flawed:LOGIC

Listening to AJ Rosales’ latest release “Ultramarine”, I find myself wanting more. Unfortunately, it’s not because it was so amazing that I must hear more, but rather that it seems to be missing something. Cohesiveness, perhaps? Direction, maybe? On the other hand, it’s a pretty creative album, and he definitely earns my respect there. Because I’m so torn about how I feel about this record, I’m going to present my review in a point/counterpoint-type format.

Positive: The melodies are almost perfect. While there are a few things I might have changed if I was involved in the production process, they are absolutely memorable and you will definitely feel yourself humming them to yourself even after one listen. Not to mention that they are not your regular 4 chord progression – there is real depth here that is seemingly non-existant nowadays.

Negative: My first main problem with this disc is that it’s being marketed as “folk rock”, however the first songs remind me of the alternative rock of the 90’s. It could be that my definition of folk rock is narrow minded, but when I imagine “folk rock”, guitar solos heavy on the distortion aren’t the first things that come to mind. This might not sound like a major gripe, but as soon as I’m even aware of the existance of an album, I start imagining what it might sound like, but being bombarded with loud drums and a fairly screaming guitar when I’m expecting an acoustic guitar and a violin isn’t the way that you necessarily want to impress me.

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Recently, I had a chance to listen to a disc called “A Project Called Red” recently released on Nonexistant Recordings by Stabilizer. A mix of what I guess you would call IDM, speed-something, and/or electronic rock, it’s quite different from the music I’m used to listening to. Rather than the usual melodic, acoustic guitar that I’ve become accustomed to turning on whenever I get a chance, much of it is quite aggressive, with syncopated rhythms, and synths coming at you from every which way.

Start at the bottom and work our way up

I would love to say “Oh God, I’m putting this on my Zune right now” or “This music is obviously sent to us from God himself”, but I’m really stuck wondering if maybe I just don’t “get it.” Yes, there seems to be melodies (or at least attempts at melodies), but they are interspersed with odd choices of random pads and beats that I personally don’t dig.

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Truth be told, when I was approached by Michael Mancuso a.k.a Esselfortium to review his upcoming CD “A Terrible Flood”, with his description of it being “electronic; some downtempo, some drum’n'bass, some IDMish stuff, and some things in between”, I was apprehensive — no, not apprehensive — I was a bit nervous that I was going to be subjected to 60 minutes of the same FruityLoops drum line, with one or two synth lines layered over top; you know, the usual whenever someone on the internet produces “IDM”. Call it prejudiced, but I’ve spoken with probably 20 internet-based “IDM producers” and my God, it was all the exact same: they created one little line in some audio production program, called it a masterpiece, and decided to unleash the horrors upon my ears. Oh, and all this while refusing to take any criticisms about their so-called “art.”

As I contemplated listening to this album, I weighed the pros and cons of being able to hear for the next month. On one hand, I wouldn’t be able to hear my girlfriend; on the other, I wouldn’t be able to hear my girlfriend. [Editor's Note: No, seriously Sarah, that's just a joke. Calm down. OK, please put away the knife.] Throwing caution to the wind, I made the decision to queue up one song. If I wasn’t either deaf or filled with rage after listening to one song, I would fulfill his request and review the entire thing.

Completely at random (I closed my eyes, and pointed to one of the songs on my screen), “The Airport” was chosen as my sample track. Repetitive drum line? Nope. Annoying as hell synth line assaulting my ears? Nada. Rather catchy intro? Surprisingly, yes!

Maybe I won’t have to cry myself to sleep tonight, after all.

This breakbeat-laced song was incredibly pleasing, and almost had a video game feel, but held back just enough to not make me want to find my Super Nintendo and bust out my mad StarFox moves. (Thank God.) The only downfall of the entire song (and this is a very minor nitpick, which may in fact be fixed in the final version of the track¹) is that the 50’s-based sound bytes that are sprinkled throughout seem to be drowned out by the bass drum at times, so it’s rather hard to hear everything they say. Otherwise, definite thumbs up!

The next song that I loaded into my media player was “Nälpordyh”, a quick 36 second interlude which brings to mind pictures of a very tranquil lake, early in the morning, as the sun is rising; sitting on the edge of the water, watching everything come alive as the day restarts. I should note for the attentive reader, that the title is actually “Hydroplän” in reverse which is fitting, as the entire song sounds as if it was being played backwards.

Directly following “Nälpordyh”, is “Kaianide”, another great melody layed over a very heavy breakbeat. As strange as it is to say, even with the most distorted synths (the good kind) on the entire album, for some reason it also feels like the most organic. I’m not sure if he intended it that way, but it just seems to be earthy; almost tribal in nature.

Getting closer to the end of the disc, “Urban Rainforest” has a great atmosphere to it; you can almost feel the rain falling down on you, as you contemplate why your girlfriend just told you she didn’t love you anymore. It’s emotional, and downtrodden, but curiously cleansing at the same time; quite a different song from the rest of the album — all of the other songs seem rather upbeat or if not upbeat, perhaps a bit aggressive — this one is unique in that it’s almost defeatist in nature.

All in all, while I wouldn’t necessarily call it one of my favorite albums of all time, considering I’ve never really listened to this kind of music before (in large quantities, anyways) I was quite impressed and will be adding it to my Zune. If you like melodies, breakbeats, emotion, or all 3, check this one out — you’ll be happy you spent the money.

Artist’s Website | [CD is still in post-production; no purchase link at the moment]

¹ – The copy of the CD that I received as review material is still in post-production phase. As such, there may be a few differences between my copy and the final product.