officernarc

it's not bad, but it seems kind of pointless on its own. the melody isn't bad, in fact, it's kind of interesting. but it's a little repetitious. if it's intended to be a whole song, then in my opinion, it fails in that regard, though it works as an interlude into an actual song. if you did want to use this as a track, it could work well if maybe you had some kind of weird spoken word and maybe some epic sounding string arrangements going on in the background or something. but i'm kind of rambling right now.

i know you're trying, son, and i gotta give it to you. this is a lot better than the last few things i heard from you, but it's still not all there. keep working at it though and you'll be putting out epics soon enough.

what is the sound of floating in space? does it sound like joy submerged in fluid? is it a dolphin doing backflips in mud? do i even know what i'm talking about anymore? probably not, but it begs the question how we determine association in music. are certain sounds universal? if so, is "divan" the sound of hope?

the aforementioned track opens like a sunrise slowly pulling over the horizon with electronic tones. "divan" elegantly lurches forward, articulating itself with minor brush strokes over the course of 8 and a half minutes, slowly changing shape, reflecting a fully contextualized metaphor for life itself - birth, growth, and finally death.

"'tzal", however, seems somewhat less fully realized, despite the two extra minutes, shifting between soundscaping, minimalism, jazz piano, & vocal samples. the concepts involved in the track, however, can't be faulted. there is a definite melodicism & orchestration to the track which is absent from many strictly ambient works. however, it seems to lack the concise shaping & construction of the previous track, giving it a somewhat uneven feel in comparison.

in short, there are some quite interesting ideas & themes running through "phogz" which will unfold themselves to you, should you allow them to.

do you remember when sub-pop was a label worth listening to? probably not because that was a good 16 years ago, and though they've had some recent critical and commercial successes with artists like no age & the postal service, they have yet to cause the same reverberations through the musical underground as they did before the turn of the century. and although the music wasn't perfect, there was something special about it.

oxy's "mr. ham" hearkens back to those days of yore with the same exuberant dirge that made soundgarden great. though it isn't necessarily the most original recording, what's here is well done and a near-perfect distillation of the seattle sound. the only way they could be more grunge is if they had a 300 pound butcher playing guitar for them.

definitely recommended if you find yourself listening to tar & screaming trees, wondering what the fuck happened to music.

a strange, yet compelling piece of sound construction.

i keep coming back to this album, despite not really enjoying all the songs. sure, it has all the traits of an album that you would be right in assuming i would love. replete with melvins sludge and helmet-esque stop-start riffs, there is no denying that there are certain aspects of this one which appeal to yours truly. truthfully though, the only song that really sticks with me is the first track, reeking thoroughly of the melvins' "boris". dare i say, i love it, despite how derivative it is. for that reason alone, i downloaded it and rated it 6. one song can only take an album so far.

so yes, if you lived through the early 90s at all, you may get the feeling that this is all a little too familiar, though it's worth a listen if you miss the heyday of king buzzo & page hamilton.