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.

Darren Korb – Bastion

August 05, 2011 • Supergiant Games

Bastion is a game that generated some massive hype and most people into modern indie gaming have heard of it, I'm sure; I thought it was decent, albeit short and repetitive and it seemed like more thought was put into its aesthetics than its gameplay. That's fine by me, since its soundtrack is pretty well-done and one of my favorite parts of the game.

Most of the music is a fusion of chilled-out electronic beats fused with influences from folk music, most of it eastern Asian and western American. It's a strange-sounding combo, but it actually works pretty well (and I've actually heard the eastern/western folk fusion done to effect in other soundtracks like for the film Hero). Acoustic and clean electric guitars are balanced with instruments like sitar, (what I think is) shamisen, and exotic percussion, all over a heavy, glitchy, and sometimes menacing downtempo beat. It's a style that worked well in-game but also well outside of it (to a lesser extent, though). Some songs work better on their own than others, mostly ones that have heavier beats and more country/folk fusion like "Terminal March" or "Spike in a Rail", while the more mellow or slow ones are more difficult to enjoy on their own. And, as usual, some tracks suffer from being cut off at the end where normally they'd be looped. It's not a bad thing but it's more jarring than it should be.

It's difficult to describe the music much more without going into fantastic detail—on one level, it's the electronic/folk fusion I've talked about; deeper down there are a ton of influences from other genres and a ton of different instruments used that push the music all over the map (like the admittedly-awesome industrial rock style of "Brusher Patrol"). It's a testament to composer Darren Korb's diverse talent, to be sure, especially since the album still mostly feels like one coherent work.

But as with any soundtrack, its staying power is definitely lessened outside the game; the tracks can get repetitive (aside from the obvious non-background-music ones, like the vocal tracks) making the album seem way longer than it is—par for the course for most soundtracks, though, so I can't fault it much for it. Needless to say, it's best experienced in-game, though I don't know if I'll ever actually play the game a second time (not that it was bad, just probably not worth it). The music, though, is definitely worth a couple listens.

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Edge of Forever – Edge of Forever Volume One

April 18, 2011 • self-released

Bandcamp is a fantastic website for amateur musicians to get a bit of a boost in exposure (it's worked nicely for me). I have been so far pleased with the artists I've found there. Edge of Forever is one of many I've stumbled upon through it, and while doesn't go much above most of the amateur music I've heard there and it isn't anything astonishing, it definitely shows a lot of potential for more focused future releases.

Volume One's style is probably best described as a sort of minimalist downtempo, almost to the point of ambient music. The artist uses a lot of very simple, monotonal synth lines but gives them a very spacy feel with echos and layered background ambience. This leads to the album's strongest suit, its firm handle on sound and texture. Different drum beats and a huge variety of synth voices are assembled with surgical care, with some samples, noise, and glitches sprinkled on top, and everything fits together brilliantly. Beats range from minimal glitching to more realistic kit sounds; synths are mostly the shimmering spacy type but there's a lot of variation therein. A good example is one of my favorite tracks, "Resonation", a more chipper tune that shows a considerable amount of Kraftwerk influence (yeah, more reviewer bias again) that has a relatively complex beat that balances out the layers of simple tones well.

My misgivings about this album mostly lie in the songwriting itself; it's very simplistic and repetitive and many of the songs get a bit stale by the time they're over. This is probably mostly due to the incredibly simple melodies that simply repeat over and over and lack of any progression or buildup in each song, although there is the occasional ambient bridge here and there to provide a bit of contrast. Unfortunately the one track that does have a lot of nice buildup is my least favorite, the eleven-minute "The Lake", which has a really annoying introduction and structure that jumps around a bit too much.

But like I said I'm pretty pleased with this album and it's grown on me quite a bit recently. It's best not too listen too carefully since the songwriting isn't great, but sonically and texturally it's wonderful. Here's to hoping Volume Two will show some improvement.

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