Be Wary of Resellers!
Isah | Eugene, Or | 12/12/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Baught album thru resellers and twice recived pirated versions. Finnaly baught thru amazon itself and got the real deal. It was worth the time it took to get the goods. A rare album, a real treat."
New Spin on Eighties Space Rock
Mr. P. Power | Chicago, Illinois USA | 11/25/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"A Pretty Decent album for a guy thats playing everything.
I will watch for other albums and like to see where he goes with this. I like the music side of the equation the best. It has a modern feel to with it's sublineal jazz lines and chords layerd into the guitar and drum machine. Often the Lyrics seem spacer sounding than a lot of the music I think. The Songs are never brash or reckless. Yet still far enough away from easy-listening genre. At times nicley Avant-Garde. Lots of sustained power chords here...not that there's anything wrong w/that };-)
I Liked the 1st Cut "Ashland" (about a Long N.& S. St.in Chgo.) the Best. (I Think he's a Chicago boy) I really like the way he handles the synths. They are varried with lots of layered and rich sond parts. At times this L.P. reminds me of Prefab Spout, or Tears for Fears.
Contrast: The vocals sound like straight-up college radio... not bad really, at times they remind me of the beach boys meets Thomas Dolby maybe. Yet singing style dosn't seem to be able to fully deliver electic and delicate lyrics that wax poetic. Poetic they may be, they tend to sound a little contrived and wordy. (Sorry) It's just that they seem to slow down the speed of the music as they get worked around it. I Do like the spoken word parts they seem to work well, reminesent of trance music which tends to embrace the space-rock themes as well.
I like the that he's trying to elevate this space-rock genre, as he explors new themes and new ways to express them. Though the lyrics often leaves the listener wondering and/or spending to much time trying to get a handle on whats he singing about. There's enough sonicly happening I can let go and ride the contour of the pieces.
But if you have a fair size collection I'm sure you have several L.P.s that you like the sound-groove and never really payed to much attention to the words anyway lest the few phrases that manage to be in the songs hook.
A lot of Talking heads music/lryics were like that for me. David Byrne (on the Stop making sense dvd) admits "Burning Down the House" was put together from a long list of non-related sayings he just liked and strung together, that and the title came from a crowd chant at a P-Funk concert.
Also I really liked the albums by the canandian group F.M. they did some really cool space rock albums (late 70's early 80's) with some good futureisic themes/lyrics but anything by them is hard to find nowdays.
Do Keep and Eye out for William Steffey
"
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1