words of wisdom

zak Joined: Sep 24, 2007 Posts: 2728	Posted on Nov 29 2007 06:51 PM This post has been removed by the author. Last edited: Sep 28, 2009 00:45:33 Top
CaptainSpringfield Joined: Feb 26, 2006 Posts: 4387 Under the Sun	Posted on Nov 29 2007 07:43 PM Well, Zak beat me to the punch on this one, but here goes anyways. There is no getting around the Man or Astroman comparisons, both in a good and bad way. What's interesting is that there are songs on "Version 1.5 RC2" that represent each phase of MoAM - even the post-Star Crunch era. And though the songs are strongly reminiscent, the guitar tones are - surprisingly - much cleaner. And, for the most part, the songwriting ia a lot more interesting than most of the bands that tend to mine this sort of territory. In that regard, the Tsunami Experiment blow The Honkeys completely out of the water. Don't get me wrong, the band does draw from some other sources - "The Wave Machine" is highly reminiscent of The Volcanos at times, and not just due to the lead part frequently switching off between guitars. And they also cover "Dick Tracy," by the Ventures. (Then again, so did MoAM.) This is a decent release, to be sure, but a few factors hold the EP (or short album) back from being great, or even really good. Mainly, it's due to the drumming - sometimes it's easy to tell that it's a drum machine. On other songs, though, it's possible that they might be samples of live drums, since the feel is still abnormally rigid and the fills end in really weird places. Secondly, the shorter songs tend to feel undeveloped, and - like the drum fills - end at really unexpected moments. The mix tends to be undynamic, and in some cases just short of sterile. While the variance in tones between songs is nice, there are a few moments where the production misses the mark. The bass tones on "Sling Shot" and the guitar-less parts of "Wormhole Wipeout" come dangerously close to that annoying, treble & mid-range-y sound more commonly associated with slap bass. For me, the highlights were definitely "Level 10" and "The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow" (complete with several samples from the cheesy B-movie of the same name). Both are very energetic and catchy, and work well in spite of the really unexpected ending for the former and canned drums on the latter. The Tsunami Experiment definitely has promise - almost every song has at least one part that works really well and sticks in the recesses of the mind after only one or two listens. From "Version 1.5 RC2," I definitely got the impression that they would be really good in a live context - especially with real drums. -Warren — That was excessively violent and completely unnecessary. I loved it. Top
Johnny_Alien Joined: Jul 11, 2007 Posts: 66 Harrisburg, PA	Posted on Nov 29 2007 07:55 PM Thanks for the reviews guy. To clarify there is both a drum machine and a real drummer on that recording (typically switching back and forth within the song...I don't think any track has the dm all the way through although some have live drums for the whole song) and while it's not my band I assume that Zak is right and that it was done to increase the sci-fi feel. They do have a full time drummer though and I think the recording they are working on now has less to possibly no drum machine on it. Top

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words of wisdom