Shing-a-lings
CD reviews by Mr. Shing-a-Ling
The Go Find: Miami (Electronica, Lap-pop)
When you flip on the radio these days and turn to the popular stations it is seriously depressing at how the overall quality of pop music has plummeted to the deepest of depths. And certainly pop music has for some time now been regarded as predictable and disposable and those craving more innovative interesting music turn to other genres such as Jazz, World, Classic and contemporary symphonic music, avant-garde or whatever.
The MTV music of the 80's (Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Toto, all those gems) which was at the time scoffed at, made fun of, and even dispised, now seems quite listenable (new word) in comparison to what's being offered by the big record companies. Pop has quite simply become crap. You can probably trace the roots to the serious decline in quality to the advent of MTV and the physical image of the artist becoming a huge part of the whole thing.
Well. For those who miss quality pop music we're in luck. Riding on the wave of the newly dubbed "lap-pop" music scene popularized by such artists as The Postal Service and Junior Boys, a new pop project comes to us out of Belgium calling itself The Go Find. Here we have all of the elements we miss from good pop music. Spacious studio layering of altered guitar lines, rich vocals with nice harmonies, sputtering electric and acoustic percussion, and a whole lot of lap top enrichment all coming together and making this release an extremely enjoyable one. They've managed to create a CD with 10 songs that are very dyanamic and at the same time catchy. These are songs to drive to. And if needed....sing to.
Suprisingly, there is very little known about this band even in the indie circles. When I heard it, I thought, "This is the stuff that should be gracing the airwaves nowadays." It's a shame that it's not. Bad music for the masses means bad minds all around. Good music is good nourishment, Sha-shing!!!!!!!! Grade: A-
Adem: Homesongs (folktronica, it's own thing)
Adem is Adem Ilhan from the collaborative experimental unit Fridge. Fridge spawned the increasingly popular Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet. Fridge was one of those groups that were making it harder and harder to file Cd's in their respective catagories at places like Tower and Virgin Records. Is it Rock? Electonica? Folk? Porno Music? What!? Fridge used all acoustic instruments: guitars, basses, bells, even xylophones and children's voices and then went to town with the lap top manipulation. Their 2000 album Happiness was one of my favorites of the year. Then Mr.Hebden went off and did his Four Tet thing which had some things in common with the Fridge sound, but really much more programmy and loopy.
Now we have Mr.Ilhan doing his thing. Homesongs is just that really. A collection of tunes made at home with plenty of overdubbing. Again everything but the blender in the kitchen is used here. All sorts of bells, strings, percussion, and voices. One big difference that Adem has in regards to the Fridge sound is vocals and lyrics. Quite honestly I was turned off a bit at first thinking the vocals took away from the experience of Fridge's instumental sound. But then I quickly realized that this wasn't Fridge. This is a guy making his own sounds. And the album has grown on me alot. Aden's voice couldn't be called "a nice voice" really. He has that sort of almost Kermity the Frogity quality at times, but theres alot of emotion in his voice and it really does go well with his music. This is not an excellent album but it's a very promising debut from the guy. A few songs are very cool..they sound like nothing I've ever heard before: 'There will always be room at my table for you', 'Ringing in My Ear', and 'One in a Million'. On other tracks you get some decent music but nothing that'll really turn your ear. Grade B-
The Go Find: Miami (Electronica, Lap-pop)
When you flip on the radio these days and turn to the popular stations it is seriously depressing at how the overall quality of pop music has plummeted to the deepest of depths. And certainly pop music has for some time now been regarded as predictable and disposable and those craving more innovative interesting music turn to other genres such as Jazz, World, Classic and contemporary symphonic music, avant-garde or whatever.
The MTV music of the 80's (Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Toto, all those gems) which was at the time scoffed at, made fun of, and even dispised, now seems quite listenable (new word) in comparison to what's being offered by the big record companies. Pop has quite simply become crap. You can probably trace the roots to the serious decline in quality to the advent of MTV and the physical image of the artist becoming a huge part of the whole thing.
Well. For those who miss quality pop music we're in luck. Riding on the wave of the newly dubbed "lap-pop" music scene popularized by such artists as The Postal Service and Junior Boys, a new pop project comes to us out of Belgium calling itself The Go Find. Here we have all of the elements we miss from good pop music. Spacious studio layering of altered guitar lines, rich vocals with nice harmonies, sputtering electric and acoustic percussion, and a whole lot of lap top enrichment all coming together and making this release an extremely enjoyable one. They've managed to create a CD with 10 songs that are very dyanamic and at the same time catchy. These are songs to drive to. And if needed....sing to.
Suprisingly, there is very little known about this band even in the indie circles. When I heard it, I thought, "This is the stuff that should be gracing the airwaves nowadays." It's a shame that it's not. Bad music for the masses means bad minds all around. Good music is good nourishment, Sha-shing!!!!!!!! Grade: A-
Adem: Homesongs (folktronica, it's own thing)
Adem is Adem Ilhan from the collaborative experimental unit Fridge. Fridge spawned the increasingly popular Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet. Fridge was one of those groups that were making it harder and harder to file Cd's in their respective catagories at places like Tower and Virgin Records. Is it Rock? Electonica? Folk? Porno Music? What!? Fridge used all acoustic instruments: guitars, basses, bells, even xylophones and children's voices and then went to town with the lap top manipulation. Their 2000 album Happiness was one of my favorites of the year. Then Mr.Hebden went off and did his Four Tet thing which had some things in common with the Fridge sound, but really much more programmy and loopy.
Now we have Mr.Ilhan doing his thing. Homesongs is just that really. A collection of tunes made at home with plenty of overdubbing. Again everything but the blender in the kitchen is used here. All sorts of bells, strings, percussion, and voices. One big difference that Adem has in regards to the Fridge sound is vocals and lyrics. Quite honestly I was turned off a bit at first thinking the vocals took away from the experience of Fridge's instumental sound. But then I quickly realized that this wasn't Fridge. This is a guy making his own sounds. And the album has grown on me alot. Aden's voice couldn't be called "a nice voice" really. He has that sort of almost Kermity the Frogity quality at times, but theres alot of emotion in his voice and it really does go well with his music. This is not an excellent album but it's a very promising debut from the guy. A few songs are very cool..they sound like nothing I've ever heard before: 'There will always be room at my table for you', 'Ringing in My Ear', and 'One in a Million'. On other tracks you get some decent music but nothing that'll really turn your ear. Grade B-
posted by R.Chip DeGlinkta at 11:03 AM
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