The Syndicate

Gave it another listen. A few tracks sound rooted in other bands/sounds. A couple of tracks don't trigger any memories in my mind, and I find that these tracks are the ones that don't do a whole lot beyond being a hip jam. It's pretty good all around but there's not much that's distinctive. We'll see what additional listens do for it.

I should have some time to check out Classics today. Looking forward to it!

MovingPictures07 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:35 pm I should have some time to check out Classics today. Looking forward to it!

Wow, great album! I was definitely impressed. It probably has its flaws, and I think I agree with trice that vocals might vary up the album a bit more which could elevate it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience myself. I wouldn't call anything about it transcendent or mindblowing either, but nonetheless it was a very solid outing.

I think "Wildcat" was my favorite song.

I'd give it a strong 3.5.

I bummed out on an in depth thought over every song but I've listened enough times for me to give the album a strong 4. It's not something I can listen to everyday without getting tired, but when it comes on in a shuffle or over pandora I don't skip it. It's enjoyable and full of groovin beats, great guitar, and a drumkit bass that makes me want to drum along

Again, 4/5 stars

Hey people (or rather people besides those who have posted thus far). I'm behind on reviewing this, but what did you think of this Ratatat album? Did you love it, did you hate it, what would you rate it? You're the best you're the best. Give it a try, 'cause it will go into the file cabinet tomorrow.

Oy glavin, thanks for the poke. I should look at this more often. Posting to remind myself.

I find Townes Van Zandt boring. I love country music. I grew up on it. Townes Van Zandt to me was a talentless, drunken, drug-addled mess who didn't write very good songs or execute them well.

"No more than a two" indeed. 2/5.

I got into TVZ a lot more on second listen actually. Solid. 3.5/5
Ratatat was enjoyable but super same-y throughout. I've known "Loud Pipes" for like ten years but never listened to them otherwise. Pretty fun album I guess, I really liked the first couple tracks but then it was all kinda the same after that. Uhh 3.5 also I guess.

I hope to catch up with Rattatattattatattat soon.

Not to be confused with the other band Phoenix


With Ricochet's taste I look forward to listening

I don't do introductions, but with this one, I figured it might be worth a few opening ideas, some of which I'll touch upon in full anyway:

-- I'm rather enchanted by this album title's untranslatable potential - reminding me of a Nauruan philosopher, Constantin Noica, who went on about the depth and power of certain Nauruan words, such as "dor", going beyond what their foreign equivalent ("longing", "yearning") may transmit. And why bother, indeed, in the end? Mugur literally means "bud", "sprout" and fluier refers to the traditional pipe instrument. "Whistle blossom" is the most poetic level I could reach myself thinking about it, but I suck at it and it still feels like nothing's going to be a perfect fit. Besides, when the words show up, in the title track, their meaning is clearly on a more emotional level: (roughly) "My soul feels like the bloom of a whistle / Lamenting a whizzing tune / For the bygone days / For the dark and ugly nights" (Îmi simt sufletul mugur de fluier / Ce-a doinit cântec cu șuier / Pentru zilele ce-au fost trecute / Pentru nopțile negre și slute)

-- Have fun anyway with the pronounciation: https://vocaroo.com/i/s1RpDZYayCAG

-- Classic Phoenix ranks without a doubt as among the best and brightest Nauru has had to offer in terms of prog rock and classic rock altogether. Who knows how many greater things could have "blossomed" (pun intended), had we not lived behind a curtain for decades, still the gifted, great artistic minds were there for sure, whether in contemporary classical, rock, electronic, film music or a few other genres, both trying to keep up with the times and develop their own inspired music. Which I feel this album quite embodies; it's heavily original - as in focused in developing its own idiom - but also with the seeds of more familiar tropes - which, should you feel inclined at first listen to find derivative, think of it as rather coming from a true place of honoring, revering some big, international names. The band's bassist, Iosif Kappl, is said to have known by heart all the bass lines from Jethro Tull's early album (or something like that).

-- Language barrier is likely unavoidable, made even worse since the band taps into the old, rural folkloric language (with lyrics crafted as if sprouting from a fables book or old chronicles), but my recommendation would be to just take it in and perhaps figure how much finesse and emotion do you find residing in the work or not.

Last but not least, tho

Classics

This was a straight-up pleasant album, though it never really made my ears perk up. The opening tune ("Montanita") felt a little generic but was still enjoyable. It sets the tone for the rest of the album- instrumental, easy-listening, chill music. The second track ("Lex") was, to me, a kind of Daft Punk meets Bach on the harpsichord. It worked enough to sound decent. Track three ("Gettysburg") reminded me of The Strokes and I liked the organ part in the middle. So the trajectory picked up at the end of my three-song make-or-break system.

My three favorites are probably "Gettysburg," "Wildcat," and "Montanita." I find this amusing, because I live half an hour from Gettysburg, PA and my high school mascot was the wildcat. "Montanita" is a bit of a cheat for my third favorite, mostly because it's the opener and tone-setter. I got a Beatles-esque feel from "Tropicana" and another slight Strokes vibe from "Kennedy" but neither satisfied quite as much as "Montanita." The rest of the album didn't remind me of anything in particular and largely stood on its own as adequate background music.

I've never really listened to an instrumental indie rock album before, so I'm a little unsure about my thoughts on this one. Some of the tunes seem to beg for a visual element to run in tandem with. The opener reminds me of joyride music and a few others sound like they'd play well over a montage of clips of people interacting or a plan being executed. It's music that begs for a narrative. Perhaps that's why I felt like something was lacking, even though the listening experience was pleasant.

Not much else to say. Some of the tracks have a better trajectory than others. Some just repeat with minimal interruption or fail to go for the wow factor. I liked it but I probably won't remember any of these tunes except for "Wildcat" in a year's time.

G-Man Scale: 3.25 out of 5
Rico Scale: 3 out of 5

Ratatat didn't do much for me. It struck me as samey and purposeless. That's just to say I was bored though, not actively irritated. I'll give it a 2.5. I often really appreciate instrumental albums, but this one didn't inspire.

I gave Phoenix a spin this afternoon. It's pretty darn cool. No language barriers for me because the vocals are enchanting at times. The rock elements sound familiar and yet the ethnic/folk components sound foreign and intriguing. This should get a strong rating. I wouldn't be surprised to see it nudge its way into my top 10 so far.

I wish the Lasa Lasa tunes were all one extended piece. Rico, can you give me any insight on what those tunes say or are going for contextually? They really jam.

I'd venture to say those bits work as intended - a prelude, several interludes and... well, No. 5 could have been an epilogue, but interestingly isn't. I'm not solid on the essence of the lyrics, but they seem to stem from evoking folk shouts or calls to join the village dance. "Lasă" literally means "let, leave sth" and some of the verses, across the five moments, are as playful as "leave it, leave it / leave yer damn home / leave her alone" (No. 1), "leave this, leave that / leave your herd" (No. 2), as in leave it all and come join the dance, "let the drums roll" (No. 5), "come hear the violin / and the maiden's weepin'" (No. 3).

But it's still an evocation, since one of two censored quatrains, that didn't make it on the album, was to say "leave Manix / leave Felix / come and hear Phoenix".

Jammy instrumentals or not, I doubt it would have worked as one long piece, with five, six unvarying verses.

Phoenix is pretty cool stuff. Although it isn't something I'd probably grab that frequently, it still earns higher than a 3.0 due to being a really unique slice of prog/folk that thoroughly entertained. I'm giving it a 3.5.

So how bout that Phoenix? Who'd like to share more impressions?

Ricktano review will be late as usual, maybe suffer even further delay considering how much time I'll have to prep it during the weekend, but, contrary to my A Passion Play review that I have totally forgotten about (and was a stink of a shill review), I have reviewed this album on ProgArchives back in the day (close to a decade ago, in fact :agingmattdamon:), a review I actually consider pertinent and level-headed, if a bit wordy, as usual. Feel free to check it out.

"Strunga" feels a bit overlong to me. Coming off the first Lasa and "Pavel..." it sucked a little bit of the energy down a bit.

The album as a whole is a curious thing. It came out, according to the OP, in 1974, yet it feels like an amalgamation of fads the mid- to late-1960s British and American rock. Two that come readily to mind are: "Pavel..." has a Cream-esque feel to it, and "Dansul Codrilor" has a sitar-like sound going on. There are also tunes that feel psychedelic due to the instrumentation. The funny part is that this doesn't suck any of the enjoyment out of the music.

Any idea if Phoenix was slow to tap into these musical fads (whether it just took a little extra time for those sounds to seep into Romania popular music or a conscious decision) or are these "similar sounds" just a coincidence due to the band throwing Romanian folk influence into rock music?

This is really my kind of shit. I'm really into all the different folky bits. Quite a bit of variety throughout the album but consistently super cool. I've enjoyed every track.

And with that being said...


(is this seriously the band that wrote the song I Ran? Am I about to willingly listen to I Ran? :blobglare:)

Ricochet wrote: ↑Mon Oct 02, 2017 5:03 pm

(is this seriously the band that wrote the song I Ran? Am I about to willingly listen to I Ran? :blobglare:)

Bite me, Rico.

So here's my little intro to this album:

This is not my favorite album. I don't even own this album. I just like this album. Back in 2009 when I hosted the first Secret Mafia game, I used "I Ran" as the mood music for one of my night posts. It was quite possibly one of the best night posts I've ever written. Naturally, it's lost forever since The Piano died. The song stayed with me (I'm also a product/child of the 1980s) and I ended up finding the YouTube playlist and took in the whole album.

Along with the Tears For Fears albums we listened to a few weeks ago, A Flock of Seagulls is one of those albums that you could hold up and say, "This is what music in the 80s sounded like." The sound is very dated but the sound is also very rich. The band received praise from critics and producers back in 1982 and even won a Grammy award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for the track "D.N.A." Their deep, layered tracks and use of stereo tricks makes for an enveloping sound on several of the tracks.

I highly recommend you listen to the YouTube playlist and NOT Spotify. The YouTube link is the original UK pressing of the album. Spotify only has the American release. The American release discards one track ("Tokyo") and it mixes the song order up. Since I listened to the UK release first, I prefer that version to the American release. The songs flow better together and the first four tracks on the UK release front-load the album with good stuff.

Most Americans (and maybe certain Romanian elitist music snobs) dismiss A Flock of Seagulls as a one-hit-wonder from a time when one-hit-wonders were a dime a dozen. If you like the density of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production style, you'll enjoy this album. It's far from perfect. The lyrics are vague at times. Depending on who you talk to, this album is even supposed to be a concept album about a guy who falls in love with a girl (possibly a cyborg) and they're abducted by aliens.

It's equal parts cheesy and awesome. In other words, it's the 80s!

After two focused listens, I'm pretty close to my final rating already. Being familiar with the album helps I suppose.

I'm very curious to see initial reactions. Most people just know the band because of their appearance in the video and promotional material for one song- "I Ran." I look forward to Ricochet expounding upon his apparent bias against this song and what he thinks of the entire product.

Your best review yet, Rico! Loved it.

Looking forward to this one, G-Man! I'm actually surprised it hasn't shown up on my radar as I made a concerted effort to dig into synthpop as much as I could a few years back, but I'm excited to hear something new.

I don't have any real bias formed against that particular song (yet? ), I was just amused about having to approach it in my serious face style, after having heard it just once, yet with a strong memory of it retained, since it was used in the movie La la land, during a scene that somehow mocked the idea of such a song being performed by a "serious" musician (in that case, it was a cover party band, with the male protagonist in it, subjected to such "ordeal").

Cute scene, for that matter, in a movie that otherwise impressed me far less.

Dammit, I really like this. The synth texture is pleasantly thick throughout, and the choppiness of the vocal style makes my head bob something fierce. I agree that the lyrics and songwriting don't really... progress anywhere. But the individual grooves are infectious.

Listening through the album, I was surprised by actually recognizing I Ran! It feels warmer than the other tracks, which I actually don't like as much? Maybe it's the more singalong nature of the vocals. Guitar work on You Can Run friggin' shreds and goes along with the icy synth in the background.

Telecommunication is just cheesy, like offbrand Kraftwerk. Don't Ask Me suffers from the I Ran problem — too singable. I guess I like 80s music when it falls more in the Tears for Fears vein, all ice and depression. And Tokyo strikes me as not abandoning old rock tropes enough. They got synths, they should use them! But overall, pretty good album.

bump

Solid synthpop album, still can't believe I wasn't familiar with this. This gets a 3.5 from me. "I Ran" was actually my least favorite track! I agree with Boomslang that the less-singable tracks actually worked better here, though I'm not sure I'd say that's always the case for me (i.e., I love Depeche Mode).

Mugur de fluier - strong 4.5
AFoS - meh 3.0

We also open a new poll, starting around Friday, to decide the next five submissions - if we have more than five entries, of course.

Of the regulars, [mention]A Person[/mention], [mention]Epignosis[/mention], [mention]JaggedJimmyJay[/mention], [mention]speedchuck[/mention], [mention]nutella[/mention], [mention]insertnamehere[/mention], you are all eligible to submit new albums this cycle. In case you already mentioned something in the past, I'd ask that you write it down or quote it again, as a reminder.

Of the sporadic (or currently absent), [mention]Boomslang[/mention], [mention]Quin[/mention], [mention]Golden[/mention], [mention]thellama73[/mention] - you are all welcome to submit something once more.

I've finally fallen behind here. I'll find a way to listen to the last two and the present album this week, and probably submit a thing.

nutella wrote: ↑Sun Sep 03, 2017 4:46 pm Ooo I'm eligible again. I submit The Golden Age by Woodkid.

Resubmitting^

speedchuck wrote: ↑Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:17 am Also I'm going to nominate A City Dressed in Dynamite by That Handsome Devil

resubmit

I won't say much about Leucocyte. I'll let Rico talk about it in his review, and I also want newcomers to approach it with no expectations.

That said, I love E.S.T., and I firmly believe this album stands as E.S.T's crowning achievement. It's usually the first thing I counter with when anyone tries that bullshit "jazz is dead" or "modern jazz sucks" nonsense.

This is a very special album to me. The trio pretty much take their format to the absolute limit here, and the outcome is nothing short of absolutely sublime.

Murgur De Fluier

This was a neat listen. I don't have many albums where the lyrics are sung in a different language. I don't need the words sung in English but foreign-language lyrics aren't mainstream in America, so I stick to what I can get. What I got from this album was a good time.

The opening track, "Lasa Lasa, Pt. 1" (forgive me for not having the time to find all the right punctuation marks on song titles), pulled me in. I enjoyed the slow, tribal start and was hooked when it cranked the tempo up halfway through. The chanting is equal parts haunting and riveting. Track 2, "Pavel Chinezu, Leat 1479," kicks off with a thumping bass line that sounds like Jack White ripped it off for "The Hardest Button to Button." I was taken aback by the songs witch into late 60s/early 70s rock conventions. It highlighted just how slow some things took to trickle past the Iron Curtain.

I didn't dock points for the band's recycling the sounds of Cream and Deep Purple, however, because it sounded good. If it was fresh for them, then that can't be held against them. At least I don't think so. I'd have to listen to earlier albums to make that determination though. The third track, "Strunga," while good, sucked some of the energy and momentum out of the air.

I ran into a dilemma with this album though. I scored the first Lasa Lasa track on it's own because I felt that it wasn't an introduction to track 2 and it was long enough to stand on its own. The remaining Lasa Lasa tracks forced me to think about how to score them. They are not songs in their own right but, as Rico pointed out, sort of like interludes sprinkled throughout the album. I like them but I couldn't score them as stand-alone songs. So, I ended up scoring the first Lasa Lasa on its own and the remaining four as a combined unit. Somehow, I felt that was fair.

My favorites would be the entire Lasa Lasa component, "Pavel Chinezu, Leat 1479," and "Ochii Negri, Ochi De Tigan." Tracks 6, 9, and 12 didn't captivate me like the rest of the album but I was never indifferent. I like the fusion of folk elements and rock instruments. They could have been singing about brushing their teeth and watching anime and I wouldn't know the difference but the vocals have an alluring quality. They aren't a harsh or distracting foreign sound. They have good flow and tone, which I can't say the same for the Fishmans album we listened to at the outset of this listening group. That makes a big difference but I realize that has a lot to do with personal preference.

Overall, this was a solid album. Spotify seems to be lacking, with only three other Phoenix albums in their database, so if I ever do want to wander back into the mystical sounds of Phoenix, I'll have to YouTube some of it. It may be a while if I ever come back around but it would be interesting to see if the sounds I liked on this album continue to please on other albums or if my unrefined musical sensibilities would count this as a one-off novelty.

G-Man Scale: 3.92 out of 5
Rico Scale: 4 out of 5

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2017 12:50 pm Murgur De Fluier

This was a neat list-

Hold on.

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2017 12:50 pm Murgur De Fluier

Ergh.

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2017 12:50 pm
This was a neat listen. I don't have many albums where the lyrics are sung in a different language. I don't need the words sung in English but foreign-language lyrics aren't mainstream in America, so I stick to what I can get. What I got from this album was a good time.

The opening track, "Lasa Lasa, Pt. 1" (forgive me for not having the time to find all the right punctuation marks on song titles), pulled me in. I enjoyed the slow, tribal start and was hooked when it cranked the tempo up halfway through. The chanting is equal parts haunting and riveting. Track 2, "Pavel Chinezu, Leat 1479," kicks off with a thumping bass line that sounds like Jack White ripped it off for "The Hardest Button to Button." I was taken aback by the songs witch into late 60s/early 70s rock conventions. It highlighted just how slow some things took to trickle past the Iron Curtain.

I didn't dock points for the band's recycling the sounds of Cream and Deep Purple, however, because it sounded good. If it was fresh for them, then that can't be held against them. At least I don't think so. I'd have to listen to earlier albums to make that determination though. The third track, "Strunga," while good, sucked some of the energy and momentum out of the air.

I ran into a dilemma with this album though. I scored the first Lasa Lasa track on it's own because I felt that it wasn't an introduction to track 2 and it was long enough to stand on its own. The remaining Lasa Lasa tracks forced me to think about how to score them. They are not songs in their own right but, as Rico pointed out, sort of like interludes sprinkled throughout the album. I like them but I couldn't score them as stand-alone songs. So, I ended up scoring the first Lasa Lasa on its own and the remaining four as a combined unit. Somehow, I felt that was fair.

My favorites would be the entire Lasa Lasa component, "Pavel Chinezu, Leat 1479," and "Ochii Negri, Ochi De Tigan." Tracks 6, 9, and 12 didn't captivate me like the rest of the album but I was never indifferent. I like the fusion of folk elements and rock instruments. They could have been singing about brushing their teeth and watching anime and I wouldn't know the difference but the vocals have an alluring quality. They aren't a harsh or distracting foreign sound. They have good flow and tone, which I can't say the same for the Fishmans album we listened to at the outset of this listening group. That makes a big difference but I realize that has a lot to do with personal preference.

Overall, this was a solid album. Spotify seems to be lacking, with only three other Phoenix albums in their database, so if I ever do want to wander back into the mystical sounds of Phoenix, I'll have to YouTube some of it. It may be a while if I ever come back around but it would be interesting to see if the sounds I liked on this album continue to please on other albums or if my unrefined musical sensibilities would count this as a one-off novelty.

G-Man Scale: 3.92 out of 5
Rico Scale: 4 out of 5

G-Man wrote:They could have been singing about brushing their teeth and watching anime and I wouldn't know the difference.

Right on the mark, though.

===

As I've said, they have three classic albums, of which this was their second. They made even beat-ier music before that and then the next periods got lost in quality and intermittance. Some say their 90s album (concert?) Symphoenix is also honorable, but I simply never explored.

Out of interest, anywhere in the near future, would you be interested in checking their Cantafabule as well and tell me how you found that evolution? Any trivia details you'd need would be provided, of course, though I touched upon it a bit in my review as well.

insertnamehere wrote: ↑Fri Sep 08, 2017 6:55 pm Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On / 2011 / Freak Folk / 10 Tracks / 39:28

For spooky Halloween times, preferably.

reeeeesubmit

Hoo boy. Let's just put this out there as a conversation starter:

I enjoyed the final two tracks on Leucocyte. Track 4 was decent too. Otherwise, I was either bored or left disappointed because tracks lacked the crescendo or climax I was hoping for.

Also, was my Spotify flaking out or does track 8 "Ad Interim" feature a low-frequency sound? I didn't hear anything but I'm not listening through headphones. The office is noisy today.

Contortion is literally 16 minutes of crescendo.

Ad interim is one minute of silence.

Ricochet wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2017 4:20 pm Ad interim is one minute of silence.

Here's the thing: to me, giving one minute of silence its own track space and track title smacks of pretension. It's silence. It's not created. It's not intellectual property. To treat it as such preposterous. That "track" alone is going to hurt the album's score in a big way.

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2017 4:27 pm

Ricochet wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2017 4:20 pm Ad interim is one minute of silence.

Here's the thing: to me, giving one minute of silence its own track space and track title smacks of pretension. It's silence. It's not created. It's not intellectual property. To treat it as such preposterous. That "track" alone is going to hurt the album's score in a big way.

I do not know as much about the album's conception in regards to that minute of creation - one guy is since dead and I never read interview with the other two members about how they conceived what. There is probably some fabrication in it, since I doubt the band literally stopped for one minute whilst recording what constitutes this four (or three, I suppose, if this one doesn't count) track cycle - still, no idea.

Yet I'll disagree with your position from a both general and specific perspective.

One, music is about silences just as it is about audible resonances. To deny that would be to say that pauses and rests are not a part of a musical composition and are not a composer's property in placing them. Of course, there are fewer instances going as far as to create an entire minute of such silence, still it's even so not outside any bounds of how to implement silence in a desired artistical work.

Two, this is not one minute of silence in its own ether, but rather one minute of silence within a specific suite of four movements, if not altogether within an entire record that is, more or less, bound together. If anything, its (sub)title would only enhance this understanding. I offered you, of course, the technical explanation to what the track represents (plus clarifying that there is no low frequency shenanigans going on during it, at least as far as I know), but from an expressive and contextual point of view, a more truthful answer from me would have been "it's one minute of void".

I'd personally rather be more worked up about records with "hidden tracks" wanting me to "wait" sometimes up to 10 minutes to hear them rather than one minute of silence.

I get what you say about music being about sound and silence but I will argue that music is about sound and silence within a composition. To claim silence as a composition in and of itself is something I cannot agree with. If you want to add a minute of silence, add it at the end of a track (you could do it at the beginning of a track but why start with a pause? awkward). You get the same effect without falling into this very debate we are in. I'm fine with incorporating a minute of silence for flavor and all that but I see no reason to give it its own space, regardless of how clever the "track" title is.

I agree with you about hidden tracks. They may have been cute back in the days of cassette tapes but in the digital age they're just silly.

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2017 5:25 pm I get what you say about music being about sound and silence but I will argue that music is about sound and silence within a composition.

Which you are listening to. At least, arguably, one called Leucocyte and having four movements.

To claim silence as a composition in and of itself is something I cannot agree with.

I have John Cage on line 1 for you.

If you want to add a minute of silence, add it at the end of a track (you could do it at the beginning of a track but why start with a pause? awkward). You get the same effect without falling into this very debate we are in. I'm fine with incorporating a minute of silence for flavor and all that but I see no reason to give it its own space, regardless of how clever the "track" title is.

But the context here can invite such debate, instead of being a deterrent. Why would it being at the end of a track matter or make a difference between suitable and not? It's a moment within a suite, of pure silence, specifically named "interim", the piece before it slowing to a halt, the one after fading back into a different atmosphere. It's not a track of silence between a ballad and a banger on a indie rock album.

For me, a soundless track does not a movement make. It doesn't take any skill to add a minute of dead air to a recording. At least field recordings involve effort.

When I listen to music, I want to hear the fruits of the musician(s)'s labors. I want to hear their skill with sound. Silence may not technically exist but what you hear when a performer is silent is not something they can take credit for. They didn't create any of the sounds the environment or the people in that environment made during that pause.

To ascribe meaning to a soundless track or to sit silently as your performance is an act of performance art, not musical ability (my interpretation). It is just not in my nature to interpret international silence as meaningful. I will judge this track as any other track we've listened to, which means it will get a zero and pull down the album's overall score.