I'll be the first to say I'm not that big of a fan of Venetian Snares.He seems to be praised and lauded from every corner of the earth as agreat innovator and musician, but most of his stuff bores the crap outof me. For the most part, he seems to be "experimental forexperimentality's sake," with a sort of anti-rhythmic edict and anI-must-change-time-signatures-every-twelve-seconds attitude. That getsreally annoying, in my opinion, and it's probably the biggest problemwith this latest album, but nonetheless I like it quite a bit.
That's right, I like the album quite a bit. The atmosphere and samplesreally work well (not to mention the *awesome* Trevor Brown artwork) -"we be friends with a child killer..." but of course the mainattraction is the percussion. Which is the best part of the album aswell as the worst part of the album. Like on the last track, "All theChildren Are Dead"... that is insane percussion. And I mean *insane*.
But then, as on the first track, "Pygmalion," the percussion can holdso much potential and then fall completely utterly flat. Crazy awesomebuildup, as if everything were going to explode right in your bigstupid face, and then - it stops - and doesn't start again. What aGODDAMNED let-down. And these same kind of moments occur throughout thealbum... points where you THINK you should hear a break, or a drum, orsomething - but no! Aaron Funk is experimental! He is not drum'n'bass -this is not dance music! Yeah, whatever. Go have sex with Kid 606.

 

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