Stamp – Stamp

February 3, 2014 • self-released

Another weird Bandcamp find today; I was trying to find some decent drum and bass to listen to and somehow I found Stamp instead. I think I got a bit more than I bargained for, as there's a lot of weird stuff going on on this album and I'm not entirely sure if I like it. I think I do, though, at least most of it.

It's an electronic-oriented album for sure, for whatever that's worth, though I think it leans a lot more towards trip hop than DnB (though there is a bit of that), but there's also quite a bit of rock influence, at least in some of the instrumental arrangements and drum patterns, and some softer jazzy-pop tracks as well. On the whole there's a plethora of interesting samples and a large array of melodic voices, including a huge amount of acoustic instruments (piano, guitar, saxophone, melodic percussion) that gives it a very organic feel, a trend in more modern electronic music that I really enjoy.

The songs don't quite find the right balance between progression vs. stale repetition, so there are more than a few places where I find myself just waiting for the current track to be over. I thought the vocals on a few tracks would help, but I don't think they really fit the music very well; they make the album seem a bit too silly (especially that stupid hook in "Desert City", which is a shame because that's otherwise one of the better tracks). Well, except for "Telluric Blaze", perhaps, a great melancholy ballad-type track.

Then again, Stamp treads a bit out of my normal comfort zone, so if it's actually a totally boring and unoriginal album I don't really know. But it does have a lot of interesting things to find hidden in it and I am pretty sure that I'm enjoying a good majority of it. It's nowhere near perfect, and there's quite a bit that's skippable, but it's still worth checking out.