Re: Released my instrumental EP today
Hey AJ! I wrote a song-by-song review the first time I listened to it, maybe a month ago.
It's an opinion review, not a critical review, so there's not much useful "information" in there, just my impressions as I listened for the first time, stream-of-consciousness.
I've listened to it several times since then, it's good for zoning out and working with headphones on.
Oddly enough, I just listened to it yesterday, and then I see this. Odd that it was released yesterday and I happened to listen to it yesterday - the universe, man.
Without further adieu, here is a woefully unedited email I wrote myself about this album a few weeks ago:
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A Hero's Rampage: like the groove, very relaxing. Perplexes the name "A Hero's Rampage," because for me, it painted the opposite picture (suggested rename: A Bro's Chillage). I like the fretless bass, and even though the identifiability falls on the sliding "gee whiz, that thar's a fretless!" passages, the bass work in the buildup to climax was extraordinary, lots of good step-up-to-drops, which is totally a real phrase. Guitar work reminded me of Glen Kuykendall's "The Clipper," which is a good thing. Obviously, on 'ludes. Drums didn't stand out on this one to me. My favorite track of the album.
Moment of Truth: Really nice guitar tone. The mood of the bass and atmospherics and guitar make me think of someone having a guilty romantic encounter in a white-blue and dimly lit apartment. That wasn't on my mind before at all (honest, honey. and stop reading these reviews!), so if that's the picture you were painting, great job. Yeah, I realize all of the above is akin to saying "this glass of wine has a nod of hickory with a flip of winter sunlight and just a skirch of non-GMO pomegranate, but not the kind you can buy at the grocery store," but it's what I saw. And music like this is purpose built for painting pictures without words, isn't it? Isn't that the game? It felt sorrowful, and distinctly guilty. I would have liked to hear a full band stop and the drummer open up at the climax and let loose a JAT-JIGGA-DOO JAT-JIGGA-DOO KA-BLOOOOOWWWWWM to punctuate the build-up constructed by the addition of layers, instead of a weird stop-then-launch into a denouement that sounds disjointed with the song and like it was recorded on a different day. It sounds like a different song and killed my boner. The outro itself isn't bad, it's just out of place with the song. Production on this album is very tight and dry, especially for a post-rock album. Even though I didn't care for the outro, I would have liked to have heard the mixing and mastering of the drums breathe and get a lot looser to drive the cathartic energy imparted by the songwriting.
Strange Byrd: I really bought in when the crunch (fuzz?) guitar tones came in. Good sounds from a guitar, nice chord turn at the end of the fuzzy passage, I really got into that. It's always nice to get a style point on your dismount. This song didn't grab me as much as any of the others.
Perpetual: I'm reminded of Paul Masvidal's clean Stratty tones on his Cynic album "Traced In Air," which, when mentioned, usually results in either a tomato being thrown at me, or someone offering me their daughter's hand. Drums sounded a lot more open on this track, which was nice. Nice intersection where the clean guitar and dirty guitar and robots all come together. Slick cool-down to a gentle finish.
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