Sypmtoms – Elliot Sphinx
2009 – LoFi Kabuki
Hip-Hop
He raps well and spits with an entertaining sense of rage, but still I couldn’t seem to take him seriously. Perhaps it’s because his flow consists of little more than emphasising sibilants over the top of the heavier beats.
On the upside, the floating future-techno beats that make up the actual music of the piece are well crafted and there’s a good nod towards the surreal hip-hop movement of the early nineties. His lyrics too sometimes hit some real highnotes and make you take a moment to ponder. Occasionally they flirt with distasteful (no, I’m not talking about swearing), but generally his rhymes work well.
Overall, however, nothing really jumps out as particualry special about Sphinx. It’s not bad and there’s nothing I can really pinpoint as getting on my nerves, but it just passes the listener by without making much of an impact.
RATING: C
Get The Album Here: http://lofikabuki.bandcamp.com/album/symptoms
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This Is Darkness Descended – Unquiet
2013 – Independent
Alternative/ Metal
The riffs are great and the vocals are incredibly weak. A mixed bag of amatuer metal meanderings really. It booms with Wagenrian severity when it needs to and ramps up into frenzied hardcore when it seems appropriate, which indicates that these boys have a pretty good understanding of their form, but still the vocals (almost inaudible by way of being hidden at the back of the mix) make the thing somewhat lackluster.
I will say that the drummer for Unquite is a force to be reckoned with, and that his raw energy is more than formidable. Skillwise too I suppose one must give him a bit of credit, but really it’s the manic pounding that peaked my interest.
In summary I’d say that fans of death and doom would probably get a kick out of it, but that the more casual metal listener might not find quite as much to enjoy here. Can’t mark them down for knowing their market.
RATING: C+
Get EP Here: http://unquiet.bandcamp.com/
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Boogapalooza 2000 – The Plywood Staircases
2000 – Independent
Alternative/ Experimental
Is it a joke or is it something deeper? To be honest I don’t really have any anwser to that, but there is definitely something mesmerizing about this band of freaks and weirdos.
The noises jangle and hop around as if they think they might want to turn into recognizable music at any moment, but they so rarely do. By the same token, however, one can’t really call it anything other than music. It’s a deconstruction of what pop music consists of in the modern world, but it does it all with such a sense of silliness that one can’t even go so far as to call it pretensious… at least I don’t think I can.
Really it’s just a record that has been listened to and experienced before one could understand anything about it. It’s just too damned odd to describe.
Entrancing as it is, however, I’ve got to say that it might be just that little bit too strange to call a masterpiece. On occasion it flirts with normality long enough to be catchy, but for the most part it just inhabits its own special world and does its own thing.
RATING: B+
Get Album Here: http://theplywoodstaircases.bandcamp.com/album/boogapalooza-2000
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Filed under: Micro Reviews
