WWWP

Thanks for the write up, TH, and I'm glad you liked it. I know you weren't into some of our earlier singles I had posted but I'm happy you kept an open mind and gave it a shot.

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#DEMODFROWNLAND
#TERMLIMITSFORMODERATORS

Thelonious Monkey

Why in hell did nobody tell me about y'all's music before. Some amazing shit right here. Frownland by Cloudcover. I am going to listen to it whole tonight. Only listened to the first three tracks. And from what I have heard, I am truly excited. Also, I dig Planktons music. I might just feature him in Metal Mania. People with these talents deserve to be noticed. Nice write-up Trollheart. Keep up the good work guys/gals.

Plankton

Thanks for providing a good home for all of this Trollheart. Can't thank you enough for all your support. I've heard Yorkedaddys stuff, and was truly impressed by the outstanding song writing, and Steph and Co. are a real treat to listen to also. Very whimsical, and uplifting. I had asked her if she'd like me to do a review (after hearing it and really liking it), but after seeing that TH would be reviewing, I held off since he's got it under control, and is more the wordsmythe than myself.

JJJ, that'd be cool. I'm putting the final touches on a 'Covers' album, and am waiting for the singer from Vandal to come over and track something before I spew it forth to the masses. Hopefully he'll get it done by the time you do your write-up, since there'll be a couple more harder edged tunes to take from it.

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See location...

Trollheart

Those of you who follow The Playlist --- and anyone reading above --- will know I previously reviewed music by YorkeDaddy under his band name of cloudcover (lowercase “c” is very important!) and was totally blown away by it. This, however, I believe, is a solo project and more rooted in soft ambient music, whereas “Frownland” (no relation to our own Captain Beefheart fan!) was more a rock album with some other styles and of course vocals. I think this is all instrumental, but we'll find out as we go along. Great title, too.

Apathy, always --- Daydream Society --- 2014 (Bandcamp release)

The album cover gives you an idea what to expect, with soft-focus colours and a real dreamy look to it, which fits in very well with the name YorkeDaddy has chosen for this particular incarnation of his musical persona. There are only seven tracks, but I see two nine-minuters (almost) and one that runs for seven and a half, so there should be about forty-odd minutes of music here. We open on “Every star could fit in my hand”, with a big, droning, rumbling synth, joined by another, lower but just as deep, and I think possibly a third there? Very dramatic and cinematic indeed. I think that's voice effects coming through now or it could be guitar work, and drum loops? I'm not a musician so I don't know, but that's what it sounds like, almost like something trying to surface from the perhaps cloying sound, a swimmer coming up for air. Reminds me of later Floyd, “Signs of life”, that sort of thing. Tone has changed slightly now, and I think it's just the one synth holding the chord as the effects go on, very quiet and low in the mix.

This is one of the nine-minute-almost tracks (8:40) and it looks like there'll be plenty happening over the course of that time. The synth has dropped out completely now and been replaced by a guitar which kind of sounds like a jet engine or maybe water running down a plughole. More, slightly lighter synth coming in now, the darker, almost threatening tone of the opening section gone, and the feel of perhaps a sun rising after a dark night. A storm perhaps? Definitely a lighter, more positive edge to the music, and now we get soft choral vocals that reminds me of both Vangelis and Twelfth Night, stretching out in a kind of Solar Fields way. I see we're now six minutes in, but the time has flown and this has not in any way dragged. As the tune heads towards what I guess is its climax there's a guitar screeching --- I think; this could all be made on synth, who knows? --- and an impression of climbing, reaching, striving. I have no idea if this is what YD intended it to convey, but that's what I hear.

Fading out and down now on a descending synth/guitar line, and though I'm impressed, I sort of expected to be, having heard what this guy can do already. “Bloodstream”, up next, is shorter, just shy of five minutes, and has a really nice echoey synth starting it off, a brighter sound than the previous, with what sounds like little flutey sounds coming in now too as the keyboard holds the main chord, rolling sounds that could be cymbals or maybe synth lines washing over the tune. A violin-like melody joins the held chord, then more synth joins in with a rising, uplifting sound that only lasts for a few seconds before a sharp guitar makes a sound like an engine revving as most of the other instruments fall away other than low, deep percussion. Definitely get the idea of riding along a highway at top speed.

Now the engine dies away and spacey, video-game-like synth sounds hop all over the tune, very electronica, with a big deep bassy synth in the background. Reminds me of early Hawkwind, this. Fading out to bring in “Living in a bleak room”, which opens on a sound like thunder rolling then some strange mechanical sounds --- get a sense of the beginning of “Welcome to the machine” here --- very robotic. One of the sounds makes me think of chickens in a coop. How odd. A soft but deep rising synth now, then those videogame effects again (have you been listening to too much Dragonforce, YorkeDaddy?) --- in fact, it's almost like one of those arcade games having had the buttons hit down too hard and jamming, just a sort of repeat of the same notes. Then a hammering bass comes through, almost like someone feeling their way along blindly with a cane through an alley or something, very echoey. Bleak is in the title and bleak is certainly the feeling you get form this piece, then YD throws us a “Close Encounters” style synth riff. Very eerie and it takes us to the end of the track.

“Survivors believe” then has a nice busy guitar opening, kind of a feeling of bells or some sort of metal being struck, also reminds me of those sounds railway level crossings make when a train is on the way. Soft but insistent little percussion coming in now along with some bass, then a stuttering guitar but it's a little lacking in a melody you can pin down, at least for my tastes. Bit too experimental perhaps. It is almost seven minutes long though, and we're only heading into the third of those, so it may get more cohesive. There's definitely a repeating rhythm there, it's just not something I would, for instance, hum later. Nothing to nail a tune to, from my point of view. Great instrumentation, certainly; I would just rather hear something I could recognise as a melody. Low synth now running off a riff which is very space rock but quite muted, with the original beat and melody line, such as it is, still going on in the background. No, not a fan of this I'm afraid.

So what about the next track? Well, “Mortal” is either corrupt or it's just way beyond anything I could consider to be music. It's like a constant stuttering line, not quite static but like when you're playing music and something loops in your computer and you just hear the same note hammered repeatedly --- duh-duh-duh-duhduh! Sorry man I bloody hate this. Hurts my ears. Luckily it's only just over a minute and a half long and takes us into the longest track, almost eight minutes of “A semblance of normality”. Unfortunately for me, this kicks off with a similar sound, like lasers or videogame effects, with some dark echo behind it like muted thunder but no melody. In fairness, we're barely a minute in so let's give it a chance, but I hope it's not going to be eight-plus minutes of sounds like the last track: I don't think I could handle that.

I don't wish to be harsh, but it's hard to believe this is the same guy who created the cloudcover album. This for the most part seems to have no real melody and sounds like someone just playing with concepts, ideas and sounds but without any real direction or plan. Of course, I'm sure there is, but I just don't hear it. Experimental music is never my thing, and though YD said this was ambient, it's not what I'd call it. We're now three minutes in and again nothing but odd sounds, effects and noises. Turning into something of a disappointment for me, especially given the very decent opening track. But since then it really has gone downhill for me. I'm sure experimental guys like Frownland will love this, but to me it is sadly just a collection of not quite random noises, but not music, not to me. Definitely not something I would put on to relax, that's for sure.

I find it sad that I'm looking ahead and thinking thank god there's only one more track, whereas with Snake Walk I was hoping there would be more. But this album just is not gripping me at all, and I am sorry to say I'll be glad when it's over. And it does come to an end with “Love like forgiveness”, another long track, over seven minutes, which has a nice sort of peppy keyboard start and goes much more uptempo than anything here. Deep organ coming in complements the synth nicely, slow to fast, drone to bop, then the percussion comes in and this has more a feel of krautrock or maybe new wave about it, a sense of melody finally. I can her Carbon Based Lifeforms here, and Air, maybe even some Mogwai to an extent. Think that's a vocoder now, memories of cloudcover. If I had to pick a favourite track it would be this or the opener, but the rest I'm afraid have really not impressed me at all. But you might like them. You might love them. Just not for me.

TRACKLISTING

1. Every star could fit in my hand
2. Bloodstream
3. Living in a bleak room
4. Survivors believe
5. Mortal
6. A semblance of normality
7. Love like forgiveness

I'm not going to say this was rubbish, as I know how hard it is to make music and how much time, effort and energy people put into their creations. But after having heard “Frownland” I had expected more from YorkeDaddy. Maybe that was my mistake: expecting that his solo ambient/electronica stuff would be the same as his work with Shuyler, but this is totally different. I guess it reveals another side to the man, and he certainly can construct pieces of music; I just prefer to be able to discern or follow a melody when I listen. This is, as I say, too abstract for me.

But for what it is, it's well played and written. I definitely think I prefer the cloudcover material though. Once I've got through a few other albums here I'll be going back to give their new one a shot, and hopefully will have nicer things to say. Don't let me turn you off listening to this though: if experimental, drony, abstract expressionist electronica is your thing you'll probably really appreciate this. It just is not for me.

Sorry, man.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

YorkeDaddy

Heh, if there's one thing I'm thick-skinned about, it's my experimental stuff. I really am grateful that you listened to it at all...that's all I ever really want.

Sorry that you were disappointed, but on the bright side you now have two cloudcover albums to anticipate later on in this journal, and I really don't think you'll be disappointed with those

The fact that you love Frownland so much and still have yet to hear some of our very best tracks is pretty exciting for me honestly

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http://cloudcover1.bandcamp.com/
http://daydreamsociety.bandcamp.com/

9-Time Winner of MusicBanter's "Most Qualified to be a Moderator" Award

Trollheart

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that. Have to give a few other people a shot first though...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

The next one under the microscope here is chosen because basically it's a single, and I've been intrigued since Machine announced it. Being short, it will also enable me to get to someone else's work today, so let's give it a go. I have no supporting information on it (Machine, if you want to supply any background you think might help?) so we'll have to dive straight into it and see what we get.
Goodbye, good riddance --- Machine --- 2014 (Bandcamp release)

As I say, this is a single, so just two tracks, and it comes from one of our newest members, who has been making quite a name for himself here. Well, there's a beautiful soft acoustic guitar to get us underway, and it reminds me of the Eagles or Bob Seger at their best. The vocal, when it comes in has a touch of Young about it (Neil, not Paul!) or one of those trendy indie bands. It seems to be a song of leaving your hometown behind, and not being particularly sad about it. Nice bit of whistling there and some improvisational vocalise. I like the fact that there's no real chorus, just the da-da-da-da-dum-da. Kind of a folk feel about the song. Singing is very good. And I mean very: this is almost professional grade, and if I assume Machine is also playing the guitar, this is incredibly impressive stuff. I've been trying to listen to one of the lines in the lyric, but I can't quite make it out. It's either ”The suburban kids lay out their open wounds/ So let's get out the meals and make them feel better” --- which would I guess be a reference to homelessness and something akin to George Michael's line in “Praying for time” --- ”Charity is a coat we wear twice a year” --- or the line could switch “meals” for “needles”, which then makes it much more literal, and possibly a reference to drugs? Well I'm sure he'll let us know which it is, but either way this is pretty stunning stuff.

It's unmistakably a sad song, a lot of regret and even bitter anger, but there's a sense of breaking free, getting away from it all, and in a way it sort of nods back to the two songs I featured a while back in my “Two sides of the same coin” section, Tom Waits's “Burma-Shave” and Springsteen's “Thunder Road”. Like the little change there in the fourth minute, also the tapping of the hand against the guitar as a sort of percussion. Very effective.

The other track on the single, the B-side I guess, is called “Fall in time” and has a slightly more uptempo beat (though not much), again on acoustic guitar, on which Machine seems to be a real expert (watch out Plankton!) and this time has a chorus, which is nice. His voice does sound a tinchy bit stretched on the chorus, maybe close to cracking for a moment, but that's okay. It's a longer song than the A-side, with this coming in at just over five minutes whereas “Goodbye, good riddance” just about hit the four-and-a-half minute mark. The guitar is strummed harder on this, delivered with a great amount of passion. Again, his voice is one you could listen to for some time without ever getting tired of it. There's a sort of world-weariness he injects into his music that is quite astonishing for someone so young.

A tag on his bandcamp page says from the forthcoming album “Empty house”. Hope it's out soon cause I certainly want to hear more from this guy!
https://machineplus.bandcamp.com/releases

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Chula Vista

Enjoying this. Great music by all.

I have three tracks, recorded completely independently. Should I compile them and issue them as an EP-ish?

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Machine

Thanks for the kind words about the single and to specify the line you mentioned in the review is generally just about boredom and the very repetitive nature of daily life, especially in suburbia. Living in a fairly depressing looking city, industrial nothing to look is has made me grow very cynical at times and while not always true and there is good too, I feel that boredom plays a big role in being a teenager in the suburbs. A lot of the lines are fairly personal thing, and is not quite as socially conscious as you may believe. Also Fall In Time is a song I wrote nearly a year ago, I kind of thought I was going crazy at the time and I just wanted to leave all the "noise" of everyday life and isolate myself something that worked for a while.

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boost my ego

listen to me stroke my delay pedal

ever wanted to hear death grips songs... but they're acoustic? me neither.

Trollheart

Absolutely. I'd like to hear what you can do, and so I'm sure would a lot of people here.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018