review :: moron
I should make a couple of things clear at the start. I do not like EBM
(you will not find a single Skinny Puppy record in my collection and I
would have sold off my Numb CD ages ago if it wasn't a mangled promo). My
tastes veer towards the more abrasive side of things (labels like Ant-Zen,
DHR, Relapse, etc.) and my current faves include Imminent Starvation,
Sielwolf and Alec Empire. Second of all, I have plenty of respect for SMP
- they are totally DIY, hard working and supportive of other independents.
With that for background I can get to the point - I did not like this CD at
all. I'll go into detail in a moment but keep in mind that if you like
EBM, all of my complaints may be exactly what you are looking for (remember
which end of the barometer I am on).
A while ago scanning through CD's at a local music hovel I noticed an SMP
release. Seeing it was from Seattle (which is close to Victoria) I took
a gander. In all, an interesting brew mixing elements of EBM'ish
industrial with rap vocal styling but staging the meeting place in far
tougher territory than 'Ultimatum' dares to go. I had serious expectations
around this release which may also be why I am so disappointed with it.
'Ultimatum' suffers from three major flaws: it's repetitive, it's too long
and it's mediocre as all get out. My initial complaint is that the many of
the songs blur into one another because of over use of the standard Big
Black two note riff that EVERYONE has used to death since the mid 80's
(i.e. pick a note on the keyboard, step write a whack of quarter notes and
then play one note up for the last one of the bar). One song could be
forgiven (especially if driven) but I would say at least 60% of the songs
suck back that formula. Next up is that despite the fact that SMP are
mainly drummers, why does this sound like they step wrote it with
quantization set to quarter notes? I could again, forgive lack of
inventive bass lines if the rhythms were explosive and varied but most
drummers could probably do their taxes while hammering out this stuff. On
top of that, there is very little variance in instrumentation other than
samples that for the most part sound 'layered on top' as opposed to
'integral' to the songs. My final beef is the production. Everything is
clear and all but it has a certain 'sterility' that unlike some releases,
robs this one of power and immediacy. The vocals in particular have been
turned into an almost annoying 'patter' by stripping them any low-end and
burying them in the mix. C'mon, if you are going to use rap stylings at
least give the vocals some gonads. You can tell that the singer has 'em
but was robbed in the production stage. Also, everything has a sameness to
it (mainly due to the compositions) that some studio tweaks could have
drastically changed. By simply handing the knobs over to more people
this release could have been drastically improved. Instead the results are
dance floor ready fodder ripe for when you are too drunk to grind to
something challenging.
There are a couple of breaks in the monotony here and there (still tightly
within EBM boundaries though) but it's a case of too little too late. My
hunch is that a 'remix' version of this CD would be a billion times better
since this stuff would serve best as building blocks for other material.
SMP have the capability to do far more interesting and less derivative work
so I hope that their next effort veers closer to the land of 'tearing me a
new asshole' instead of a more mundane 'would you like fries with that'
EBM strip mall.
posted by:
moron on 1998-10-05 00:00:00
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