Reviews continued... took me a while to wrap my head around that crazy-ass owl.
ClassiCal - Sefirah EP: Really chill and slick stuff. Very well produced. Love the speech in the first track. Love the crazy arpeggio sounds all over the place. Reminds me of this keyboard my old roommate had... it had an arpeggiator that sensed your hands like a theremin... so you could manipulate the number of octaves generated by moving your hand up and down. Love the water sounds... did you and Dan both go to the same well? haha Love the bird and nature sounds. There's so much to LISTEN to in so many of these records... so many sounds. Also, awesome artwork! Great job.
Dick Reynolds - Record Time Shizz: Cool covers man. I wasn't familiar with them, but checked them out online. I dig how you took them all in different directions and put your own spin on it. "Drive It All Over Me" is a cacophonous racket, in true Record Time spirit haha I dig how you whistled the guitar part in "Those To Come." Maybe vocals could be more up front? Nice spin on everything and good work.
F.E.A.R. - Why: Once again, so many sounds to listen to here. Great job on being really creative and showing off all these production techniques. Sort of a side note, but I find Record Time the perfect opportunity to test out all the tricks we have up our sleeves... stuff that we may consider too gaudy for other tunes. Sounds like you were able to really blast out a ton of new tricks in these tunes... and it works in creating a totally chaotic atmosphere. I don't have a lot to say... sort of hard to latch on to specific things to mention... but that's kinda saying something in itself. Great job, and great artwork.
Kevin Lee Todd - Magnus Ociel Marcello: This is some fucking wild, wild, stuff man. Unbelievable job well done. As I noted above, I'm still re-listening several times to better wrap my head around the plot, but I think I got the gist of it now (then again, I'm horrible at following plots... I could be watchin cartoons and still gotta ask my girlfriend what the hell's goin on haha). As for the story itself: amazing job making this whole thing up, and the enormous set of lyrics that go with it. I wish all of lyrics were on the sheet so I could follow along to the whole thing. You did a great job building this fictional world through music and words. I love the song sequence of sung lyrics and then spoken word.... helps the slow folk like me follow what's going on. I also love the difference between your singing voice and your spoken voice - both are unique. As for the songs themselves... lots of great tunes. I think "Black Rain" and "Zombie" are my favorites. Stylistically, I love how jangly and LOOSE everything is. Not everyone can pull that off (for me - if it ain't tight, it ain't right). I been listening to The Band a lot this week after Levon Helm's death, and your stuff really reminds me of that loose, folksy vibe. But at the same time, it all sounds very intentional and well-produced. I love the spooky music during the spoken-word vignettes. And great artwork too. Awesome job! ... Can we see a transcript of the Langsdorf Doctrine? haha
Kris Eckman - Burl's Great NoNo: Really heavy stuff. Good guitar playing and really syncopated parts. I dig the guitar parts around 15 seconds into "Night Trains Kill." And the trumpet parts too... totally random! Dig all the cool production in "Eat Jimmy Dean." Cool reggae vibes in the last track. Cool stuff, cool guitar playing. Great job man.
Paul Marquissee - Favorite Place: Great tune! Reminds me of that huge single from Train last year. I love all the vocal adlibs towards the end. Great job, not a lot else to say. Good, solid pop tune.
R. Aaron Webster - Snails: Very cool and unique. This sounds like... what extraterrestrials would head-bang to haha. Cool sounds, cool production techniques, cool snail crying blood... Great job.
Thanks so much for liking my album, nick. I agree that a loose and jangly vibe can very much fit this style and actually add to its effectiveness (See The Rolling Stones). But for me, I actually feel like it just comes out that way because of a strict time budget and my piss-poor musicianship. Either way, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete-Kevin Lee Todd
P.S. The few remaining copies of the Langsdorf Doctrine were unfortunately burned up in the riots that ensued directly after the people of Utomoria found out that their queen had been murdered. Or something like that.