Trollheart

Yes, it's a big ask to top Van the Man, but I think GD managed it. I even had a few desperate efforts at having good things to say about Morrison, but there wasn't really anything I could point to here, except the exit, frantically!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

grindy

Even though David Thomas is one of my favourite singers he sure as hell isn't for everyone.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

GD

Yay, I won!

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lasty|rate-y music-y

Trollheart

You sure did! And here is your prize: you win the internet!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

Bro be honest do you hate the Pogues as a younger man and keep the hate going cause nothing I can imagine would keep you hating them besides inertia. If you can like The Germs then The Pogues should be easy as ****.

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Trollheart

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Title: They Don’t Know Though
Artist: Wolves in Sheepskin
Year: 2022
Genre: Experimental
Challenge set by: Frownland

Right then. I’ve had experience of Frownland’s music before, and I have to be honest (as I was then) and say I have or had nothing good to say about it, so I don’t expect this will be an easy listen. This appears, from what I can see, to be one long track - and I mean long! Thirty-four minutes. Tags shown on the Bandcamp are experimental, avant-garde, comedy music, dub, ambient, electronic, free improvisation, free jazz, hypnagogic pop (don’t even know what that is!), improvisational noise-art and psychotic I mean psychedelia. No wait I was right the first time. Was I? Either way, this looks bad for Trollheart. Let’s get it over with then.

The only way I’ve found to be able to get through Frown’s music is to literally describe what I hear, and make either educated or humorous guesses as to what it happening, eg crash of cymbals equals guy falling down the stairs with a bunch of metal bottles in his arms etc. We’ll see how this goes, but I don’t expect it to be an easy ride, so better strap myself down I mean in and just hold on for dear life, and hope I make it out the other side with my sanity and my ears intact!

I’d say if I don’t survive tell my wife I love her, but I’m not married so I’ll just say if I die don’t touch my stuff, and in I go!

Starts off innocently enough with a piano which then sounds like someone is using a chainsaw to chop it up as it’s being played, then some other mad sounds like radio feedback or something as the piano plays on. Also get the idea of someone standing over the piano and making faces at the pianist as he studiously ignores them and just keeps playing. Could also be someone doing the vacuuming while he plays, or tuning in one of those old TV sets (shut up, I’m old: I remember these things). A sonorous dark synth for a moment before the piano tempo jumps and it’s a kind of bouncing blues rhythm now, with the odd sounds still going on all around. You wouldn’t think it or perhaps believe it, but compared to other WISSK albums I’ve heard, this one is actually quite musical. At least there’s a recognisable melody and tune and some sort of progression here. If you can shut out all the electronic noise nonsense there’s some half-decent music going on, and I have to admit, I never thought I’d write that in a review of Frown’s music.

Let’s have a quick check on how far we’ve come. Four minutes. Well they certainly cram a lot into that I must say. Incidentally, it’s only fair to say that while this is categorised by me as Frownland’s music, he’s not alone and Wolves in Sheepskin consists of him and Stryder Rymer, who, to be honest, sounds like a characters out of Game of Thrones, but there you go. The piano music is now getting all but subsumed by the electronic effects, though there’s an organ getting in on the act now, just sort of pushing through every so often and making itself heard above the confusing static. Now it’s coming through more clearly, taking over the melody really as we hit the eighth minute, taking us almost a quarter of the way through the track/album.

In a weird kind of way the electronic feedback-y thing is nearly in synch now with the piano, almost following its melody, which is pretty damn impressive, and takes us ten minutes in and nearly a third of the way through. Nice squelchy synthy sound now on its own for a few moments, with possibly a bass too, though that could be on the keys. Sounds like a clarinet or some sort of horn there for a few notes then the electronic music is back, and again it sounds like the chainsaw working on the piano again. I wonder is this just some sort of modulation on an old analogue synth or some piece of electronic equipment, like an old radio, or is it something more clever and intricate? The idea of someone just standing or sitting there turning a knob or moving a slider seems a bit pointless, but I don’t know how these effects are being made. All part of the process I guess.

Is it just me? Have I matured musically enough to be able to make some sense of this, where a few years ago I would have written it all off as nonsense and noise and a mish-mash of conflicting sounds? Or is it actually better than their previous stuff, more together, more cohesive, more planned out? Dare I say it: more musical? Answers written in wax crayon on a piece of pigskin please. Drums now for the first time - or the first percussion I’ve heard anyway - and some sort of videogame effects, unless one of the guys has got bored and booted up Space Invaders or something. All kind of dark, bassy stuff with the videogame sounds a much higher pitch, and we’re at the halfway point.

I think we’re getting taped sound samples layered onto the piece now, and the effects have more or less taken over at this stage, the drums very low in the background and there could be something else, maybe a synth line going? Hard to make out though over the screeching effects of the laser battle being fought in space or on a laptop. All clearing now to allow a chugging, echo effect to bleed through, and then more samples and modulation, the tempo getting faster and almost hitting a kind of carnival style. Might be some brass there in the background, mostly wind effects and some more restrained videogame effects, and I’m pretty sure I can hear a basic melody taking place there in the background again, even if the effects all but drown it out. Around 22 minutes now and the percussion comes a little more into its own and there’s definitely a sort of blues/prog sound on the organ and maybe there might be guitar in there too, though I couldn’t say for sure.

Descending effects like an aircraft going down, more modulation and we’ve ten minutes left to go. The bluesy tune continues as the effects screech and scrawl and scream, then they fall back a little to allow the more standard music to leak in, and the music then gets stuck in a repeating loop for a few seconds, or maybe it’s tape loops, again who knows? The music itself - as distinct from the effects - is speeding up now, almost in time with the electronic soundscapes - and seems to be possibly building towards something. The organ is slowing down now though, quite stately and grand, while the effects have more or less become the sound of helicopter blades rotating and now we have some very clear organ and some horns I think, the effects all but gone as we move into the closing five minutes of the piece.

Sounds like everything is winding down now, the effects giving the idea of fading out and vanishing, then back they come as the organ seems to all but battle them, the chainsaw starts up again and we have more modulation as I guess we head for the big finish. Sounds like sirens and klaxons and things, the effects taking over completely as the track and album comes to an end, although there seems to be a false ending. Just as it all fades out there’s a second of silence then some shimmering, staggered effects come back in and then fade out.

Look, I got to the end, but it would be disingenuous of me to claim victory here. Were there three good things I could say about this? Possibly. But overall I’d have to say I did not enjoy it. I endured it, I got through it, and I would have no reason whatever to listen to it again. I don’t understand it, I don't get the idea behind it (if there is one) and I guess that’s okay. This sort of music experimentation is not for me, never has been. But at least I didn’t write it off and bow out after a few minutes, which I could easily have done. So I’m glad I stuck it out, but I didn’t gain anything by doing so, just the knowledge that I made it through to the end.

In which case, I have to award this to Frownland, giving him a win.

Trollheart 0 - Frownland 1

And that makes the running total

Trollheart 5 -The World 3

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018