reviews. IMO. Written as I listen. Apologies in advance to people whose songs come further down the stream. My attention span isn't great at the best of times ... oh and I haven't checked for spelling either ...
Abercedarian - nice visual story. Although I might hang back a verse before getting to the meat. The backing vocals are a little overpowering on the lead vocal through the verse. Maybe not too loud - maybe pan them further apart? A few duff ntoes in this case add to the character. A little thin for my tastes, instrument wise but very nicely done? Maybe 30-45 seconds too long, as well.
AWHAM - A few of those 'farrrs' are dragged a little too long. this has got a nice depressing goth lilt to it. Nice production. I like the softness of your voice. This reminds me of poor june in an odd but good way
Boltoph - but the songfight 80s revival was last week! The vocals are a little spongey in the mix. It's a nice bass groove you've got going on, but it could do with a nastier edge to some of the instrumentation. It glides past very pleasantly, and is well done, but nothing is reaching out and grabbing me by the metaphorical testicles.
CCS - Pee Wee Herman got arrested, right? ha. No, I like CCS songs a lot, although I prefer the ones that sound like they are produced by a 20s Flapper. Still, it's Wacky! Wild! Wonderful! Lots of capital Ws. That sort of thing.
Children of God - what a great opening. I'm not sure I can put up with 3 minutes of the duck-caught-in-a-mangler squawking. The guitar part is a bit stale, but well played /produced. If this a horrible slowed down trippy bit as a bridge, I'll be disappointed. Oh, there it is. Disappointed! Write a bridge! Take the duck out of the mangler and let loose- then you'll be tremendous. IMO. And what do I know?
clayne - break out the guitars, man! Or at least a nice little hooky thang counterpointing the great stompy chords. Weirdly, I could hear this a west coast rap song. Only produced in the style of an indie trip-hop thang. Very pleasant. But the lyric isn't grabbing me and with many songs to go, I find my interest wandering unfairly.
David O - so are The 'Over over? Anyway, I am hearing 'Furry Green Atom Bowl' all over this. I think the relaxed vibe of this and your entry last week seem a little studied. If you want to sound like you're stoned in the studio, I reccommend getting stoned. Or changing to a stronger prescription. Anyway, nicely performed and produced, and not your fault the fight was huge enough for this to disappear for me.
DDDog - tap tap tap. Pretty enough tune, and I like your voice, but slightly saddened that the 'God & Shit' receipe for humour is so readily relied upon.
Deshead - I like this actually. Fast Bluesgrass issues not withstanding. Inconsequential but nicely done in an oh-so-crodwed genre
And heroically short.
Edge of LA - This is nice. I would have used that famous 'boooing!' sample right after the 6 million dollar man reference. If you're gonna be cheesy, revel in it! Drums are occasionally sloppy (well in the chorus actually) - not bad at all.
Fluffy - I love the melody coming out of each verse (the 'run faster' line) and I love the little leap on 'explode' and on. That's a Fluffy trademark. Nice swell of the drums at 2.45 ish. Oh this should so have had a key change at about 3.00 minutes. Nice little tune though. Slight trippy radiohead feel about it.
Historyman - why are the vocals are so quiet and panned to the right so hard at the beginning? Is it art? nice piano and kazoo (?) While I welcome your Wreckdom meets 'New York Telephone Conversation' Lou Reed influence, I think this song (or collection of song-vignettes) doesn't support the song length. No - more than one too many changes. Each section (or most of them) are pretty damn good, but music is as much the notes you leave out as the one's you leave in (he said, aware that this sounds incredibly patronising. So, sue me). the lyric's pretty cute.
Honest Abe & his Emancipators - basswank fills me with fear, I am afraid, more so than fretwank. Sort of thing you might expect to hear on the 'Flashback' soundtrack (dennis hopper and kiefer sutherland. If you don't know the one I mean, consider yourself lucky.) Good mix, nice blend of voices, drum sound is good but a little too clean. yeah, with a bit more dirt in the production this could be a really good 70s SF type rock song but as it stands it sounds like a pastiche because it's a bit too clean. More mud on the edges!
Jack Shite - The acoustic is too quiet. Is the lyric about one cousin running away from the other, because that's what the music suggests
Cute! But i would turn the acoustic up.
Jim Varney All Stars - I liked this very much up until the Star Trek Convention reference, and the guitar solo, which shouldn't be sped up. So short as it is it could have been 15 seconds shorter. Or eight minutes longer, of course.
j$ - Andy Balham played the part of my guilty conscience at this performance. After a year I finally managed to record a duet, of sorts. Similarities to the theme tune of 'Steptoe and Son' are deliberate.
Kapitano - I like this, it's like a slowed down Associates. Or maybe an early Ultravox. eat my references, American readers! Your vocal is a bit quiet. I like oscillator-type thingies that go wibble, so i'm quids-in here!
LLL - This has a recorded in the rehearsal room feel to it. Not bad. I am sorry, I am seriously running out of reviewing energy at this point.
Lonbobby Experiments with Autotone -
and Johnny Cashpoint experiments with the volume knob ... couldn't resist that, sorry. Actually I don't think of this as very experimental, except in a 'Let's Feed Cher Ketamine' way, but I like it. It's a really pretty melody you've got there.
Poor June - The piano tone is nice at the beginning.
Roymond feat. Abom - the line between art as music and music as art is wider than I thought, obviously
Ah no this is pretty enough and well-done but it needs more bass in the mix. To root it down.
W - Boring.
No truly bad songs, but not that many that really crept up and figuratively slit my throat with a razorblade either.
I liked
Abercedarian, but does he mean it, maaannn?
I liked
Jack Shite because it made me smile but it's too much of a pastiche to win my vote. I
know he doesn't mean it, maaannn.
I actually liked
Historyman very very much if only it had been a little more reined in. I might still vote for that, or
Lonbobby for the melody and the edginess of the voice set against the music.
j$