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"
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| 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.
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| 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."
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| 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.
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