CasioKids – Golden Years
Chiming orchestral pondering with a playful pop backdrop and the sincere low-key cry of Ketil Kinden Endresen sets the scene for a reflective glide, ‘Golden Years’. Nordic nostalgia contrasts with a rumbling rhythm base, allowing part of the mind to wander and the other bit to focus on a pressing matter.
More bass is added to and an almost lounge vibe takes hold of the ‘Bathers Remix’, before morphing into a rhythmically rousing samba skirting sojourn. This release, as a whole, is more focused and less incongruous than the previous pop distorting foray, ‘Det Haster’. Seen together, these tracks highlight the potential spice, variety and adventure of this instrumentally nimble outfit.
Mike Patton – The Solitude of Prime Numbers
Mike Patton’s new album is another film score. Kind of. It’s “music from the film and inspired by the book,” which from my understanding means that it’s music from the score and the stuff that was left on the cutting room floor.
Solitude of Prime Numbers is an Italian film that looks like it won’t be released in the States. It’s a bit of a shame, because I’d like to hear the music in the context it’s meant to be heard in. So I tried to read the novel which is extremely depressing. Which I’m fine with, but didn’t really find much depth in the characters outside of being lonely and miserable.
But the music is very good. Quite different than his last two scores. This one’s a bit more somber and ambient. Very string and piano laden synths. Looking through the credits, Patton thanks Carpenter which wasn’t immediately apparent, but makes sense thinking about it now. I guess the best way to describe it is as one of those artsy albums that I probably won’t think to listen to a lot, but will enjoy very much when I do.
VRSA – Galaxia
OK. So the year’s ending, and because the site was down, busy schedule, and general procrastination, I’ve had a couple albums sitting around for months that I’ve been intending on reviewing. I’m going to reacquaint myself with these albums and give a couple quick reviews to get myself caught up as I’m already getting albums to be released next year.
Galaxia is the sophomore effort from the Connecticut rock group. This is a pretty different album from last year’s Old Man Gray. For one thing the songs are longer. Its more of a streamlined writing style. The diversity is found more within each song as opposed to splitting up into different songs.
Like Old Man Gray it starts out with a heavy rocker and progresses to spacey jams. It’s cool. If you like the first, you shouldn’t be disappointed. If you haven’t heard the first, check one them out. Seriously.
Fantomas – The Director’s Cut Live: A New Year’s Revolution
Over ten years after Fantomas released their Director’s Cut album featuring covers of film and television themes, they release a DVD and mp3 album (available separately) of a live version recorded (it doesn’t specify, but I think it was) New Year’s Eve 2008/’09.
I’ll start with the album: It’s OK. Not too different from the original. Maybe some parts are extended. I’d probably only recommend it for completists. It does also have an encore of Simply Beautiful. The other difference is that the drums are played by Dale Crover and not Dave Lombardo. But they’re played similarly enough though.
But the DVD is where it’s at. I’m generally not into concert DVDs. This one’s OK. It at least has multiple camera angles and looks good. There are also some goofy things in there that I don’t want to ruin, but enhances the experience greatly.
The real reason that you NEED this DVD is the commentary which is provided by America’s Funnyman Neil Hamburger. Which, by itself, was awesome enough when I found that out. But when I selected the feature a couple nights back, I was delighted to find that it’s not just an audio commentary. There’s video of Neil watching the video while the concert plays in the bottom corner. It elevates an awesome feature to totally amazing.