If it's a review of the one I liked, I'm excited for the review as well.

Now we come to the album of a member with whom I'm not that familiar. Everyone up to now whose music I've reviewed has been, if not a friend of mine, at least someone I've spoken to on occasion and know fairly well – Frownland, Mondo, Plankton of course, Tristan, Xurtio – but I know very little about 1blankmind. People seem to rave about his music though, which is certainly a good start. And I know he's waiting for my review.

And here it is.

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Stuck Between the Parallels of Man and Monster – Son of Abbot (1blankmind) – 2016

Well, it's certainly a catchy title and an interesting cover. I could probably have done with another colour scheme for the tracks (dark red on black don't work too well for me) but anyway, off we go with “Waste of space”, and a very Peter Gabriel meets Queen muted percussion with a low, sort of chanting vocal then some sound effects and taped thingies, the percussion fading into the background as the effects take over the track; reminds me a little of Floyd on Dark Side. Now there's a loud moaning, sounds like a didgeridoo but probably a synth sound, that buggers off and the effects are left. Sort of a hollow, echoing effect and now I can hear the slow percussion (almost a heartbeat though too fast for that); perhaps it never went away but was just drowned out by the other sounds. Appears to be coming full circle as it approaches its end, with that chanting voice returning and on into “Words can't hurt you” with the title repeated as it opens and a rising synth line with attendant piano notes. Breaks into something of a funky melody then, grooving along nicely, joined by a guitar groove too. Very nice. Kind of an odd ending, very abrupt and segues into “Meaningless control” with what sounds like a metronome going.

Interesting aside: if a dwarf travels on the subway is it a metro-gnome? :laughing: Sorry. Back to the review. Not a whole lot happening at the moment, which is why I filled up dead air with that gnome joke. Oh wait, a voice is talking in an echoey, creepy way now. Some feedback maybe but no music. Ah, there's some guitar coming through now. Nice. Repetitive, but nice. Another strange ending but I can forgive that when “Whatever happened to Alan Smithee?” opens with a harmonica! Ooh yeah! Some nice picked guitar then a totally slowed-down voice which sounds like the sort of thing you hear when someone kidnaps your daughter and phones you. Not that I have a daughter. Or have ever kidnapped anyone's. So far as can reasonably be proven in a court of law, anyway. Voice is very offputting; clever yes but annoying. Meshes well with the guitar and now there's percussion coming in too. Quite a bit happening after so little.

“Yellow” features, I think, Chula Vista, and opens with what could be a synth or a guitar, not to sure which. That dark slow-down voice is back, unfortunately for me. Really don't like that. Now we have a definite guitar break and indeed a solo, very cool. Militaristic drumbeat taking in “Sugar and cocaine”, which I believe may feature Tristan Geoff (and as he told me he's a drummer, and this seems to contain only drumming, then, yeah, I think that may be the case but blank can confirm). Actually I think there's a guitar humming softly there in the background but it's very much backup sound only. Not crazy about this one I have to say. “The pope lick monster” is chock-full of guitar, and rocks nicely in a slow kind of groove; seems to stop and start a little. I suppose that's intentional but it's a little distracting. Yeah, I'm not a fan of this fragmented approach, sorry.

There's a dark, almost doomy feel to “Sorrow filled masturbation”, with a lonely guitar playing what appears to be the same riff over and over (symbolic?) and a dark synth or feedback or something that soon drops away leaving the guitar on its own, very sparse but now it's being joined by again maybe synth, the former fading out while the keys take over. Touch of drone perhaps. Now it's either a child's voice or a ludicrously sped up vocal effect. Either way it sets my teeth on edge, not least the idea of having what may be a child's voice on a song with the word masturbation in the title. Hmm. Not a fan of that one, no siree bob. “Why?” asks the next track, with an echoing but distant vocal and then a grinding guitar, but it's a little too much like someone praying in a church for my tastes. “Soryu” is a much louder, angrier sound and again if I've read this right features Ki. It's very experimental, which of course is code for I don't like it. Well, not so far anyway. Very abrasive, no real melody I can follow. Not since she took out the injunction, anyway. And that leaves “Are you there God?” with what sounds like an approaching helicopter and a guitar riff. The helicopter sound seems to be some sort of synth effect that goes through most of the track, through my head, and we're out at the other side.

Track listing and Ratings

1. Waste of space
2. Words can't hurt you
3. Meaningless control
4. What ever happened to Alan Smithee?
5. Yellow
6. Sugar and cocaine
7. The pope lick monster
8. Sorrow filled masturbation
9. Why?
10. Soryu
11. Are you there God?

Yes, well, definitely not my cup of tea I'm afraid. Interesting to see some other MB members involved, but for me, the album has some good ideas that never quite seem to go anywhere. Unrealised potential or a missed opportunity? Probably neither; I'm sure most of you love this. But it's the “e” word and that always makes me a little skittish. I'm sure a lot of work and thought went into this album, I just don't seem to be able to reap the reward that should be there. But then it just probably isn't for the likes of me.

Uh, maybe you should reread your review, bro.

Ouch

What's wrong with it

Also mad stoked that I'm next omg

Pretty much everything.

I still don't see it and don't care enough about blankmind's music to scour the review.

Well, interesting review. Sorry you didn't like it.

How about being specific dumbass.

Too many nouns

Was going to but then Trollheart fixed it.

You obviously didn't read the review or else you would've noticed that entire sentences and paragraphs were out of place, making it almost unreadable at times.

Experimental reviews for experimental music

I didn't fix anything. If it went up misaligned that wasn't what I saw. May have been a temporary problem with the system? Looked fine to me before I uploaded it. I always check and re-check, so if something looked out of place (as it often does, if the picture for instance is too big) then I make a point of correcting it on the preview before hitting Post.

Oh, by the way, here was your previous review of our stuff:

http://www.musicbanter.com/1551782-post35.html

We have a new name now, and we added three songs to that album under our new brand. I encourage you to check out "Trees In The Wind"! Given your generally positive attitude about the first half of that album.

https://hymnomancer.bandcamp.com/album/holier-than-meow

No.
Just kidding; I'll have a listen.

Is there a list somewhere of the albums you're doing next?

Page 6

Why not put it in the OP?

Because I like obscurity.

That's inconvenient.

Sorry to give you so much work to do guys. Jeez! I put it on the page whereon I reactivated this journal. If I can be bothered maybe I'll push it to page one, but don't hold yer breath... :rolleyes:

Lazy ****er.

Go **** yourself. :)
Sidenote: the most conversation I seem to have had with you in the last month seems to be telling you to **** off. I think we're ready to take our relationship to the next level.

so... **** on?

Go **** me.

Now you're getting it... ;)

I do think it's kinda whack because copying the list and editing it into the op would take approximately 4 seconds but TH still does a whole lot and it wouldn't be something for me to worry about

Ok, you crybabies: I've put all reviews in the OP with links. I'll also be later on moving to here any other reviews of member albums I've done elsewhere, such as ones in "Love or Hate?". You can see the state of play from the OP now. Happy? Oh, and FYI: it took a whole lot more than four seconds!!! :rolleyes:

It probably took more than four seconds because you did more than what I said would take four seconds

What I did was indeed more, but just purely pasting the current list in the OP would have been useless. Now it's completely updated with all albums, done and submitted, including links to those that were reviewed elsewhere by me.

I thought they just wanted to see who's next

They probably did, but you know me: in for a penny...
Anyway, it works out better this way. Now you can see, and get to, every album that's been reviewed and also see the ones that are yet to be tackled. The journal really needed something like this; I was just avoiding it.

but you can't avoid the dimensional inferno of my album when you experience it

Hey TH, I'm back for the time being. Thanks for the fair and honest review, your comments on adding speech samples into the track had me cracking a smile. There were certainly times where I'd throw a clip in just to fill up a time slot here and there, probably at least once or twice on every Mindprowler release. When I put that small release together back in 2012 we were doing a lot of mushrooms and other psychedelics, the primary emphasis was definitely on trying to jam as many ear-tickling textures into a track as possible, less thought was given to songwriting and memorability.

Not sure if you're still taking submissions but I just finished recording my first instrumental acoustic full length last night and will probably finish naming, organizing the tracks, and slapping together a cover for it tonight. Let me know if you're still stacking albums on the queue and I'll drop a link later.

Yeah, absolutely. Just drop me a link with the details and I'll add it. Good to have you back, bud. :thumb:

OK, FYI: I'm now assigning ratings to albums, but in my typical style it won't be stars, or marks out of five or ten, or even my Love or Hate rating thing. In order to tie in with the title graphic of this journal, here are the ratings I'll be using, which I'll apply retrospectively to all albums I've reviewed here.
The lowest rating; amAn album that has very little to recommend it, really poor
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An album that has some good stuff on it but needs improvement
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A decent album; nothing terribly special but a good effort
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Above average; really impressive
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Top of the heap. Excellent in every way. Highly recommended.
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lolwtf

How do I get an El Camino / 5?

http://i.imgur.com/BJMk8qe.jpg?1

Only Mondo could write an album with only four songs that yet total over an hour in playing time! Ah well, here we go.
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I Know It's The Trees – Q'uq'umatz (Mondo Bungle) - 2016

There's a very abrupt and sudden opening to “I know it's the trees part 1”,which took me by surprise, as Mondo's albums (or any I've heard) always take a long time to slowly filter in. But this is, I guess, more a Black Metal effort and so it's more immediate. A lot more heavy sharp guitar and not so much the long droning synths. Growling vocals, which are I think the first time I've heard vocals on one of his albums. Are they his? Don't know; he might confirm that later. Slowing down now in the third minute and becoming more of a groove than a thrash (sounds like there could be flutes there? Maybe not) and now we have some sort of tribal drum rhythm coming in. Pretty sweet. Even some funky stuff coming in around the eight-minute mark. Very impressive I must say. Good sort of industrial ending. This first track has not been the endurance test I had feared. I'm actually looking forward to the rest of the album now.

And part two flows directly from that, the industrial, mechanical sounds being shortly tailed back and then cut out altogether by some expressive guitar, almost pastoral (acoustic?) with what may be the synth now coming in behind it. This one is only (!) sixteen minutes long. Like the birdsong, especially given the subject matter. Has he sampled that, or just added it? Somehow it seems to be moulding itself to the melody – oh, he's segueing it into a flute piece. There are definitely flutes. Clever. Very clever. Tribal drums fading in slowly now, Nice busy bassline as things begin to happen fairly rapidly from the sixth minute on, hard to keep up with everything. Think there are screeched vocals there, mad drum solo, swirling synths, punishing guitars, and so on. Like I said, busy. Perhaps slightly organised chaos to a degree. Some excellent shredding now in the eighth minute, really brilliant. Love this.

Getting very frantic and frenetic from the twelfth minute, lot of power and energy here. Starting to fade out now to a squealing synth and bringing back in rolling percussion, finishing up in a flurry of activity and taking us into part three, by far the longest on the entire album, at just short of twenty-eight minutes. Yeah: nearly as long as parts one and two put together! The wailing voices that ended part two continue into part three, but only for a few seconds before the track establishes its own identity, with sharp snappy guitar leading the line, the percussion slower and more deliberate, the basic rhythm reminding me of the Police at times, kind of a white reggae feel to it for a few moments before it breaks out all over the place in an explosion of drums and guitar. Oh, and we're only two minutes in! Some odd animal-like noises now; not sure if that's meant to be singing or to signify beasts in the forest? Slower guitar, grinding along then picking up and running into some more great shredding. More industrial influences coming in as we hit the eighth minute and then it gets a little psychedelic perhaps?

Militaristic drumming with attendant flute in the tenth minute with what sounds like “Angels we have heard on high” :laughing: being played on the guitar in a very sparse and repeating pattern. Twelfth minute gets very atmospheric with soft acoustic guitar and possible distant vocals, sound effects and a very slow drumbeat, and now it's orchestral keyboard in a very dramatic passage taking us into the thirteenth minute, with flute also joining in and what sounds like slightly discordant piano. Amazing stuff, truly amazing. This guy is finally (to me anyway) showing the superb breadth of musicianship he possesses. This is professional quality stuff. Flute and orchestral keys drop out now as muted electric guitar comes in as we move from the fifteenth minute to the sixteenth, though I think I can hear the flute playing a few more notes in the background (could be synth) and then hammering drums as everything flies off again.

Almost twenty minutes in now and it's been a hell of a ride, and a very enjoyable one. Did not expect this at all, which I hope is not taken as offence by Mondo, but everything I've heard from him to date has been a little hard to get through, whereas this is something I could listen to all day long, reminds me of my buddy from Panopticon. Yeah, that good. Taking another turn for the tribal here with shakers (?) and flute grabbing centre stage with a mere four minutes to go. Kind of a warped, twisted ending but it's all good, finishing on soft acoustic guitar and lonely flute. That was the easiest close to half hour single track I have sat through in a long time. And the flutes take us into the closer, a mere six minutes and change as we head into “The forest of revisitation”, with a building line of percussion and feedback (maybe; could be synth) that kind of revisits (obviously) some of the themes of the main album.

Track listing and ratings

I know it's the trees part 1
I know it's the trees part 2
I know it's the trees part 3
The forest of revisitation

Now I see, finally, why everyone says Mondo is such a great musician. This is far and away the best I've heard, not only from him, but is right up there with the best this Showroom has sampled. One of the gems of the musical talent scattered throughout Music Banter, and I look forward to hearing more at some point. Without question, a high watermark in Mondo's compositions, and something that should be selling respectable units at itunes or wherever. Excellent.
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