Vol2 reviews

There's nothing better than waking up late on a Saturday and spending it listening to new music.

Cameron King-- I really enjoyed this song. Like other people have mentioned, the textures created by the piano and guitars are great. Also, the falsetto voice gives it this ethereal feel. Love it, and can't wait to hear more, hopefully, in the future.


Brad Adams--This reminded me of some kind of ending to a musical. With puppets. Nice message, nice lyrics. The harmonies in the sung vocals muddied it up a bit though.

Eric Putnam--The intro track cracked me up. I was a little afraid of what the unplugged electric bass was going to sound like, but it's actually really REALLY cool. I might have to try that in the future. The Bear Sky is probably my favorite track on the album. The ambient, kind of droning of the bass drum and the... I'm not sure what that is, but I like it... gives the song a trance-like feel, and then when the bass comes in, yeah. Cool. The vocals in Valium were great. I especially like where you took it on "we need something for the pain." I feel like a different synth sound would have made it better though. It's kind of in your face. Something similar, just not as edgy would give it the same feel I think. Future Phantom's lyrics were great. I love abstract lyrics. Great job!

Lobster Shanty and the Crab Rangoons--I thoroughly enjoyed these songs. It has that pop feel that is heard in Vampire Weekend and other bands like them. Sing On is my favorite track of the three. Love the edgy feel. It kind of reminded me of Jack White in some spots. I really don't have any real criticisms. Great Job!

Logan Bradley--I've heard most of your RT submissions from the past and I've always enjoyed them. This definitely has a different vibe (which you were going for). I was going to review each one, but it turns out that I was basically saying how much I liked each one. It was really nice to hear you doing different types of vocals. Quite a versatile voice. My favorite tracks were Gin Soaked and Eighth Day. Great work!

Mike Weber-- I've always been a fan of the electronic music we studied in college. Probably why I throw myself at it the way I do. The problem with a lot of electronic artists these days is that they don't connect with their audiences. I strive to create something for the audience to connect to when I create electronic music because, while I appreciate the work of Reich, Riley, Lansky, etc. I know a lot of people just don't get it. Mike's work does remind me a lot of some of the electronic pieces I and most of us created in computer music 1 and 2. Going back to those traditional electronic music techniques. My only wish for this would be to take it somewhere else. Try using those techniques in a way that you hadn't thought of before. I love this genre of electronic music, but it does get a bit tiring when every other piece sounds like the other.
1. Green: I love the minimal style of this piece. The steady vibe motif through the whole piece isn't overly distracting because it is buried within the mix and it has all of the swirling textures flowing in and around it.
2. Swan: I enjoyed the way Mike used the noise to bring in and out the different tones and sounds. There were moments where I felt I could feel some lower frequencies wanting to come in but they never did. It was both dis-heartening and satisfying at the same time, giving a feeling of longing almost.
3. Blue then yellow then red: I wasn't exactly fond of the beginning of this, but I always love granular clouds. So, once that came in, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great use of panning.
4. I didn't know we had tamales in here: This piece is very meditative in nature. It began to be a little predictable in spots though. Whenever a new sound would jump to the surface, it always originated in the right channel and moved over to the left with a higher bell/voice sound. It would have been nice to change up the pattern a bit.
5. Tanner than: The rhythmic pulsing really added to this track. It's always there, until it isn't. Very nice use of the build up to cover the clack's escape.
6. Blurring out the radio: I feel like this could have been made longer by waiting to bring in the bell/choir sound, and maybe fading it in more. It's a little abrupt. Other than that, great!
7. Lab dots: I was a little hesitant about this piece at first, but it grew on me with the introduction of the vocal. Again, I feel that it could have been a lot longer. Maybe playing with the vocal sounds.
8. Thr33: This should have been left attached to Lab dots. It's short enough and continues the vocal stuff along the same lines that I wanted in Lab dots. I feel that it cuts off rather abruptly though.
9. They call me cici: Probably my favorite piece on the album.

I really enjoyed the way each piece had a motif and stuck to it for the most part. The noise based sounds really create a feeling of cohesion between the separate tracks on the album. The only thing I wish was that it wasn't as "in the box" with regard to the traditional electronic music realm.