OK mate, you did ask........
“Miracle hope” – so hissy and distorted but has some clear bits. Some of it’s Ok, but not what I’d play at a party or to dance with my wife ! A vampire, maybe.
It starts off better than it carries on. But it certainly has it’s moments. I like some of the guitar’s fuzziness.
“4 funny songs” – did you really busk these ? I bet you got some interesting reactions.....The lyrics of the first one are disgusting ! Reminds me of this down and out that pissed on the train and got angry when I had a go at him ! He kept saying “You think you’re better than me !” and I kept saying “Don’t be so daft ! Do you think it’s cool to whip out your hardware on a packed train and just piss all over the place ?” Judging by the onlookers' faces {most of whom were too embarrassed to get caught looking our way}, it was a very entertaining argument. He couldn’t believe I’d be concerned that his urine could hit a live line and electrocute him !
“Sit on my face” was ridiculous but hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing. You won't hear this on the BBC world service......
“My friend Josh” was cute but daft. I’m really not too interested in his sexual antics ! Fire crotch ? Dumb ass ? It’s original though. I recently wrote a song that had a line about left handers too. Obviously some morphic resonance at work...
“On mars” was crazy but actually quite likeable. Nice stringing together of words.
But there’s two and a half minutes of silence.
The 4 funnies have a nice guitar strumming energy to them and don’t take this the wrong way, {I like them}, but they’re mercifully short. And interesting because of it.
“Rough cut gnome” – I really like. Partly coz there’s no vocal or lyric to act as a distraction, partly coz it’s fantastic. It’s not easy to make a solo bass good to hear.
“Back to front” just sounds like a load of guitar recorded backwards for the most part. And in that vein, it’s like a bad acid trip or the serious ‘out in the wilderness paranoid marijuana blues’. Then it goes to a sort of nice bit that sounds almost normal but it’s spoiled by that discordant wash of electronica.
“General comedown fly Joe” I like the most. Can’t really understand the lyric but that’s not a problem for me. I’m not a great fan of chorus on guitar, especially overdone and some of it here is a bit. I used to do it alot and now I regret it ! Nice avant garde choir idea in the middle there, that sort of radio dial effect....Again, I like long tracks, 11 minutes is average to me ! But it can be hard to maintain interest for that length of time. This one doesn’t quite manage it. There are some neat guitar phrases and I like those. After the weird radio choir the last time though, it drifts somewhat and the final minute kind of spoils it coz it's an effeort, that last minute. If I was recording this onto tape for my own listening pleasure, I’d fade it off around the 10 minute mark. But that’s just personal preference.
“Closed eyes Joe” just sounds like the last couple of minutes of the one before and not as engaging.
But overall, I think it’s a very interesting set of songs. Pretty original. I can respect that. It’s the kind of stuff that, by it’s very nature, is fated to remain a minority sport and never “get anywhere”. By the way, that’s not a put down. Far from it. It’s just that it’s simply too challenging a listen to someone that doesn’t dig off the wall stuff. I mean really off the wall stuff. And unless one is prepared to get beyond sound quality issues (and most folk I know simply are not)............ It’s not “catchy” in the conventional sense. But it is what it is and there have always been artists that play music along their own trajectory. Not many are well known, few are rich {!!}, but you know, I dig their stuff just as much as I dig the stuff many people know.
I can see why you feel you have to sing and play guitar at the same time, by the way.
To each, their own.
