Labels: Troubleman
Review by: Nadia Almashoor
Couldn’t care less what shape an envelope is. If it serves it’s purpose, then that’s it. Just like a pen.No matter how lovely the casing is, if it’s engraved,if it has tiny prints of mickey mouse on it. If there’sink and you’re able to write, then cool! Who cares?!And what has all this talk got to do with this album?Absolutely nothing, actually.
For two weeks and two days, it was confirmed I would not condone this. The anticipation and excitement just popped in my face. 8 songs with the same guitarriffage and droning keyboards was just too over-ratedfor my liking. Until last night, for some strangereason I decided to give this another go. And as if afairy sat on my shoulder and charmed me. a differentshade of light glimmered. Miraculously, theintroductory chime like pianos had me totallycaptivated. And then the volume turns up. And then thesynths unleash. The guitars and drums pound away.Accompanied by strained harsh vocals ala Milemarker -Frigid Form Sells. A contagious keyboard melodyfollows up and all this wrapped in a blistering7:40mins. It’s either you love it to pieces or shredyour hair to bits!
‘Cinemathique’ still leaves me terribly confused. Forthose who have the Che Fest compilation on Slowdance,you’ll be familiar with the camera’s contribution of’Sound’. Now Cinemathique sounds exactly like ‘Sound’.Polished, refined and Michelle’s vocals are moreeminent. Now that’s fine by me, if they decided to addmore vocals and structure and go under a differentname. But the thing is, there is a song on here thatis called ‘Sound’ but sounds nothing like *the*’Sound’ on the aforementioned comp. So? So go figure.Just straightforward instrumental akin to Tristezawith more emphasis on the pianos giving it a slightgothic feel.
The more outstanding tracks would have to be ‘TheoryOn Sex As An Art Form’ and ‘Twenty Five Diamonds’.Strongly reminiscing ‘We Talked Midi’ on their 7″ onThree One G. Melodic. Catchy and way out urgent! Othertracks also fall in similar manner, groove anddimension. Finally, the roll of film concludes with apicture of trance-like beats, electro-samples andgrooves. Just perfect.
Another 2 weeks and this will probably make it to oneof my top ten of the year.