On Thu, 15 Jun 2000 15:44:48 -0500, James R McPherson wrote:
re: "Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be"
quoted 3 lines I haven't heard much about this one - how is it? Sound anything like
>I haven't heard much about this one - how is it? Sound anything like
>Accelera Deck/Chessie/other guitar-sampler bands? I heard that was the
>direction this album was taking ...
I don't know anything about Chessie, but Tundra's recent efforts are
totally unlike Accelera Deck as far as I've heard. The first track
"Cakes" has some guitar, it also has strong flute, piano, horn,
keyboard(?) and string samples. It's really an anthem, to my ears.
It has everything and the kitchen sink Complex and simple, makes me
want to wake up and conquer the world.
Track 2 (Lamplite On A One Horse Shoe) is a lot simpler at first
glance. It's built around a repeating little melody that gets
twisted and accompanied and played with. Well done.
Track 3 (Ah, There's Deek Now - Let's Ask Him) uses flat-out rhythmic
guitar struming with wind-instrument samples over it (sounds like
some sort of wood flutes to me). You start out thinking it isn't
going to go anywhere, but then he makes it move. And it's not too
long.
Track 4 (Lausanne) uses some steel drum samples (sounds like it to me
anyway) and kind of meanders around with a simple rhythm. It's nice,
but a bit boring.
Track 5 (Tuli, A Plain Ride From Canvas) is someone (maybe him)
playing a nice song on a piano, and then it was filtered a bunch. Or
maybe it was just recorded with low-quality equipment and nothing was
done to it. Nothing except for a couple of moments where he
interjects a couple of bits of noise. I love this track, easily my
second favorite on the album next to Cakes, and so completely
different from Cakes. It sounds like a really old recording of piano
and makes me think of great dead people and what they might have
done. Something like that.
Track 6 (Bill Sholem Quintette) reminds me a lot of tortoise. Lovely
tune, though. Can't think what else to say.
Track 7 (Ink Me) is nice commuting music. Sounds like travel with
friends. Low lo-fi drums with extensively filtered piano and some
synth noises and strumming. I think. Anyway, maybe my 3rd or 4th
favorite on the album.
Track 8 (The Balaton) is a rapid tune that sort of floats around like
clouds on speed. I like the percussion -- not to complex, gets the
job done, fits the melody perfectly.
Track 9 (Subsi Kuku) - I can't really describe this. It's nice, not
too bad, but a little too close to boring for my tastes. Just kind
of plays around with the same four or five notes and varies the
percussion and effects. Then a bunch of stuff gets added that makes
it much more interesting, but by then it's lost my attention.
Track 10 (6161) starts out as a basic track constructed of some
guitar strumming. Then he adds harpsichord, and then synths that
sort of rush on into a slow chaos. I don't usually like this sort of
thing but in this case I think he succeeded. Not too long, either.
Track 11 (Carbon Cones) was a bad choice to end the album with, at
least for me. It's nice, but it doesn't feel well-developed to me.
Like if he spent some more time on it he could have made it more
concise and ultimately much better. I mean, it's over twelve minutes
long. The rest of the tracks are all under 5:10; half of them are
under 3:30. I love the CD, but this last track just meanders off
into nothingness and sort of ruins the experience for me. I
generally skip it and 6161 give me a better "last impression" to end
the flow with.
I hope that's not too bad at a shabby attempt at a half-review.
Overall, I think Max is beyond "experimenting" and has produced an
excellent finished product that everyone should at least hear once.
At least for "Cakes" and "Tuli"!
Oh, and the "Cakes" single has two B-Sides. One is noise to me, but
the other is very nice. So it's not bad for just sampling the best
track on the album...
-adam
--
Adam Piontek [
http://www.tcinternet.net/users/damek/]
ICQ: 3456339 [damek@earthling.net]
... Remember, even if you win the rat race you're still a rat.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org
For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org