The Bleeding Sun --- The Cartridge Family --- 2015 (Plainview)
Not quite sure why Plainview keeps changing his professional name, but then Yorke does it too, so maybe it's just a thing with artists. Bah. Anyway, this is, I think, the second album under the Cartridge Family title, and I've only heard one track off the other one,
Greed, which I did like, so I'm not sure what to expect. Let's see what we get.
“White lake” opens proceedings with a nice acoustic guitar and what sounds like violin, very sparse and kind of lonely sounding. Definite sense of melancholy about it. Is that a kind of growl or roar, or is something sneaking up on ... no, it's in the music. Slow, jazzy style drums now adding into the mix, bringing with them a rather unsettling vocal chorus, sort of like if a black metal band did drone? Slightly warped, little scary, but it drops out and leaves the guitar and the hollow drumbeat taking things on into the third minute (this runs for five) then a solo piano comes in for the last minute. It's nice, but again with PV the problem I have is that it all seems to be building towards a song that never quite arrives. Not quite the same as YorkeDaddy's
Avulsion, but I just get a vague sense of being cheated at the last. “The divide” is a whole minute longer and has a more uptempo jazzy rhythm with organ and piano, though again no real clear tune is allowed to develop, as, as soon as it seems one is coalescing, he changes it completely. Now we have sharp electric guitar biting in, percussion slowly filtering through, and too often things just fade out to leave almost blank space, then something else comes to take the place of the instrument that was playing, and begin basically a totally new tune. Off-putting, to say the least.
It's all played well; it just frustrates me that just as I'm getting into a rhythm or melody it changes radically and is suddenly something completely different. It's hard to establish a mood, or even decide whether or not you like the track, when it keeps metamorphosing and reinventing itself. Oh, now this is lovely: a really soft and gentle acoustic guitar melody, but sadly I have no doubt that “Heretic” will soon change into something else. Slow, military-style drumming and what sounds like clarinet or flute, very pastoral, but now the dissonance begins. God. Damn. It. Every time. Every god damn time. This hurts my ears! I want to hear music in tune, not out of it. Ah it's gone to hell in a handbasket now. Sounds like he's tuning up his guitar with a flute in his mouth. Sigh. Had such promise but for my money, he's thrown it all away in the cause of being edgy or avant-garde. So close to Green, but there's no chance of that now.
Nice piano with what sounds like someone washing up the dishes after dinner and dropping the cutlery. This is the title track. See, Plainview's music changes so much and crams so many different instruments, textures, melodies and effects into every track it makes it very hard to review. It's almost --- almost – like samples have just been dropped in all over the place. Hard to keep up. I guess you need to be into this sort of thing. There;s some sort of soul piano coming in now, but really, unless something incredible happens I'm just losing interest in this album now. Sorry. Some horns there too but I really can't follow what's happening.
Nice deep church organ to open “Ascended”, then a kind of vibrating (?) guitar line with some staggered synth runs; does give the impression of climbing, perhaps, dizzying heights. Some smoky sax making its way in now. Always time for smoky sax. This is nice. And now some violin. But then of course it all changes and gets into a jazz groove. Sounds like either guitar or fast violin now taking it. I'm gonna give this an Orange, but I don't see any track here making Green sadly. Some sort of crazy feedback now as it heads into the final minute, then some rather nice organ; again, the idea of spiralling upwards is well realised. Violin is back, and that's certainly ascending. Interesting but pointless fact: “Heir”, which is next, is exactly, to the second, the same length as “The divide”. Yeah, I guess I'm that bored. This is driven on a really nice expressive bass line with some horn and again there's a smoky jazz idea running through it.
Well we're at the last track and I'm sorry but I can't say I regret it. Though there have been some lovely musical ideas here they just don't seem to me to have taken shape and when they look like they're about to, they get knocked aside for something totally else. Talk about expect the unexpected! “A life lived” has some nice acoustic guitar and strings synth with actually a really pleasant melody, but again PV has to go warping things and bending my ear. And it ends on a nice organ line.
TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS
White lake
The divide
Heretic
The bleeding sun
Ascended
Heir
A life lived
I think I'll just never get Plainview's music. His idea of changing up things every track just totally frustrates me. I'm sure there's the potential for really nice melodies in there, but he seems to prefer just to mix and match, which is of course his prerogative. But for me, it's another no, and probably should be the last of his albums I'll review. Actually, I've decided: it will be. I don't like running the risk of insulting people I know here, so I'll make a point of confirming this as the last attempt to understand or get into his music, be it Cartridge Family, Deaf Aids or whichever new persona he decides to record under. I wish him good luck, but this is definitely not for me.
Rating:
You can hear the whole thing here:
https://thecartridgefamily1.bandcamp.com/releases