The Monthly Music Trading Post

NumberNineDream · 04-02-2010, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bulldog

Only just noticed you got sent that. First of all, kudos to Rickenbacker and secondly, I agree - fabulous album. Very good stuff all-round, particularly Sons Of and If You Go Away, but for m it lacks a little bit of what the followup Scott 4 as far as seamlessly awesome baroque pop goes (which is definitely the next Walker album you should look for.

I think I will.
Thank yous.

Bulldog · 04-05-2010, 04:27 PM

Right, let's get this thing moving again eh. Next trade's gonna start this weekend - who's in?

From what I've got so far, it's gonna be me, Mr. Unchained Ballad and NumeroNuevoDream. If either of you are having second thoughts, feel free to let me know

And before I forget, this one's from Anteater...

Jade Warrior - Last Autumn's Dream

I'd be lying if I said I listened to prog at all regularly. In fact, the closest thing I have to a prog album that I've listened to more than a handful of times is 10cc's Original Soundtrack. Nothing against the genre as a whole - it's just neither something I know a lot about nor something you'll catch me going out of my way to listen to. There are, after all, a few such albums I kinda like. The point is that in listening to this album that Anteater was kind enough to send my way, I was seeing it from the whole outside-looking-in perspective. Overall, I thought it was definitely worth the download, but not quite something I found consistently enjoyable.

Before I get into all that though, I'd best tell you exactly what kind of album folder I found staring me in the face upon downloading. 'Eclectic prog' was the tag the MP3s came with, and I suppose it's an appropriate one. As I said, I'm no expert here by any stretch of the imagination, but I can certainly say that there isn't one unifying sound to this album - much more a juxtaposition of slower folk, psychedelic and hard-rock to these ears, all the while united by the lead singer's fairly distinct, smooth vocal style. It seems to me like something that'll take more than the one listen to truly digest, wich is (partly) why it took me this long to get a review down.

As for what I thought of it, coming to it as someone who has virtually no prog to call his own, it was always gonna be a fairly difficult listen. That said, the only real weak point for me was Snake - the heaviest part of the album by quite a stretch, and just sounded a little cheesy to these ears. As far as the more up-tempo moments go, I liked the Demon Trucker a lot, even if it sounds like the band wrote it as a bit of a throwaway number; a moment of light relief. The slower, more folk and psychedelia-tinged parts of the album were what made it a winner for me though - the picturesque and finely textured Winter's Tale and Lady Of the Lake in particular. The absolute peak moment of the album for me comes three songs in, that being the monolithic, slow-rolling instrumental Dark River, set nicely against an interesting, almost polyrhythmic backdrop.

Of all the prog I've heard then, I can say that this is one of the ones that's made the best impession on me as a unit of work. One or two parts of it weren't really to my tastes, but there are a few terrific tracks on this album that I'd recommend to anyone. So, yeah, cheers for this one Mr. Anteater sir

I imagine this one'll get that little bit sweeter from repeated listens too. Sorry it's taken me so long to say this as well.

Arya Stark · 03-29-2010, 01:22 PM

Dear Anteater,
I downloaded your album, listened to it, reviewed it in one of my threads, and had no idea who the hell gave me the album.
I was reading, and all of a sudden I realized that it was you who gave me the album.
So here it is.

Page - http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...nknown-10.html

Bulldog · 04-01-2010, 04:05 PM

Yeah, I think I'll leave the next trade 'til sometime next week. Can't really be bothered drumming up any interest in it now, so I may as well wait 'til later.

I've listened to both my albums, so here's one of them (courtesy of AwwSugar)...

Imogen Heao - Speak For Yourself

Imogen Heap's an artist I've only discovered fairly recently, as in within the last few months or something. The first I ever heard of her was in Gavin B's rather vast journal. The second time I came across her was on this fairly immense 10-track 4ad compilation - this song here to be precise. Anyway, I loved that song (it remains my favourite of her's to this day), so it was then I started thinking about having a look for an album or two. Which one that was to be would take some thinking about, or enough so that it all took a place on the back burner for a while.

That's until I was offered this album as per the trade. I was actually really looking forward to hearing it then (kinda makes me wonder why it took this long to review it), so I went into this expecting something pretty cool. I'll tell you what I came out with just after a word or two about Heap's sound for those not in the loop. I guess you could stick a lazy indie/alternative pop label on her, but it doesn't really do this music justice. Overall, from what I've heard, Imogen Heap incorporates a mix of repetitive electronic beats, mazy studio treatments, pop melodies, acoustic polyrhythms and...well, it'd be better if you just looked up a video or two on youtube. Hopefully that gives you some idea what to expect of her then. She's clearly a very intelligent and fairly forward-thinking songwriter. Her accent's hot as too.

Anyway, this album. It does leave me wanting to hear more of her work, and I'm very grateful to Sugar for giving me the push I needed to listen to her back-catalogue. There are some very impressive and memorable songs to be heard here (the opening salvo of Headlock and Goodnight & Go in particular), and the production methods certainly do render a very clean sound perfectly suited to this kind of music. In some areas the album does sound a little hackneyed to me - Just For Now's a bit too syrupy for my liking, and I Am In Love With You coems across as a bit of a dud to me.

An impressive enough album though, so thanks a bundle Sugar. If you can recommend anywhere to go next with her discography, be my guest as I'd love to listen to more of this lady's stuff.

Anyway, cheers

Second review coming soon.

Arya Stark · 04-01-2010, 06:04 PM

^ I'm glad you liked it. ;D
I'll see what I like most, and definitely recommend it to you next time.

abdullah424 · 04-05-2010, 10:18 PM

I'm in for the next one even though NumberNine never sent me an album for this trade

NumberNineDream · 04-06-2010, 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abdullah424

I'm in for the next one even though NumberNine never sent me an album for this trade

I sent it 3 weeks ago, I now realise it wasn't sent :/
I was wondering why you didn't reply to my Vato Negro question.

Bummer... I'll send you another PM later today.

Edit ... and sent.
Edit2 I realised that in some twisted way I had sent it to myself xD. Excuse my stupid behaviour.

Bulldog · 04-06-2010, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abdullah424

I'm in for the next one

Good stuff

So, traders thus far...

Abdullah424
Anteater
Bulldog
Duga
GotJuice
LoathsomePete
NumberNineDream
Unchained Ballad

Four's not bad, but more people on board would be pretty cool.

duga · 04-06-2010, 02:25 PM

Meh, ok, you convinced me. I still have to review the last album I was sent...I'll try to do it today hopefully.

Bulldog · 04-06-2010, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duga

Meh, ok, you convinced me. I still have to review the last album I was sent...I'll try to do it today hopefully.

List updated

And, yeah, I think hell froze over a couple of times before I got my reviews for the last trade done. So long as we all actually get back to this thread about the albums we get (which we all do anyway) all's well.

Anyway, that's 5 traders next week then. Surely more people wanna have a go at this than that?

04-06-2010, 02:25 PM	#9 (permalink)
duga MB quadrant's JM Vincent Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 3,762	Meh, ok, you convinced me. I still have to review the last album I was sent...I'll try to do it today hopefully. __________________ Confusion will be my epitaph...

04-05-2010, 04:27 PM	#2 (permalink)
Bulldog why bother? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: UK Posts: 4,840	Right, let's get this thing moving again eh. Next trade's gonna start this weekend - who's in? From what I've got so far, it's gonna be me, Mr. Unchained Ballad and NumeroNuevoDream. If either of you are having second thoughts, feel free to let me know And before I forget, this one's from Anteater... Jade Warrior - Last Autumn's Dream I'd be lying if I said I listened to prog at all regularly. In fact, the closest thing I have to a prog album that I've listened to more than a handful of times is 10cc's Original Soundtrack. Nothing against the genre as a whole - it's just neither something I know a lot about nor something you'll catch me going out of my way to listen to. There are, after all, a few such albums I kinda like. The point is that in listening to this album that Anteater was kind enough to send my way, I was seeing it from the whole outside-looking-in perspective. Overall, I thought it was definitely worth the download, but not quite something I found consistently enjoyable. Before I get into all that though, I'd best tell you exactly what kind of album folder I found staring me in the face upon downloading. 'Eclectic prog' was the tag the MP3s came with, and I suppose it's an appropriate one. As I said, I'm no expert here by any stretch of the imagination, but I can certainly say that there isn't one unifying sound to this album - much more a juxtaposition of slower folk, psychedelic and hard-rock to these ears, all the while united by the lead singer's fairly distinct, smooth vocal style. It seems to me like something that'll take more than the one listen to truly digest, wich is (partly) why it took me this long to get a review down. As for what I thought of it, coming to it as someone who has virtually no prog to call his own, it was always gonna be a fairly difficult listen. That said, the only real weak point for me was Snake - the heaviest part of the album by quite a stretch, and just sounded a little cheesy to these ears. As far as the more up-tempo moments go, I liked the Demon Trucker a lot, even if it sounds like the band wrote it as a bit of a throwaway number; a moment of light relief. The slower, more folk and psychedelia-tinged parts of the album were what made it a winner for me though - the picturesque and finely textured Winter's Tale and Lady Of the Lake in particular. The absolute peak moment of the album for me comes three songs in, that being the monolithic, slow-rolling instrumental Dark River, set nicely against an interesting, almost polyrhythmic backdrop. Of all the prog I've heard then, I can say that this is one of the ones that's made the best impession on me as a unit of work. One or two parts of it weren't really to my tastes, but there are a few terrific tracks on this album that I'd recommend to anyone. So, yeah, cheers for this one Mr. Anteater sir I imagine this one'll get that little bit sweeter from repeated listens too. Sorry it's taken me so long to say this as well.

04-01-2010, 04:05 PM	#4 (permalink)
Bulldog why bother? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: UK Posts: 4,840	Yeah, I think I'll leave the next trade 'til sometime next week. Can't really be bothered drumming up any interest in it now, so I may as well wait 'til later. I've listened to both my albums, so here's one of them (courtesy of AwwSugar)... Imogen Heao - Speak For Yourself Imogen Heap's an artist I've only discovered fairly recently, as in within the last few months or something. The first I ever heard of her was in Gavin B's rather vast journal. The second time I came across her was on this fairly immense 10-track 4ad compilation - this song here to be precise. Anyway, I loved that song (it remains my favourite of her's to this day), so it was then I started thinking about having a look for an album or two. Which one that was to be would take some thinking about, or enough so that it all took a place on the back burner for a while. That's until I was offered this album as per the trade. I was actually really looking forward to hearing it then (kinda makes me wonder why it took this long to review it), so I went into this expecting something pretty cool. I'll tell you what I came out with just after a word or two about Heap's sound for those not in the loop. I guess you could stick a lazy indie/alternative pop label on her, but it doesn't really do this music justice. Overall, from what I've heard, Imogen Heap incorporates a mix of repetitive electronic beats, mazy studio treatments, pop melodies, acoustic polyrhythms and...well, it'd be better if you just looked up a video or two on youtube. Hopefully that gives you some idea what to expect of her then. She's clearly a very intelligent and fairly forward-thinking songwriter. Her accent's hot as too. Anyway, this album. It does leave me wanting to hear more of her work, and I'm very grateful to Sugar for giving me the push I needed to listen to her back-catalogue. There are some very impressive and memorable songs to be heard here (the opening salvo of Headlock and Goodnight & Go in particular), and the production methods certainly do render a very clean sound perfectly suited to this kind of music. In some areas the album does sound a little hackneyed to me - Just For Now's a bit too syrupy for my liking, and I Am In Love With You coems across as a bit of a dud to me. An impressive enough album though, so thanks a bundle Sugar. If you can recommend anywhere to go next with her discography, be my guest as I'd love to listen to more of this lady's stuff. Anyway, cheers Second review coming soon.

04-05-2010, 10:18 PM	#6 (permalink)
abdullah424 Music Addict Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Chicago Posts: 351	I'm in for the next one even though NumberNine never sent me an album for this trade