Sentimental Sound--Cloudkicker: "Fade"

I thought I'd try a new format of post with this edition of "Reverberate." Basically, this post will speak less from an objective point of view and dive into a more personal experience. The reason I thought I would bring this kind of thing about is because of how music can move is in ways we never thought possible, reaching deep into our very souls and moving us. The concept of music in and of itself is fascinating; how simple audible waves can cause transcendental experiences is something that I cannot explain. But what I can explain is how certain music has affected me. There are some works of music out there that are brilliantly unique and have changed me in some way, shape, or form. I would love to share these experiences and compositions with you, the reader, that you may enjoy them as well and maybe have an experience of your own.

From now on, any episode of "Reverberate" that has the "Sentimental Sound" tag on its name will be of this format rather than the usual objective review. There will be no rating (although I'm sure you can glean a rating from the way the post reads), and I highly encourage you to go listen to the album I've selected. I hope that this is worth your time and as much fun to read as it was to write.

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Selected tracks for listening: "Seattle", "L.A. After Rain"

Oh, how the ripples have traveled...

As you all have probably seen before, I did a review of another Cloudkicker album a few months back, and as you also probably know from that review I absolutely enamor this artist. The sheer magnitude of the soundscapes he creates with his music is breathtaking, and his latest album "Fade" is no exception. While the CD came out a few months back (August), it has taken me a while to truly soak in the genius of this newest work. At first, I was surprised to hear a sheer lack of any metal; I had always considered the previous album "Let Yourself Be Huge" to be a sidestep and that Mr. Sharp would come back to the stream of polyrhythmic brutality. But he also has a tendency to keep his fans on their toes. The grungy rock sound found in "Fade" is a sidestep, but definitely a step in the right direction.

Newcomers to Cloudkicker will probably not understand a good portion of that last paragraph, and for that I am sorry. You are truly missing out and will need to catch up on all of Ben Sharp's work to really get what I am trying to say. However, "Fade" is definitely one of if not the absolute best place for people to start enjoying Cloudkicker. The rock and polyrhythms are still there to give it a distinct flavor, yet the toned-down distortion and aggression will welcome new listeners with wider arms than other albums. But why would I select this particular piece of art as my first subject for a story of an emotional journey?

Long story short, "Fade" changed the way I think about music.

A bold claim, yes, but it's true: ever since I first heard this album, I have thought of music in a completely different way. There are some specifics I will tell you about, but really they all combine to encompass my musical psyche. I feel as though a list would do us well here to really explain what happened to me.

1. "Fade" changed the way I listen to music.

It's true. I was so excited when this CD was released that I started a new habit when I finally get an anticipated album. This process involves laying down on my bed (usually a bit before I go to sleep), shutting off all the lights, donning my headphones, closing my eyes, and listening to the album straight through. Trust me on this one, it is an amazing experience and can happen with more or less any album you desire. Simply put, this causes all brain power to focus on listening to the album; not just hearing it, and not jamming out and becoming all excited. This is where the analyzing can begin, the true listening and understanding of the auditory info that is entering your ears. It is like savoring every bite of a perfectly cooked steak or standing on a high point and seeing the surrounding landscape for miles. It is an experience. Before I did this, I had no idea of what "listening to music" was supposed to mean. Now I can't go back: every new CD that I know is going to be journey gets the same treatment. I appreciate the music more. I enjoy it all so much more. And "Fade" was the one who introduced me to this new method of experience.

2. "Fade" changed the way I think about bass guitar.

Limited edition orange vinyl and CD.
How could I not get one?

Anyone who has heard me play bass before knows that I have a tendency to play a lot of notes somewhat quickly in almost every piece. I add a ton of octaves and fifths to create more body in the sound; it does what it's supposed to but can make the bass sound frantic and rushed. I also make up a lot of stuff on the spot, leading to cool innovations but also bringing on errors as well if I happen to jump outside my skill level. One of the first things I noticed on "Fade" was the bass, both in tone and style. The former was a tinny, grungy distorted sound that was more than addicting. I scrambled to figure out how it was made; I became so obsessed that I eventually emailed Ben Sharp himself, asking how he created the tone. After reading his advice, I still desperately searched for how to accomplish it, trying hoards of different pedals in all kinds of crazy combinations. Finally, I chose a certain pedal and tied up new strings on my bass. The first few strums required some adjustment but I eventually found the sound I had sought after so hard. I had never worked so hard to find a sound before, with exception to one other tone (that of Justin Chancellor from Tool). It was amazing to look back and see myself working so hard to get that divine bass sound. The other notable thing about the bass on "Fade" is its style; summed up into one word, one can only describe it as groovy. No, not in the '60s hippies sense. In the sense that it knew exactly what it was doing in each song and knew exactly how to complement everything in each song. Every bass line is purposeful throughout the album; every moment of pause in the bass lines makes you want to hold your breath until it comes back in, leaving you hanging on edge until it puts its foundation back underneath your feet. There is not a single moment where I have thought of something different that would work as well as these grooves do. It is more or less perfect. Hearing such a pinnacle of purposeful bass playing has changed the way I play. I love making those hanging pauses. I love finding my niche now, as "boring" as it may be, and listening to it glue together the rest of the song. I love finding purpose in my playing; it really is a feeling I cannot describe. And it's all because of this album.

3. "Fade" changed the way I write music.

I love writing music. It is a hobby I have enjoyed since high school, and while I wouldn't claim greatness in it I would go as far as to say that I enjoy a lot of the stuff I write. As I listened to more and more metal, I realized that I could probably write stuff like that, so I began to delve in the world of polyrhythmic mayhem and near-impossible melody. A lot of my earlier writings are ridiculous in the sense that they punish the musician, all for the sake of some weird time signature groove. They're messy, and while they might sound good, the're amateur. Listening to "Fade" opened my eyes to a different style of composing: the simple layering effect. What this means is writing a simple line and then adding another simple layer, and then repeating the process in some way until you have a stack of relatively simple lines that create a song together. This method is clearly heard in older Cloudkicker music and consequently my older compositions, but the pseudo-complexity that "Fade" exhibits is a whole new level of brilliance. Writing simple lines not only makes it easier on the musician but also makes it much easier to play around with melodies. This also shined a ray of hope on my own project that aims to show the diversity of a 6-string bass; if I can write simple lines and put them all together, then I will create more diverse sounds while avoiding the muddiness that usually comes with more complex bass. With all the complex, insane stuff I listen to, however, a step towards the simple would have never been possible without "Fade."

You can even get it on cassette! How classy is that!

It's probably easy to see now why this album means so much to me. Those aspects that I mentioned are some of the things that I enjoy most in life, and even they fail to fully summarize the ways that this album has changed me. This was truly a revolutionary CD for me personally in many ways.

The whole reason I wrote all of this is from sheer excitement over how good this album truly is. Every time I listen to "Fade" it somehow reaches out to me over and over again. I can't honestly say that there has ever been an album that has done this to me before. Granted, some of my more favorite artists have albums that consistently bring me back to them, such as Between The Buried And Me and The Safety Fire. But even those long-time favorites cannot take hold of me in the same way as "Fade" does almost every time. There's something beyond the music here, something deeply rooted in emotions and beyond that has yet to be matched by another work. Something that makes me want to close my eyes and shut out the world every time so it can be just me and the music. I wish I could explain it further, but I cannot, although it stands to reason that some of you know what I am talking about.

After reading this, I implore you: go pick this album up. It's free, and I'll even provide the URL below. Cloudkicker's "Fade" is not an experience that you want to miss. I cannot guarantee that it will take hold of you as it has of me, but I can assure you that the music, and the emotion behind it, are worth every minute spent listening.

Download it here: http://cloudkicker.bandcamp.com/album/fade

Thanks for reading.

Torrent: "The Winged Sun"

Editors's Note: Sorry for the lack of pictures of the band. They are not well know at all, unfortunately. So I put in pictures of other stuff that's cool like them!

An oasis in the vast deserts of metal.

Selected tracks for listening: Pick a song! (Torrent's Myspace album stream)

The Torrent we're actually
talking about!

Metal bands are truly “a dime, a dozen” now days; every year something new is cranked out by some new band hoping to become another solid brick in the repertoire wall that contains the best and the famous. Someone searching for a new band to enjoy might have to wade through a significant amount of garbage to find a worthwhile band. It is this fact that sadly causes some gems to slip away unnoticed, only to be found be those that search hard enough in the right place. Torrent happens to be one of these bands, but hopefully not for much longer.

Bringing their version of melodic death metal to the scene, Torrent sets high standards for themselves with their debut album “The Winged Sun.” The product of a couple people collaborating across the country, the band has somehow remained under the radar for a few years now, quietly creating music and releasing it to the masses. With their release of “The Winged Sun,” however, it is obvious that they deserve far more recognition than they deserve: the album is truly great in almost every way.

This probably could cause torrents of
wind and rain!

Simply put, the production quality of this album is superb. Maintaining a crisp, clear entourage of instruments, “The Winged Sun” gives the listener leeway to listen to every part in the mix and then put it all together again. This combined individuality in the mix is a fine line to traverse: too much and everything would feel disjointed; too little and everything would collapse together into one muddy sound. However, the engineering work done in this album makes it sound delightfully clear without spreading everything too thin. There is one thing that does take away from the immersion, though: the not-so-subtle changes in instrument tone between songs. The most blatant example comes along in “Fallen Cities” in which the bass has a completely different feel and sound. While this does allow it to stick out a bit more in the song, it’s almost too much and fails to support the low end of the song as well as it did in other tracks. It should be noted that this is by far the worst offender; other tone changes are far more subtle. Overall, Torrent manages to give their debut a fantastic mix, and it is obvious that much time and effort went into making sure they got the sound they wanted.

This is the wrong kind of torrent!

“The Winged Sun” embodies its creator’s name, in a way: from the very beginning, the listener is assaulted by wave after wave of heavy riffs with only small spaces of tranquility in between. It is this multitude of small oasis in a vast desert that allows the album to breathe and bring in a sense of variety. Another attribute worth noting is the grandness of scale that Torrent achieves in each and every song. No matter the tone or feel, each song has an impressive body of sound and creates its own sort of small world within the realm of the entire work.

An argument could be made that the songs do sound much the same, and there is definitely enough evidence to support such a claim. Heavy use of harmonic (“Middle East”-sounding) scales and chord progressions can run together a bit, especially in the massive outro, “Leviathan.” When the more unique portions of the tracks are added in, however, it brings back enough freshness into each track to stave off a high level of repetitiveness. Another complaint could be that the songs drag on far too long for their own good; indeed, each part of the album has an average running time of about six minutes, minus the shorter intro and the gargantuan final track. There are times where this may be true: some of the solos can feel tagged on and a bit on the unnecessary side. Whether or not this is a significant problem will come down to each listener. Some will be enthused by the flashy runs of notes; others will probably find them more annoying than anything else.

Look at this dog for no reason!

Where listeners will probably find themselves most divided, however, is in the subject of the vocals. The best comparison is probably found in the band Periphery; Torrent’s vocalist has a similar array of soaring, nasal tenors but utilizes far less screams. There are times where he fits very well with the instrumentation, and there are places where one might wish that he would disappear. It is a very polarizing performance, to say the least, and unfortunately it may be the make-or-break point for some people.

The fact of the matter, though, is that most of these complaints will come down to a personal bias. The vocals may be enjoyable or completely rub the listener the wrong way. The solos may thrill one person and bore the next. It’s inevitable that these focal points will be the deciding factors for many. Despite these particularly polarizing attributes, “The Winged Sun” is still an excellent album at its core. Catchy grooves, tasteful use of breakdowns, and skilled writing all combine together to make Torrent’s first album one to stand tall in the metal music realm. With any luck, the band and their work will soon receive the recognition they truly deserve. Torrent’s “The Winged Sun” shines its way into a:

6 levels of epic-ness out of 7.

Brown Shoe: "The Gift Horse"

The gift that keeps on giving... sometimes.

Selected songs for listening: "Late Nights" 

(Only one I could find; I don't condone the video.)

Someone didn't get the memo...

Alternative rock can be a hard genre for a band to be noticed in; saturation with consistent mediocrity and the generic has a tendency to smother some of the best bands that just can’t seem to become popular on a large scale. Add in the fact that many well-known heavyweights top the charts year after year and a grim outlook forms on the horizon for anyone trying to make it in this particular genre. With their recent release of “The Gift Horse”, California-borne Brown Shoe seems to be trying their best to rise above the forgettable by letting their music speak for itself. Unfortunately, what they dish out just doesn’t appear to be speaking loud enough despite its catchy, easy-going sound.

Being their most recent release, “The Gift Horse” embodies Brown Shoe’s sound in its purest form and, despite having no large-name producer, exhibits a delightfully high production value. All of the pieces in each song are usually present with the occasional moment where the bass slides under the mix to the point of being barely audible. Given the sound and style of the music, however, this fact isn’t all that surprising and never really detracts from the overall sonic value. The most notable part of the mix comes in the form of the copious reverb that bathes each track, giving each song a deep, echoing style that is rather unique and enjoyable. There is even a song that includes a well-placed toy accordion, showing the careful effort spent in instrumentation. It is obvious that Brown Shoe worked hard for crispness and clarity, the latter being especially difficult when so much reverb is included.

3/5 members of Brown Shoe do indeed wear
brown shoes.

There are problems that manifest from their signature reverb, however, most often taking the form of a subtle repetitiveness that never gets shaken off throughout the entire album. While the depth of sound achieved is definitely appreciated, the consistency of the reverb has a tendency to make things run together. This is not helped by the fact that many of the songs choose similar keys, causing some songs to sound altogether similar to the rest of the album. There are exceptions, of course, but pushing some of the tracks into a different key would have given “The Gift Horse” a more diverse feel. This is again compounded by the vocals that, while relatively unique and always well executed, contain the same foundation in every song, bogging down the songs even more into a similar mold. While they have created some very catchy material, Brown Shoe ties itself up in creating that same material many times over, detracting from the overall enjoyment.

A saving grace from all this is the relatively diverse structuring that gives a defining characteristic to each of the songs. The band manages to steer away from falling into a 4/4 rut too often and gives most songs their own rhythmic feel. Slow builds in some songs like “The Run” (which is arguably the best on the album) to faster beats on songs such as “Pauper” bring freshening variety to the whole album, saving the listener from becoming too bored with what sounds similar throughout.

"Oh god, I'm touching a bass guitar! Get it off, get it off!"

The most glaring flaw of this album is certainly the bipolar lyrics, ranging from deeply meaningful to downright confusing to laughably bad. While the focus of the album is obviously relationships and encounters with lovers, Brown Shoe manages to shine in some places and trip over its own feet in others. “C.F.” and “The Run” are surprisingly heavy in lyrical nature and show the band’s potential for solid writing; others such as “All Your Ghosts” and “Sick Man” are so tragically terrible to the point of distraction. It’s a crying shame, really: there is a large opportunity for musical brilliance by combining skilled writing with enjoyable music, but the chance has been squandered. Instead, the listener is left with a raised eyebrow and a reason not to give them a chance.

Despite these complaints, the album is still enjoyable. At heart, Brown Shoe really is just an alternative rock band: a far less known American answer to Coldplay, in a way. “The Gift Horse” feels like an album that one might listen to while driving down the road on an overcast day or while watching the rain drip down the window during a storm. It’s upbeat and yet surprisingly gloomy, but it never really shakes an unfortunate vice of sounding a bit bland. Were it not also for the appalling writing, this album and its creator would have far more potential to be a widely known act. Brown Shoe’s “The Gift Horse” manages to bring home a:

4 questionable verses out of 7.