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Joined : August 17, 2008
Software I use to make music
Latest starred albums
Last starred artists
Favorite external artists
Anoushka Shankar, King Crimson, Peter Hammill*, Pink Floyd*, Wishbone Ash*, Santana*
Favorite tags
Alternative rock, fusion, angst, Guitar, Jazz, Rock, Blues
User tags: madcap retro fun pop b52s
I'm not sure what to make of this album, except that it knows where it's going, and it gets there! :-)
From the "We like girls!" cover to the nutty lyrics and the madcap retro music, it's clear that this bunch of loonies want fun. :-)
And fun is good. It earns this album an 8 not just for the "fun", but also for leaving genres in tatters, and for some pretty decent arrangements.
Well done Juanitos!
User tags: jazz pop fusion ccmixter
This is a mind-blowing album, if you let it in.
For the last 9 months it has been my most listened album, played literally hundreds of times, but that didn't come easily. Initially I couldn't cope with the dissonance (caused by my untrained ear) of the jazz vocal intonation on most tracks, but I kept listening because the album has a magic ingredient: Kristin Hersh, who delivers a powerful eclectic hook that refuses to fit into any category other than "must listen". That indeed kept me hooked, until my mental barriers broke down and Calendar Girl asserted her authority.
And what authority it is, asserted not with decibels but with precision and vocal conviction, and ably supported by five other vocalists each on their own tracks. All the vocalists are amazing, and it's hard to favour one more than another -- if Calendar Girl and Kristin Hersh stand out, that is partly track count, because they are all awesome.
Which brings me to what this album is really about. It's not about any of the above. It's about a stunningly amazing mix master called Amanyth. The vocal stems for this music are available at ccmixter.org, and it's only after you listen to them that you realize what an incredible musical production this is, weaving together perfect voices with new orchestration in a way that can only be described as a perfect whole.
I can fault nothing on this album. It reflects total mastery of musical composition and integration of vocal tracks used as instruments. I can't even name a favourite track as they all slot together so well into a complete production.
This is a masterpiece which you will adore if you can fit the odd genre and tones into your mental music shelf.
Wonderful work, Amanyth, just wonderful. :-)
Morgaine.
This was a long post describing how awesome this album and band are. Instead, all that's left is this, because Jamendo's periodic form reset cancelled the contents of the edit box --- a whole year after that bug was reported.
Just unbelievable that Jamendo still hasn't fixed this dreadful site behaviour. I guess web design is complete rocket science, huh?
Very well done TenPenny Joke. Pity that web developer incompetence has lost you a decent review.
User tags: pop nohighlights
I managed to get to the start of track 5 before I couldn't take anymore. I then went straight to track 7 because a reviewer said they liked it, but unfortunately it was more of the same, or worse because of the "wall of sound" guitar effect. Somehow I endured until the end, but no part of it appealed at all, and track 10 ended the misery on a really whiny note. Ouch.
I'm sure that this style of music has its fans, but I'm afraid I'm not one. This album gets classified firmly under "more non-memorable pop" for me, and I could have been more critical.
On top of that, the chord progressions are just boring or indistinct, and the dynamic range is really narrow, both of which contribute to very little of musical interest.
I'm afraid I can't give this album a good score.
User tags: elp kingcrimson epic soundscape
This album is remarkably easy to describe by analogy: King Crimson meets up with ELP in classic Genesis concept-album territory. :-)
Marching confidently down the road created by such classic masters of early progressive rock, Conceptual Experimentations (1998) is quite a masterpiece in that genre, its tracks being epic compositions that give the middle finger to today's 3-minute track rule and media-induced Attention Deficit Disorder. Four of Sébastien Gramond's five tracks range from 13 to over 18 minutes in length, and they fill their lengths with interesting variation, not repetition.
The compositions are pretty amazing (unless you have ADD :P).
Track 1 "Happy To Be" gives the Crimson + ELP sound free reign, and is highly satisfying in that mold. It's an intense soundscape of the kind that Crimson delivered on Deja VROOOM, and evolves a lot while exploring its music territory. Vocals makes an appearance halfway through for a few bars, and descend into "vocal sound effects" for a short while, but don't take a lead.
Track 2 "Neuralgia" explores broader ground, evolving the earlier progressive rock into the jazz fusion area -- this wouldn't sound out of place in a Chick Corea or Weather Report album. It's a very well designed creative piece.
I'm not sure what track 3 "So Easy" is doing on the album. At under 3 minutes long and not having anything in common with the rest of the album, but being some sort of light pop song with poor vocals and nothing interesting in its instrumentation, I'm going to ignore it in my rating, else it would have a very negative effect.
Track 4 "Hither And Thither" gets King Crimson and ELP back in gear, but hitches in some classic Genesis too, back from the days when they wrote intricate concept albums rather than pop songs. Even Yes puts in a presence, although that could be because of the occasional similarity between Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman on keyboards. It gets a fusion jazz feel towards the end from the use of what sounds like a fretless bass as a lead instrument.
Track 5 "Austral Winds" has a different sound using a lead keyboard voice that could be described as "tympanic guitar", but no less classic and highly effective. A strong composition that combines keyboard and rock guitar very effectively, halfway through it hints at Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway before evolving into a tympanic frenzy and then slowing down for a curious Floyd-meets-ELP finish.
In a word: FANTASTIC!
Thank goodness that someone is still producing symphonic compositions in progressive rock, amid the musical desolation of the 3-minute era. Well done Sébastien Gramond.
User tags: evolving minimalist soundscape
Electronic music is so often just a reflection of the latest fad in keyboard voices and virtual instruments that it's a breath of fresh air to find someone treading their own path, and composing a coherent musical piece rather than a jumble of effects. Efiel crafts musical pieces, not just electronic sounds. He's a master craftsman.
Devoid of hammer-drill rolls and 150dBm elephant thumps that some gods of electronica seem to think is percussion, this album can actually be listened to for its music content. And what's more, this music flows and evolves in interesting ways, which also seems to be a lost art in the genre these days.
Well done, efiel, a great album. :-)
The musicians and vocalist simply aren't on the same page in this album.
Which is a pity, because the musicians were trying to do an interesting and fairly original job. Without the "help" of the vocalist, this album could have earned quite a high score.
User tags: trashvocals eartorture hiphopfailed nonsense
I enjoyed this short piece a lot, and would love to hear more. :-)
User tags: flamenco soft slow
User tags: fusion spanishguitar rockguitar moorish thematic storytelling historic rockbuildup onetrackwonder appliestrack1
I was immediately captivated by the Spanish guitar intro in Cortez & Pizarro. Then the powerful rock guitar kicked in and I said to myself "Oh, this is something special, a great fusion". And indeed it was, an unusual and interesting number that exhuded individuality, full of rock buildup and power yet launching proudly off a rich platform of moorish influence. Absolutely wonderful.
So I listened to the rest of the album too, but alas what was promised in the first track did not materialize again, except for a few seconds of gypsy violin. A quiet pop album, going absolutely nowhere. I had been promised far more by track #1, but the promise was empty.
Summary: Excellent starting track, but I'm afraid the rest did nothing for me. Some of the rest rivalled the emptiest pop you can get.
I echo DoozerD's comment: Be bolder. The world doesn't need more light cruising pop, and you won't be remembered for it. Clearly you have the potential to do something more ambitious.
I don't really know how to rate this album, because for me Cortez & Pizarro rates an 8 or 9 easily, while the rest of the tracks barely rate 1-3 from me. I've decided not to let album averaging rule me though, and it's better to be generous anyway, so I'm rating the first track alone and pretending that the rest of the album doesn't exist. If I don't do this then the magnificence of track #1 will be lost.
Well done Slim, great track. Be bolder.
User tags: pop chartvoice greatsinger captivating touching
A surprise find, as I wasn't looking for music in this genre at all. Kristen's voice is captivating, full of interesting little inflections and vocal twists, and the tracks on this album feature many cute passages and sparks of intensity that keep you listening.
And she can really sing --- her voice is uncannily like that of one US multi-platinum chart star whom I won't name in case Kristen doesn't care for the comparison (and I think Kristen is better), but that's US$XX million of value in the Creative Commons right there. :-)
A very nice album, Kristen. It's on my quality works list, and I'll be recommending it to friends who are searching in this genre. My rating of only 8 reflects that this music is barely on the edge of my musical tastes, but I can appreciate music outside of my tastes as well, and frankly Kristen deserves much higher.
A great talent, and a very good album.
PS. After a week of repeat listening, I have now upped my score to 9. Kristen has succeeded in turning a fly-by reviewer into an out-of-usual-genre fan. Her voice is lovely, and so personal. :-)
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