Matt Haines AKA The Rip Off Artist shows incredible nerve by naming his new outing Pet Sounds.The Beach Boys album of the same name probably enjoys the bestreputation of any single record in all pop music history. This shouldcome as no surprise, as previous ROA releases have similarly apedclassic rock album titles such as The Kids are Alright, Pump and Brain Salad Surgery. The Who, Aerosmith and ELP are miles away from the pure pop mastery of Brian Wilson's opus, however. Pet Soundsjust isn't an appropriate title for an album unless the artist caneither back it up with incredible musical content or, alternately,produce some kind post-ironic funny satire in keeping with such anabsurdly grandiose moniker. Matt Haines does neither. ROA's Pet Soundsis such an aggressively average, militantly unfunny album, it justpisses me off that he has saddled it with such an incredibly ballsytitle. These 15 tracks of boring, overprocessed electro-funk shouldhave been named after Pretzel Logic or Rumours, or someother shitty, overrated 70's-era blockbuster album. ROA's musicaltechnique is boring and overused. He begins with excruciatinglyubiquitous house and funk rhythms, and using the standard Powerbooksoftware, edits and processes them into IDM oblivion. The end productis something in the neighborhood of the cut-up funk-house of The SoftPink Truth, without any of the wit, intelligence or groove. Tracks suchas "Meat Shall We Eat" and "Bear Down" are generic, soulless cut n'splice house tracks that somehow end up seeming overlong even thoughthey rarely exceed the four-minute mark. Vocals appear on some tracks,and do nothing to warm up the hackneyed mess. This sort of facelessstreamlining of soul and funk influenced house music has already beendone long ago and better on Thomas Brinkmann's Soul Center albums. Thiswill definitely appeal to all of the IDM fanboys who never seem to getenough of this kind of trite, unexceptional laptop annoyance. MattHaines has invented an absurd biography for himself, and named thisdreary album Pet Sounds in a bid to garner attention to whatwould otherwise be seen as another boring entrée into an overpopulatedgenre. Don't fall for this cynical ruse.samples:
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