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- January 2008
- Rating: 2/10
Experimental electronica. Dull.
Anything that smacks of experimental can be dodgy business. And so this is.Not many musicians (or computer wizards) can carry it off. Probably the bestat it is Jean Michel Jarre et al.
Any kind of music thats special is intended to touch us in some way. It makesthe rest sound ordinary which this protracted title and sonic effects is. Itfeels like Richard Swift has set his controls to the heart of muzak, leavingus to conclude that its cold and contrived.
Ashes, is just one minutes worth of ambient nothingness. “The bestway to relax is to lie down upon your bed and stretch up…”, he opensInst, followed by, yep, you got it, a programmed beat layered bydistorted vocals and quirky instrumentation. Subplot crackles in andonwards for nearly three minutes.
A tedious Shooting A Rhino is a major low point, again nothing more than aimlessly drifting F/X, segued by equally dire Plan A & Plan B,supplemented by the sound of raindrops. After what sounds a promising start,Theme 5 just goes, on and on. War/Un War is equally boring.
Theres a lot of bish-banging on Theme 3 with Swift failing to add any real dynamic meaning to the continuing tininess, while the clanging profile ofGhost Of Hip Hop takes on a far more sombre tone.
File under: Best left for space movies.
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Ashes
2. Inst
3. Subplot
4. Shooting A Rhino Between The Shoulders
5. Plan A & Plan B
6. Theme 5
7. War / Un War
8. Theme 3
9. Theme 4
10. Clay Young Battles The Man
11. Ghost Of Hip Hop (New Apostles remix)
12. They Provide Lights
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.