A Shilmafone Mixdown! Is That The Apocalypse I Hear, Or Merely The Millions of Cicadas? Jun 05 '04 (Updated Jan 25 '05)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 by The Prodigy From $11 Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 The Bottom Line Watch Shilmafone give CrypticCradle a musical massage that leaves blood oozing out of his ears. Hey, you all know me, I'm a pretty laid-back and mellow person here on epinions. I really don't pay much attention to the drama - hell, even the drama that I'm a part of. I just write, don't do much complaining. It's all good. But there is this _one_ thing I always wanted to participate in and damnit, I always felt left on the outside. That is the mighty mixtape exchange we have going here. So, one day, after seeing shilmafone review a mixtape (last year(!)) I asked him if he wanted to exchange. Well, as we all know, the baby factory had shilms very preoccupied at the time but eventually, we got to exchanging. And what I got was the Save The Entire Planet mix CD. And holy crap, what a trip it has been. Before I get into individual songs, I'll say this: I have no frickin' idea what most of this stuff is all about. I'm pleading ignorance to the highest degree. That doesn't mean I don't like some of this stuff, it just means some of it I could just _not_ get into. Talk about going out of your comfort zone; I felt like I was naked in a homosexual bondage club. Anywho, let's get onto the mix. For Real - Tricky What a cool opener! This is more or less a spoken word meets weird indie rock type of joint. The guy speaking has this really gruff voice with a British accent (??? I don't know accents well). What he's saying seems quite irrelevant in that the guitar strumming, subtle sitar outbursts, and insanely constant drum patterns are enough to consume the air waves. But hold on, did he just say, "you're super-sperm"? That Mike, what a kidder. 4/5 Chinese Burn - Curve I wish I was on drugs right now. This beast is like electronica speed/crack/heroin/somethin'. It's one of those techno-type joints that always has some sort of sound over-screaming everything else. What those sounds are, I don't know so it's hard to describe. There's also some blanketed singing in there but that's pretty inconsequential - the breaks are the best part. Think: something you'd see in a gratuitous action film that focuses on an ecstasy ring in some club circuit about to get busted. And hey, the music isn't necessarily bad in those movies. 4/5 Misinformed - Soul Coughing The drum beat here is really tight. Sounds like one of those people in Stomp just chillin' on his block, laying down some percussion. It's pretty minimal with some pretty cocky singing going on. About half way through, the singing and all these weird noises just start swirling around a tad. I'm not sure what I think of that. In a way it sounds really cool but in a way, it just seems like the guys in the studio said, "hey, let's just play with various buttons and see what happens." That can be good but, I can't listen to this one too much due to the second half. 3/5 Corvette Bummer - Beck Mike said he was making this mix bit more hip-hop fused so that I could get into it and this song is one of the best examples of his tailoring. The break beats here are insane! Very hard, just like I like 'em. And besides that, everything is pretty minimal - again, the essence of old-school hip-hop. There are a few guitar screeches here and there and oh, what is this I here, a little scratching? Beautiful. I must say, Beck's rapping is a little odd but I can dig it. Another good song. 4/5 The Wretched - Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor is like a pioneer of industrial or something, right? Well if he's the God Father, I am more or less a dissenter and am currently endangered of being tracked down, tortured, and then thrown in a hole somewhere in the middle of a Phoenix desert. The busy, intense guitar playing on the chorus is about all I can get into with this song. I am a very lyrically oriented music listener but the deliver of the vocals matters to me, too, and this whole delivery overshadowed by the annoying screeching, and underscored by horrorcore type music doesn't do much for me. Sorry. 2/5 So Low - Self Loved this song the first time I heard it. The vocals can be considered borderline whiny but I don't care. They work and work beautifully. The song revolves around those really sad moments you can have when you're in love and are not having that love reciprocated. Like, "man I just wish I was dead". Or like they put it, "I'm so low that I wish I was dead/ With a knife in my chest and a bullet in my head". With good instrumentation, it's obviously that this song is very focused on the lyrics, and I generally favor that. The guitars rock, the drums beat, and they do their part but it's all about the emotions and heart. "I only miss you when I'm with you" 5/5 Worlock - Skinny Puppy Mike, really, I respect that this is your favorite group (or one of them). Really! But, no, there is nothing I personally like about this song. The synthesizers here sound very synthetic and cheap, the orchestra samples that pop in under them sound very out of place, the drums are not as cool as I had envisioned them, and what the hell is this guy saying? It's like half of his voice is coming out of a robot, the other half is coming out of his bunghole. Then again, from what I know, they have a pretty solid following so perhaps this is just not for me. 1/5 The Keeper of the Margarita - Pig AWESOME DRUMS! (I know that's getting redundant but it's a big constant on this mix). The drums straight pound and echo to pure bliss. They're slow, which goes with the haunting atmosphere of this song but wow, they are really cool. Neat sound effects too. Plus, the weird, sort of distorted, band-stand stuff that comes in toward the end is something that's oddly blissful. But I'm guessing that creepy singing and the horrorcore mentality of this industrial stuff is a norm and I'm not feeling that too much at all. Even in my hip-hop listenings, where much of the stuff I listen to is cerebral, I'm drawn more to melancholy/sad stuff then that which terrifies me. Hence, the OK but not great score. 3/5 Torque - Sister Machine Gun "Every little bit counts"? That should be positive right? "Livin' ain't livin' in a small amount?" That's positive too, in my eyes. But it seems like the dark, jamming guitars, and weird voices (the one's that aren't in my head) that swirl around are going counter to the sentiments of the lead singer. That sort of juxtaposition is very novel but on multiple listens, doesn't last with me. I don't dislike this song and I don't particularly like it either; especially in the long-run. 3/5 Risingson - Massive Attack This one is dominated by fluttering electronic effects, seizure cymbals, and soothing but creepy vocals that surround the lead singer here. The lead singer is more or less speaking. Again, the problem with the vocals are that I can't really follow them much. This song might feel melancholy to some but on the other hand, it fails to touch me. Actually, it just makes me feel weird and uncomfortable. 2/5 Get The Girl, Kill The Baddies - Pop Will Eat Itself What a great band name, huh? The drums come in in a very involved, busy pattern, with the odd electronics quirks running along them like a stream in perfect harmony. The guitars that come in make it more abrasive, and a bit jarring at first, but I like it. The more I listen to this one, the more I truly enjoy it. The lyrics were tough to follow at first as they skipped around with the instrumental but eventually, I was able to grasp their style. This is just an incredibly well-constructed song - technically perfect. I'm feelin' it. 5/5 Beetles - Aphex Twins This is sort of like the mix's interlude and wow, I love it! Weird synthesizers stand alone with vocals sprinkled in here and there. It just feels really free and peaceful. The guy is muttering something about beetles and his carpet which is really nothing so interesting but his voice blends perfectly with the cool music. 5/5 Army - Ben Folds Five Bliss in the piano. Yay! The constant quarters Ben Folds jams in on the 88 keyed instrument of wonders really brings this one in strong while the breaks allow him to flex more quick-fingered skills. The bit of distorted guitar here and there really add to the already full soundscape. Then they even jam-out on the piano for a bit. It's just straight good music - universal in appeal. I'm not even really a Ben Folds fan but this one I can get into time and time again. "On the eve of my election/ I say to my reflection/ God please spare me more rejection/ 'Cause my peers they criticize me/ And my ex-wives all despise me/ Try to put it all behind me/ But my redneck past is nipping at my heels" 5/5 Dogma - KMFDM No, bad. This I could handle about as well as the Skinny Puppy song. It starts with some woman ranting over an "instrumental" (it's really a lot of random noise at first) about how crappy industrialized (I s'pose) culture is. I mean, I agree with the stuff she's saying but this is not an artistic way to express it. The guitars, which come in a bit later, just sound like noise to me. She keeps ranting and ranting and ranting. I just don't feel a harmony with any of this song. That can work sometimes, don't get me wrong, but it just doesn't work this time; at least for me. 1/5 Rock The House - Gorillaz What a refreshing song after "Dogma". My long-lost brother Del jumps on this funky, horn-laden track and just rips it on chill-mode. It's like Deltron 3030 got back together and just jammed. Of course, this song was right in my comfort zone and is truly an anomaly on this mix. But I like. 4/5 Lost Rivers of London - Coil The atmosphere of this song, oddly, makes me think that this is what plays in the abyss. The quiet synthesizers bring in a bunch of very visual spoken word stuff. The vocals just add to that feeling that this song was created in some sort of void. And the very somber, seemingly possessed, monk-like singing just adds enough of a horrific element to captivate me that much more. None of this is in-your-face but the total product comes together quite nicely, evoking lots of weird but cool feelings. 4/5 Overall, I'm very pleased with what Mike gave me. Yes, some of it is unlistenable for me but some of it I find quite fantastic. However, I'm just glad to have heard this, so that I know more about all of the music that's out there. Thanks to Mike for this trippy experience! - - - This was a trade. Mike gave me a mix and I gave him one! Read about his impressions of what I sent him right here. * * * * * * * * * * For more information about Cryptic Cradle and his reviews, please click here. * * * * * * * * * * Written by Cryptic Cradle for Spike-A-Delic Productions.

Read all comments (12)|Write your own comment

Write an essay on this topic.