Forum Member Album Reviews

Trollheart · 06-23-2015, 06:26 AM

Time to get off my arse and give some more of your music a listen. I've a few still backed up, but I was asked specifically yesterday to look at this, and so I will. Xurtio is a member who doesn't seem to post that often (although he could be posting in threads or subforum I don't visit) so unless you're a prog head you may not know him, but he's been here for a while. He has a band called Luop Garou --- I think he mentioned once what it meant but I've forgotten --- and on their Soundcloud page they describe themselves thus:

“An amalgam of genre bending tonality and psychedelic fusion”.

Should I be worried? Who knows, but I'm going in anyway. They have a lot of music on their page, but I'm told the first four have been released as a mini-album, so I'll check those out and see how we go. Unfortunately I don't know if there's a title so I'll just assume it's self-titled; if I'm wrong Xurtio can correct me.

Luop Garou --- Luop Garou --- 2015

“Pull” is the first track, and after some odd little sounds it settles into a sort of slow blues groove, the singer reminding me of a cross between Cave and Reed, with a little Cohen thrown in. There are female vocals there too, which sort of lighten the tone. The music is a kind of spiralling, almost waltzy melody, slow and dreamy, with a really nice sort of vocalise part in the middle --- it may be synth, theremin, god knows what, even guitar effects: I'm no musician, but it's good. Impressed so far. It's a short little track, shy of three minutes and ends with a sort of creaky sound that reminds me of Floyd's “Your possible pasts”. Next up is a more guitar oriented tune, pulling (sorry) in those same effects as “Fed a spider” keeps the tempo slow and laidback, definitely more of the Cave influences here I feel.

Nice kind of bouncy, echoey drumwork with what I guess is a guitar pedal effect which sounds a little like slide guitar. Could be synth of course. Slow, descending end and we're into the third track, which they have labelled as “psychedelic punk”, making me flinch a little, but the charmingly-titled “Pile of guts” is not that far removed from the other two tracks, though it is a lot faster and rockier. Guitar a lot more to the fore here and not distorted (if it was on the previous song), but I must sound a note of caution here: the singer's voice suited the last two tracks but here it's just too laconic and I think someone with a bit more fire might be needed. I don't know if Luop Garou have any other singers, but the lady who was providing the backing vox to the first track might be a possibility?

Very decent guitar solo which puts me more in mind of a progressive rock tune than anything to do with punk really, and a sweet little bassline near the end, taking us into “Cats n' dogs”, the final track. This opens with feedback guitar and organ, very Waits in feel, that carnival idea he uses so well, sort of spooky in its way. The vocal here is initially more moaned than sung, and I hear someone doing a passable impression of a cat, which is cool, though why they couldn't have employed a proper cat I don't know: doing an animal out of a gig, honestly!

The vocal is now going properly and again this song suits the vocalist, with its dark atmosphere and laconic feel. I hear tinges of Bowie here also.Nice guitar solo, not overdone or overblown, but very competent and fits in well with the rest of the music.

TRACKLISTING

1. Pull
2. Fed a spider
3. Pile of guts
4. Cats n' dogs

Hard to categorise this band, but overall I feel a sense of blues a la Cave, maybe the odd flash of Velvets as well. And certainly some nods to Waits. All in all, very enjoyable and I wouldn't be averse to listening to more, though as I say there is that one song that just seems not to sit very well with the singer. Just a thought, but maybe someone else might try singing that one? Other than that, impressed and a very good job overall.

You can catch the album, and the rest of Luop Garou's music, here
https://soundcloud.com/luop-garou

Trollheart · 06-23-2015, 06:28 AM

Some people are so pushy! “Review this, or I'll turn you into a toad,” he said. Or possibly the threat was more physical and to do with visits to the dentist. Anyway, the upshot was that I have been threatened and as always, I respond to threats of violence with my customary cowardice and fold like an umbrella. So here we go.

Underworld --- The Peaks of Thok --- 2015 (Bandcamp release)

This appears to be the name under which Mondo Bungle releases his music, and that in itself is getting high praise around these here parts, making it all the more important to review it here before Ki goes and steals the idea I stole from Pet Sounds... well, we could stay here for hours and argue over 'oo stole what from 'oo, but the main thing is, I had the idea first, even if Pet Sounds wrote it down and posted it first. Additional: shut up, Batty.

At any rate, we open on “Dream quest 5” (what happened to Dream Quests 1-4? Ask Mondo) which is a long enough track, eleven minutes and change, and opens with a dark, atmospheric sound of wind perhaps, low and growling with little really happening until after the second minute, but you can kind of sense something building. Some sort of echoey effects then, with what sounds like a howl and a sort of falling siren which puts me in mind somewhat of whale song, and we're now five minutes in. I guess this is what's called minimalist ambient? No real tune, no melody just effects. I keep turning it up because I can hear nothing for minutes at a time, then suddenly something screams or roars through. Bit unsettling.

Okay, in the sixth minute there is absolutely nothing. Silence. I know, because I turned up the volume and all I got was that high-pitched static-y screech you get when there's no music or sound to be transmitted. This goes on (as it were) to the seventh minute, before some sort of high-pitched effect comes in, then what may actually be a synth in the eighth, rising slowly like a banshee over a lake, then descending and falling away and though there's more than a minute left I feel it's going to end in more or less silence now. And it does. The second track is the title, another eleven-minute composition --- actually twelve --- and I don't mean to be nasty but I hope this one has more music in it as it's really hard to review ambient sounds. Well I hear a low synth but it's basically holding the same chord sort of like I remember Solar Fields annoying me by doing. Mind you, I grew to like that. There does seem to be slightly more of a melody here, but again it's very sparse and everything is really drawn out very long indeed. Sort of puts me in mind at times of Peter Gabriel's Ovo.

It's now into the eighth minute and I still can't really find anything to latch on to, anything to write about. It's sort of like the equivalent of floating weightless and helpless in space, wondering if your feet will ever touch the ground again. The next three tracks are all part of the one, labelled “Swarm of ghosts”, and all quite short, less than three minutes each. Even added together, that doesn't come close to the running times for the two previous tracks. It's more ambient, kind of formless sound, and I see now that Mondo has “drone” as prominent tags on this, so I guess that's what it is. It's hard to tell you what it's like though, as it's basically just rising and falling effects and sounds, most of them very low, all very slow, and really minimalist. The first part is over before I know it and the second seems to have some sort of sonar effect bouncing through it, then there's something like a scream, but as I say it's really hard to pick out any individual sounds, and I am trying.

Sort of a mechanical sound to part three, low booming thunder noises, like a storm moving slowly away, what sounds like rain falling on metal barrels in a warehouse, and then it could be water in pipes maybe, very hollow sound with what appears to be dripping water again. The closer is a full fourteen minutes long, which does not inspire me, given what I've heard so far. I'm sure there's a great amount of thought and effort gone into this, and I certainly could not do it, but I just can't see the music in it, and without music I'm left with very little to write about. “Along the peaks of Thok” is, I guess, Mondo's signature piece, and there's some dark, growling effect (assume it's a synth, maybe not) in the second minute, then it goes all quiet again for about another five minutes before a sound like a great sigh issues forth, followed by a scraping, echoey something, and it gets the loudest and most substantial it's been in the ninth minute, with a dark, rolling wave and wind sounds. It's coming to the end now and I have to say I'm glad: I seriously do not get this at all.

TRACKLISTING

1. Dream quest 5
2. Underworld
3. Swarm of ghosts part 1
4. Swarm of ghosts part 2
5. Swarm of ghosts part 3
6. Along the peaks of Thok

I don't wish to do Mondo a disservice here. I'm sure those who are into drone/ambient/darkwhatever-the-fuck-this-is will be able to appreciate far better than I the delicate nuances, the programming and the motifs and themes he is exploring here. But to me it just feels like I've emerged from a vacuum and can finally breathe again. It's probably a classic of the genre, and there's certainly a lot of work been put into it, but it just is not anywhere near my wheelhouse.

You can hear it all here https://thepeaksofthok.bandcamp.com/album/underworld

Key · 06-23-2015, 10:09 AM

^will review soon.

YorkeDaddy · 06-23-2015, 10:15 AM

Now we're talkin'! At some point this week I'll create a clickable index for the OP with each review, I think it'll be really cool when everything's set up all nicely.

Key · 06-23-2015, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

Now we're talkin'! At some point this week I'll create a clickable index for the OP with each review, I think it'll be really cool when everything's set up all nicely.

I love this thread tbh

YorkeDaddy · 06-23-2015, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ki

I love this thread tbh

All it needs is some Ki contributions

I know you've written some reviews before...and either way my sig is calling out your name. Just listen to it's pained cries

"Click me Ki...click me please..."

Key · 06-23-2015, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

All it needs is some Ki contributions

I know you've written some reviews before...and either way my sig is calling out your name. Just listen to it's pained cries

"Click me Ki...click me please..."

I plan to get to that. I'll try to dish some out this week.

**Frownland** · 06-23-2015, 01:36 PM

I'm going to do a few reviews soon. If anybody wanted an album to review, you can always try my latest record, it's a bit long though.

https://jesusthecarpenter.bandcamp.c...nd-electronics

Machine · 06-23-2015, 01:41 PM

I might do reviews for the following

Trouble Salad - It Looks Like Snow
Jesus The Carpender - The Oblique Perspective
WISK - How Your Mother Cried Last Night
Snake Walk - Demo
cloudcover - Frownland

Don't know when I'll get to them tho.

YorkeDaddy · 06-23-2015, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

I'm going to do a few reviews soon. If anybody wanted an album to review, you can always try my latest record, it's a bit long though.

https://jesusthecarpenter.bandcamp.c...nd-electronics

I'm questioning your adjective choice as I click to see that the album is almost 4 hours long

06-23-2015, 06:26 AM	#51 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Time to get off my arse and give some more of your music a listen. I've a few still backed up, but I was asked specifically yesterday to look at this, and so I will. Xurtio is a member who doesn't seem to post that often (although he could be posting in threads or subforum I don't visit) so unless you're a prog head you may not know him, but he's been here for a while. He has a band called Luop Garou --- I think he mentioned once what it meant but I've forgotten --- and on their Soundcloud page they describe themselves thus: “An amalgam of genre bending tonality and psychedelic fusion”. Should I be worried? Who knows, but I'm going in anyway. They have a lot of music on their page, but I'm told the first four have been released as a mini-album, so I'll check those out and see how we go. Unfortunately I don't know if there's a title so I'll just assume it's self-titled; if I'm wrong Xurtio can correct me. Luop Garou --- Luop Garou --- 2015 “Pull” is the first track, and after some odd little sounds it settles into a sort of slow blues groove, the singer reminding me of a cross between Cave and Reed, with a little Cohen thrown in. There are female vocals there too, which sort of lighten the tone. The music is a kind of spiralling, almost waltzy melody, slow and dreamy, with a really nice sort of vocalise part in the middle --- it may be synth, theremin, god knows what, even guitar effects: I'm no musician, but it's good. Impressed so far. It's a short little track, shy of three minutes and ends with a sort of creaky sound that reminds me of Floyd's “Your possible pasts”. Next up is a more guitar oriented tune, pulling (sorry) in those same effects as “Fed a spider” keeps the tempo slow and laidback, definitely more of the Cave influences here I feel. Nice kind of bouncy, echoey drumwork with what I guess is a guitar pedal effect which sounds a little like slide guitar. Could be synth of course. Slow, descending end and we're into the third track, which they have labelled as “psychedelic punk”, making me flinch a little, but the charmingly-titled “Pile of guts” is not that far removed from the other two tracks, though it is a lot faster and rockier. Guitar a lot more to the fore here and not distorted (if it was on the previous song), but I must sound a note of caution here: the singer's voice suited the last two tracks but here it's just too laconic and I think someone with a bit more fire might be needed. I don't know if Luop Garou have any other singers, but the lady who was providing the backing vox to the first track might be a possibility? Very decent guitar solo which puts me more in mind of a progressive rock tune than anything to do with punk really, and a sweet little bassline near the end, taking us into “Cats n' dogs”, the final track. This opens with feedback guitar and organ, very Waits in feel, that carnival idea he uses so well, sort of spooky in its way. The vocal here is initially more moaned than sung, and I hear someone doing a passable impression of a cat, which is cool, though why they couldn't have employed a proper cat I don't know: doing an animal out of a gig, honestly! The vocal is now going properly and again this song suits the vocalist, with its dark atmosphere and laconic feel. I hear tinges of Bowie here also.Nice guitar solo, not overdone or overblown, but very competent and fits in well with the rest of the music. TRACKLISTING 1. Pull 2. Fed a spider 3. Pile of guts 4. Cats n' dogs Hard to categorise this band, but overall I feel a sense of blues a la Cave, maybe the odd flash of Velvets as well. And certainly some nods to Waits. All in all, very enjoyable and I wouldn't be averse to listening to more, though as I say there is that one song that just seems not to sit very well with the singer. Just a thought, but maybe someone else might try singing that one? Other than that, impressed and a very good job overall. You can catch the album, and the rest of Luop Garou's music, here https://soundcloud.com/luop-garou __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

06-23-2015, 06:28 AM	#52 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Some people are so pushy! “Review this, or I'll turn you into a toad,” he said. Or possibly the threat was more physical and to do with visits to the dentist. Anyway, the upshot was that I have been threatened and as always, I respond to threats of violence with my customary cowardice and fold like an umbrella. So here we go. Underworld --- The Peaks of Thok --- 2015 (Bandcamp release) This appears to be the name under which Mondo Bungle releases his music, and that in itself is getting high praise around these here parts, making it all the more important to review it here before Ki goes and steals the idea I stole from Pet Sounds... well, we could stay here for hours and argue over 'oo stole what from 'oo, but the main thing is, I had the idea first, even if Pet Sounds wrote it down and posted it first. Additional: shut up, Batty. At any rate, we open on “Dream quest 5” (what happened to Dream Quests 1-4? Ask Mondo) which is a long enough track, eleven minutes and change, and opens with a dark, atmospheric sound of wind perhaps, low and growling with little really happening until after the second minute, but you can kind of sense something building. Some sort of echoey effects then, with what sounds like a howl and a sort of falling siren which puts me in mind somewhat of whale song, and we're now five minutes in. I guess this is what's called minimalist ambient? No real tune, no melody just effects. I keep turning it up because I can hear nothing for minutes at a time, then suddenly something screams or roars through. Bit unsettling. Okay, in the sixth minute there is absolutely nothing. Silence. I know, because I turned up the volume and all I got was that high-pitched static-y screech you get when there's no music or sound to be transmitted. This goes on (as it were) to the seventh minute, before some sort of high-pitched effect comes in, then what may actually be a synth in the eighth, rising slowly like a banshee over a lake, then descending and falling away and though there's more than a minute left I feel it's going to end in more or less silence now. And it does. The second track is the title, another eleven-minute composition --- actually twelve --- and I don't mean to be nasty but I hope this one has more music in it as it's really hard to review ambient sounds. Well I hear a low synth but it's basically holding the same chord sort of like I remember Solar Fields annoying me by doing. Mind you, I grew to like that. There does seem to be slightly more of a melody here, but again it's very sparse and everything is really drawn out very long indeed. Sort of puts me in mind at times of Peter Gabriel's Ovo. It's now into the eighth minute and I still can't really find anything to latch on to, anything to write about. It's sort of like the equivalent of floating weightless and helpless in space, wondering if your feet will ever touch the ground again. The next three tracks are all part of the one, labelled “Swarm of ghosts”, and all quite short, less than three minutes each. Even added together, that doesn't come close to the running times for the two previous tracks. It's more ambient, kind of formless sound, and I see now that Mondo has “drone” as prominent tags on this, so I guess that's what it is. It's hard to tell you what it's like though, as it's basically just rising and falling effects and sounds, most of them very low, all very slow, and really minimalist. The first part is over before I know it and the second seems to have some sort of sonar effect bouncing through it, then there's something like a scream, but as I say it's really hard to pick out any individual sounds, and I am trying. Sort of a mechanical sound to part three, low booming thunder noises, like a storm moving slowly away, what sounds like rain falling on metal barrels in a warehouse, and then it could be water in pipes maybe, very hollow sound with what appears to be dripping water again. The closer is a full fourteen minutes long, which does not inspire me, given what I've heard so far. I'm sure there's a great amount of thought and effort gone into this, and I certainly could not do it, but I just can't see the music in it, and without music I'm left with very little to write about. “Along the peaks of Thok” is, I guess, Mondo's signature piece, and there's some dark, growling effect (assume it's a synth, maybe not) in the second minute, then it goes all quiet again for about another five minutes before a sound like a great sigh issues forth, followed by a scraping, echoey something, and it gets the loudest and most substantial it's been in the ninth minute, with a dark, rolling wave and wind sounds. It's coming to the end now and I have to say I'm glad: I seriously do not get this at all. TRACKLISTING 1. Dream quest 5 2. Underworld 3. Swarm of ghosts part 1 4. Swarm of ghosts part 2 5. Swarm of ghosts part 3 6. Along the peaks of Thok I don't wish to do Mondo a disservice here. I'm sure those who are into drone/ambient/darkwhatever-the-fuck-this-is will be able to appreciate far better than I the delicate nuances, the programming and the motifs and themes he is exploring here. But to me it just feels like I've emerged from a vacuum and can finally breathe again. It's probably a classic of the genre, and there's certainly a lot of work been put into it, but it just is not anywhere near my wheelhouse. You can hear it all here https://thepeaksofthok.bandcamp.com/album/underworld __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

06-23-2015, 01:36 PM	#58 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	I'm going to do a few reviews soon. If anybody wanted an album to review, you can always try my latest record, it's a bit long though. https://jesusthecarpenter.bandcamp.c...nd-electronics __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

06-23-2015, 01:41 PM	#59 (permalink)
Machine moon lake inc. Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: Detroit Posts: 2,125	I might do reviews for the following Trouble Salad - It Looks Like Snow Jesus The Carpender - The Oblique Perspective WISK - How Your Mother Cried Last Night Snake Walk - Demo cloudcover - Frownland Don't know when I'll get to them tho. __________________ boost my ego listen to me stroke my delay pedal ever wanted to hear death grips songs... but they're acoustic? me neither.

06-23-2015, 10:09 AM	#53 (permalink)
Key . Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 13,153	^will review soon.