Labels: Keep It Together
Review by: Samuel Fowler
Hm.
I think i.witness are probably a solid band.
Think?
Yuh.
Why?
Because it’s unfortunately fairly difficult to make them out here. I
am ALL for bands who put little to no effort into recording their
songs. Counterproductive as it might sound to do this, sometimes I
think the process of producing/mixing/whatever can sometimes take
edges away from songs and intentions.
Not here however, something a bit strange is going on instead. Can’t
really understand why parts of songs are recorded with crystal
clarity, whilst other sections are smeared haphazardly together, and
sound like they were recorded in a dumpster. Why the band have chosen
to take this approach I am unsure. It makes no sense!
Perhaps with a more sympathetic approach to capturing i-witness on
tape (and less of the “hardcore” vocals found towards the end) they’d
be a different proposition altogether- something that I think I can
definately see. There are songs like “One Day in the Life of Ivan
Densiovitch (awesome title! – one of my favourite books) nearer to the
start of the tape that work well. Sadly any 20 plus song selection is
always going to find it difficult to stay relevent and engaging
aroundabouts song 17, especially compounded with recording that serves
to hide or mute a lot of what’s going on. Oh well.
Bandcamp Link-