mars Volta, and only a few songs. Aside from that was okay music at best and again, I never listened to albums- just mediocre songs and indie-techno.

Part II:
About four months ago I put myself into rehab. While I was there I decided to musically enlighten myself. I used everyone I knew (patients, therapists, counselors) to try and make a list of the very best artists to start myself off with when I left. My three favorite counselors (early 20's college students), lent me their musical tastes to narrow down the list with a 2/3rds vote. Basically only their suggestions survived, ending with about 100 artists. After two months of being there I was finally released.

Part III:
My first few days home I immediately was on Playlist(.)com trying to sample around to see who I would start off with. I was mainly after discographies. Then I found Musicbanter. I was around the poetry forum when Big3's firm attitude gave me an idea of what the forum was actually about, so I decided to look around and got lost fairly quickly.

Part IV:
By the time I hit only 100 posts my itunes had become more of a library then a place for music personal to me. My list had nearly doubled, it was overwhelming. To this day it still is, I think music should be done over a lifetime, but I got so excited I just got all I could by any artists that interested me. I literally have a waiting list for organization, so I don't try and get 100 artists at once. Musicbanter is such amazing exposure, and some of the albums I've heard, after giving it it's time, have moved me in unique ways drugs never could have and has given me feelings I never knew existed.

Part V:
I was loving it all, but I got extremely swept up in life and stopped posting regularly. I still haven't gone a day without hearing a good amount of music since rehab though. After realizing how intimate an album has to be, I made a playlist for albums I've already listened to and want to get to know better. Still, it takes some time (for me anyway). I have about 70, each one I love in a different way, and I'm consistently getting new things from them on each listen.

Part VI:
Speaking of which, yesterday I was listening to the first album I am going to review- The Velvet Underground And Nico. It was on my fourth listen, but this last time it full on slapped me across the face. I think it hit me harder because I had more of an idea of Lou Reed's humor and social realism after listening to The Blue Mask. I was stuck there staring into my wall the entire album, and when it was over, I asked for a member journal. I just had to vent.

Part VII:
So this is how it's going to be Musicbanter- I'm still being beat up by life but when it so happens I come across something that hit me as hard as this last album did, your going to hear about it. And in that way you'll be going with me, through this new journey I'm on, into the ocean of sound, to find what music really is- to me.

Next Album Review: Unknown
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A not from me: I may also do other stuff besides album reviews, too, I just can't think of what.
Map (index)
The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground And Nico 6/5 ratio: 1/5
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - The Firstborn Is Dead 6/5 ratio 2/5
The Book Of Knots - Traineater 6/5 ratio: 3/5
Comus - First Utterance 6/5 ratio 4/5
Slint - Spiderland 6/5 ratio: 5/5
Fat Freddy's Drop - Based On A True Story 5/5 no ratio
The Album Leaf - In A Safe Place 5/5/ no ratio
Pink Floyd - The Wall 5/5 no ratio


6/5 Albums and the ratio system:
My rating system is an incredibly hard to judge ratio. This is because a lot of the albums I'll be reviewing, to me, are 6/5 albums (and this rule only applies to albums with a 6/5 rating) If I only have one album review, that album will receive a 1/1 ratio. If I have reviewed three, each album would get a number out of /3. Etc, etc... Will now also be reviewing albums that are not 6/5 rating, as only 3 other albums I own have this rating for me, and two of those three just barely make it.

[jackhammer]

A very personal and honest assessment of what music means to you and the work it is continuing to do for you. I am looking forward to this journal a lot.

[Schizotypic]

The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground And Nico (1967)


This is for all of you people out here who have not heard this album. Think of my album review like a childrens book, yeah you could chuckle, but if you listen I'll get your ass from point A to B.

I'd like you to meet Lou Reed. One thing you should know about Lou is that he's been around the block. Like he has really been around the block. As a teenager he struggled with homosexual feelings, resulting in mental institutions and treatment of electroconvulsive therapy. Here: YouTube - Lou Reed Kill Your Sons He also dipped his hands into heroin addiction and S&M sex. Luckily for us, he was playing around with rhythm, blues, country, etc before he was even in high school- so we end up enjoying things like this: YouTube - Lou Reed - White Light / White Heat from Rock n Roll Animal Why yes, he does kick fucking ass.

This is John Cale. John, like Lou, can play. Here's them together live, really old, performing Smalltown from their 1990 album Songs For Drella: YouTube - Reed & Cale DRELLA 1: Smalltown/open house/style it takes The important thing about Cale is that he picked up the viola at a very early age and went on to do classical, noise, and a technique he took from minimalism called drone. "drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece, sustained or repeated, and most often establishing a tonality upon which the rest of the piece is built"

My friends, I give you Andy Warhol: He was a very artistic man, here's a link to some of his most popular work: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...print-1968.jpg Um... well, he did pop-art. Coco-cola and stuff. If you didn't know that already, that picture was probably ironic, but wait, it gets worse.
----------------------------------------------------

So here we are and it's 1963. Andy is an up and coming artist, doing pop-art paintings of controversial this and that. Lou just moved to New York and was playing in garages until he got hired as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He and Cale get thrown together. Reed and Cale lived together on the Lower East Side, and two of Reed's college acquaintances Sterling Morrison (guitarist) and Maureen Tucker (drummer) are added to the group, they formed The Velvet Underground. Andy at the time was surrounding himself with underground artists and caught wind of them. He helped the band immeasurably as far as notoriety, and urged to add European former model Nico to the lineup. Of course they didn't really, thus the name:
----------------------------------------------------
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
If your not persuaded by this point to get this album I'm astonished, but I guess it can be hard to get. Let me tell a little bit about the actual album itself and what to look out for. Before I do, I'd like to officially state on Musicbanter (as long as it's been from the time I started this journal) this is still my favorite album in my life so far, and in my current opinion the best. Anyway, getting back on track, this is clearly one of the most influential albums of at least the past sixty years. Lou Reed's lyrics are that of an unbiased knife of raw truth, and with mighty balls, cutting into the bones of the untouched and unsafe subject matter of late 1960's. The music is filled to the point of spilling over with diversity. Sunday Morning, the first track on the album, is soft and comfortable, while the rest of the album is more raw. The music is as close to realism as you can get with the use of drone in songs like I'm Waiting For My Man or Heroin. Calmer songs make you feel like your being hit by a cold breeze in the freezing ocean. Your calm and tranquil, but at the same time it's bracing, this includes I'll Be Your Mirror or All Tomorrows Parties. There's also a notable use of beautifully done discordance meshed into raw noise and peaking into chaos in songs like European Son or The Black Angel's Death Song. The album never really hit commercial success but is on Rolling Stone's Greatest Albums Of All Time as number 13, as it's influences branch off from noise rock, rawness, and drone- I'd be listing things for another half hour if I were to sit down and find all the different ways music went branching off those three. In conclusion, If you have never heard it, and you want to- PM me asap.



One of the best albums around, get this MB.
With honesty and desire to share, MB's Schizotypic.


6/5

Ration: 1/5

[Bulldog]

Top review there - nice to see things laid put a bit differently. As for the album, I haven't listened to it for years, but I might just dig it out again after reading that. Good work sir

[Son of JayJamJah]

Nice job putting a new spin on a review that a lot of people have done here. I too think it's as much about the cast of characters as anything really. The music is fantastic, unique, disciplined chaos but the personalities and juxtaposition surrounding this project makes it more of an expereince and an event than most art could ever dream of being.

[Schizotypic]

The Book Of Knots
Traineater (2006)


Reviewers Opinion:
The first few things that I would like to tell any readers about this album is the same thing that you should assume with any album that is in my member journal: you should be bothering me for an upload right after you read this. If you have already heard it and you don't like it, you should be listening to it again. And finally, if you both have it and love it, then now is a good time to stop for a few seconds and have a moment of silence in which to fully admire it's greatness. In my current opinion, yes, it is straight-up that good.

Unfortunately... my word alone is, most likely, not going to get any of you readers who haven't heard this masterpiece to go through the five minutes of asking for an upload and the five spins it takes (I think) to fully appreciate a work like this. So now, simply because I'm a nice guy who wants to spread the wealth, I'm going to review Traineater. Hopefully my good words will be enough, but if not, your loss. I mean, sorry for being so matter-of-factly with this... I just couldn't understand someone giving this enough time to grow on them and not loving it.

On with the review:
Loosely based on growing up in a depressed steel town, the masterpiece that is the second installment in what will one day be mind-churning trilogy is nothing more then the raw carnation of desperation itself; pure in form as if it had been chemically extracted from the last breathe of a tortuously suffocated man. This affect is not something that is blasted at you from your speakers or over exaggerated by some electronically twisted voice, no, it's amazingly crafted by the likes of brilliant musicianship and realistic perspective.

Moving on with less imagery, I would like for fresh ears to take notice of details and grains; of each string and sound. From the screams of any dizzied guitars or hemorrhaged basses to the weak and shattered cries of utterly hopeless string instruments. Be attentive and let the sounds familiarize, and on the second spin, maybe it's time to try and grasp at what the lyrics are? All at your own time, but keep at it, eventually all the pieces will fit together and articulate song by song a different suffering. There's actually a couple in particular that I think manage to catch the pain of an entire lifetime.

This being my concluding paragraph, I'd like to point out a couple things I did that you may have already noticed. One, I haven't really said much aside from seemingly exaggerating the greatness of an album with tricky essay-writing words. I assure you, oh not easily motivated one, that It's not exaggerated. And two, I didn't say much at all about the group. Most likely you noticed this if you're already in love with the album. My hope is that I don't have to, why write another three paragraphs when I could just write this and inspire anyone who's interested to go look-up The Book Of Knots themselves. Look, smart ass, I know it's cheating but I'll go to whatever length to spread the wealth.



Enjoy you guys and cheers.
Sincerely, Schizotypic.

6/5

Ration: 3/5

[Terrible Lizard]

Kudos for the Book of Knots. Interested to see what's next.

[Schizotypic]

Fat Freddy’s Drop
Based On A True Story (2000)


Fat Freddy's Drop has turned out nothing more then the richest of albums. A New Zealand success story of an absolutely amazing independent labeled band going on to find well deserved critical acclaim and booming sells. If you haven't yet heard Based On A True Story, then I highly recommend you PM me immediately. If just to have it, as to eventually hear something that will make you regret not spinning it earlier on the very first listen.

The greatest thing about this album is that it is so accessible and at the same time so brilliant! I've yet to come across an album which upon the first listen has imprinted itself upon me so solidly; the only thing it gets with repeated listens is better.

It's also a notable accomplishment to have such a diverse album, with so many different genres sewn into it, feel so natural and smooth. I have only dipped my toes into the likes of Reggae, Dub, Soul, or Funk, and yet I can feel bits and pieces of them all in this. Possibly even bits of Jazz there? I think in the end it isn't any of these, as they are all so enmeshed together that Based On True Story has become something else entirely. What it is I'm not sure of, but Fat Freddy's Drop has truly created an album which is of the rarest of diamonds; truly, one in a million.



Any readers who haven't heard this, PM me.
Such a great album, I hope this helps to spread it. Cheers MB!
Sincerely, Schizotypic.

A solid and well deserved 5/5

[Schizotypic]

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
The Firstborn Is Dead (1985)


I doubt there is an artist on the face of this earth as enthusiastically into his music as the great and almighty Nick Cave. It's true I may forget every once in a while, but whenever I spin just one song on The Firstborn Is Dead I HAVE to play the entire thing, and sing it, too.

If you'll notice I give my all time favorite albums (which there are what, five of?) a rating of 6/5. This may seem confusing, so let me explain; not only are every single track on these albums stunning, but there's also something more there. That something may be different from album to album, but here it's just obvious. It may take a few spins, but the very second you are in sync with it there is absolutely no denying that it's beautifully done and mindbogglingly drop-your-feet stunning.

I look back at my old review of this and am embarrassed with how much effort I put into it. If you haven't heard this album then you could either trust me and give me a PM (I'll get it to you asap), or you could read my old review.. http://www.musicbanter.com/album-rev...tml#post629662, or you could go online and get one of the hundreds of well-written album reviews on this thing to convince you.

I'm sorry I don't give any new to Musicbanter readers more information on this, but I would end-up trying to beat to perfection the ten paragraphs I would be forced to write just trying to capture how good this album is. It's got a 6/5 rating, so PM me! If you haven't heard this and you post in here without PMing me I'm tracking you down... seriously I'm not kidding.



Bad review, fucking brilliant album.
Cheers MB! Sincerely, Schizotypic

6/5

ration 2/5

[Schizotypic]

Slint
Spiderland (1991)


Writers relationship with this album:
Even I'm surprised this album somehow achieved a 6/5 rating from me. Those who have spun this before know how good of an album it is, but I'm really not sure it's that good. I'll repeat this to myself over and over, thinking of why I ever decided this to be of my favorite albums, thinking maybe it should be re-assessed. But then, as I listen to it, I realize I couldn't possibly give this anything lower. Every song hits me in just the right spots, taking me from wherever I am with my thoughts and mood and dragging me into it's world. On top of that, there's something else. There's more to this. It's so complete, it does it's job so well, that at the end your left holding it above albums you thought it would never surpass.

Review:
Spiderland is five seemingly unrelated stories throw together on a 6-track album. Really it's more of a collection of ghost tales then a concept album. The lyrical nature is that of the absolute creepiest, slow-paced and with emphasis on every breath; it leaves you wondering what happens next while tingles run down your back. Of course it's best listened to in the darkest part of night while camping alone.

The two things that make this album great are the separate but equal parts of the mood and the lyrics. The creepiness is the backbone of the album, giving you the general picture of the dark scenes, and replacing your feelings with it's. The lyrics are the detail, like a book, they are purposely written in such a way to focus your mind on exactly where Slint wants it to go. Together they'll take over everything you experience.

The last and least important thing worth mentioning is the simplicity of all of this. The style of the music is of drone and mathrock, and the lyrics are of nothing more then the most concrete storytelling's. So how is it that something so simple can be so amazing? Well, I think it's the implication of it all. Take a look at Lou Reed's Heroin, or I'm Waiting For The Man, both are done with concrete storytelling and drone. It's what the implications are that really get you. The difference is that Lou's implies obvious things, usually in a satirical or sarcastic way. Here, with Spiderland, the impications are the of the unknown and the unworldly. Truly it's greatness must be in it's implied pointing toward the scariest of all human demons; the overwhelming and infinite vague.



Highly recommended. Of course if you haven't heard this, give me a PM, I'll fix you up.
Cheers MB, to another great album!
Sincerely, Schizotypic.

6/5

Ratio: 5/5