The Pendulum

The worst thing about the clock is that the pendulum keeps swinging from one side to the other. Sure when it is on one side you can always look forward to the fact that it will swing back to the other in time, but it will always return some time as well.

These Album Review Things

So chances are you have noticed these Album Reviews I’ve been doing. Perhaps some of the maybe 2 of you who read this blog are wondering what the deal is. So I shall quickly explain.

I was looking through my music library recently and realized that I have a lot of music that, for whatever reason, I just hadn’t listened to in a long time. Because of this I decided I would listen through all of the albums on my computer in alphabetical order. I mean really listen to them, loudly to hear everything and without distracting myself from focusing on the music. After making that decision I thought I should rate them. As you can see I have chosen to write reviews. It is a time consuming project but so far I have been enjoying it.

I have a few rules to govern what I should or shouldn’t review of course. First one being I will only review Albums that were released to the public. This is because I have some things with album names on my computer that are not actually albums.

I also decided that compilations are probably not a great idea either. Particularly movie soundtracks and such because they tend not to be a single artist’s work, and as such must be rated on an entirely different scale. Now some will say “what about greatest hits albums? Those are compilations aren’t they?” Well yes I suppose they are. And I also feel there is an inherent flaw in greatest hits albums. I haven’t reached one of those in my library yet however, and have not decided if I will actually review them. So far I am leaning towards listening and not reviewing.

Before I explain the last rule here is a definition of some of the abbreviations coming up:

EP= Extended Play
LP= Long Playing record

An EP contains a few songs (usually around 3-5 songs), and an LP is a full album. The terms are from the days of vinyl records. In the 1980's, promotional vinyl EPs were often sent to clubs and radio stations to give an overview of an artist's music, and live EPs of top-selling artists were sometimes sent to radio stations to promote the artist on tour and extend the life of an album. The popularity of the promotional EP caused labels to start manufacturing them for the general public, often in colored vinyl and with previously unseen photos used as cover art.

As for the difference between an EP and a single, CD singles have blurred the meanings a bit, but originally a single contained 2 songs: one on the "A-side", and one on the "B-side." (During the days of vinyl singles, occasionally an extra song would be included, though not often.) CD technology allowed more minutes of music than previous music formats, so labels took advantage of it and added "bonus tracks" to some CD singles. Technically speaking, a CD single with bonus tracks is actually an EP...but labels found that calling it a "single with bonus tracks" made it more appealing to consumers.

Right so, the third rule spawned after doing that Mogwai EP review. I decided that EPs and singles are sort of in their own realm. Like, usually the reason they exist is because a few tracks were super popular and there was some extra stuff they didn’t get to fit on the LP but still wanted to get out.

This last one does run into a small probably for some of my stuff though. For example there is a rare single, (a-side and b-side) that is a collaboration and neither track exists anywhere else. So should I review that? There seems to be an extent to which I might have to do singles and EPs on a case by case basis...

Anyway, this post ended up much longer then I had envisioned, but now everyone is clear I hope.

P.S. My whole blog is not dedicated to this project, I do still plan to write just normal entries, but they have been few and far between lately anyway so now you still have some stuff to look at during the slow times.

ALBUM REVIEW: Aion - Dead Can Dance

Album: Aion
Artist: Dead Can Dance
Year: 1990
Genre : World Fusion / Medieval

Favorite Track: Saltarello

This album is definitely not for everyone, but damn it is good. It opens up with a track devoid of anything but a deep drum beats and layers of chanting voices. The following track ‘Saltarello’ is an instrumental number adapted from an Italian dance of the 14th century. It is an amazingly enchanting piece.

‘The Song of Sibyl’ is another adapted track, this time from 16th century Catalonia. Lisa Gerrard’s vocals in this track really set the mood and continue to showcase her wonderful affinity for this style of music. When listening to songs like ‘As the Bell Rings the Maypole Spins’ it is no surprise she was commissioned to compose music and lend her voice to the soundtrack of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000).

Unfortunately Brendan Perry’s vocals are just not up to par with Gerrard’s. Given this, it is actually surprising to find that the soft plucking strings above the deep organ notes of ‘Fortune Presents Gifts Not According To The Book’ are complimented by his voice. This is not so much the case in ‘Black Sun’ however, which is probably the album’s weakest point.

Overall Aion is one of Dead Can Dance’s best albums, and perhaps even my personal favorite. Like I said at the start, this album is definitely not for everyone, but if you haven’t heard anything by the group before I would highly suggest this album.

Rating: 4.5 of 5

ALBUM REVIEW: A Strangely Isolated Place - Ulrich Schnauss

Album: A Strangely Isolated Place
Artist: Ulrich Schnauss
Year: 2003
Genre : Electronic / Indie Electronic

Favorite Track: Blumenthal

A Strangely Isolated Place does not seem like the most inviting location one could think of. However, if being there is anything like this album, I would love to visit. The opening track starts you off with oddly peaceful, no real beat for a while, just some soft sounds including some relaxing waves, but soon builds into what the meat of this album will give you. Deep bass lines, strong beats, and surprisingly relaxing melodies. I say surprising because the tempo of most of the tracks is fairly high, generally between 160-200 BPM.

The sixth track, Blumenthal, seems to be have the hardest fit into the album. It seems to be one of the slowest, and perhaps the most “simple” in its sound. Despite this, I find it to be the highest point of the album, it is one of the most relaxing songs I have ever heard.

The songs ‘A Letter From Home’ and ‘Clear Day’ probably give off some of the albums strongest happiness vibes. Although the whole album seems to be meant for evoking good feelings. Quite frankly, I like feeling good.

Rating: 4.5 of 5

ALBUM REVIEW: 4 Satin - Mogwai

Album: 4 Satin [Jet Set Records Release]
Artist: Mogwai
Year: 1997
Genre : Post-Rock

Favorite Track: Superheroes Of BMX

In 1997 this EP was released by two companies, Jet Set Records and Chemikal Underground. The major difference between the two releases is an opening track that isn’t included on the Jet Set release. However, I listened to the Jet Set version and ‘Superheroes Of BMX’ is a wonderful opening track. It has a hypnotic feel with just enough play on the melodic themes to stay interesting for the full 8 minutes. The second track ‘Now You're Taken’ continues with the slow sounds of the first, but maintains an incredibly mellow throughout. Unfortunately the third track, clocking in at thirteen and a half minutes, devolves into what I can only describe as noise at about the 4 minute mark. This whole EP is just under a half hour in length and this noise is almost an entire third of that. For something that started out with such promise I am left disappointed.

Rating: 3 of 5

ALBUM REVIEW: 100th Window - Massive Attack

Album: 100th Window
Artist: Massive Attack
Year: 2003
Genre : Electronic / Trip-Hop

Favorite Track: What Your Soul Sings

Its hard to say bad things about this album because, simply put, it isn’t bad. The only problem it seems to suffer from is the fact that Mezzanine was better. When I listen to this album I become entranced by the lovely bass rhythms and unintrusive vocals. I like the sound of almost all the songs, but it is almost too similar to their earlier album. It sort of reminds me of the band Weezer, not their sound at all but in the quality of the music. As if they found a sound, a good one at that, but used all their good songs making the first album with it. The future releases then existing as something that you hear and want to like, perhaps even do like, but in the back of your mind you know “this sounds like a less good version of their last album.” What Your Soul Sings, along with the opening track are some of the strongest on the album. Perhaps this is part of what gives off an overall feeling of “good, but not great.”

Rating: 3.5 of 5