Member:
ffroyd
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by ffroyd)
Date:
12/26/2007
Format:
CD (Album)
Just how good could an album with a cover picture of soiled underwear hanging on a clothesline sound? What if I told you this came from New Jersey? It’s not funny saying that you already guessed that, ok? This one was sent to me by co-producer Damon Trotta. He caught my review of the latest At War With Self review (which he also had a hand in producing) and thought I might like to check out this one. After I agreed, I went to the label web site, got a look at the album cover and immediately began to worry. When I got the CD in the mail, I was hesitant to put it on. I shouldn’t have been such a wimp (or Nancy as the Sluggo’s Goon records logo says) because this is some incredible stuff!
Dave Corp is a power trio with a keyboard player in the guitarist’s chair. But calling Dave Archer a keyboardist is quite limiting for a person who attacks his instrument with the ferociousness of a serial killer. Dave plays mostly electric piano with loads of gritty effects like distortion and wah-wah to make it sound as frightening as possible. The drummer is Matt Hankle who, according to the bio sheet, has a resume which includes work with Kaki King and The Blue Man group. The bass guitar is provided by the mysterious Mr. Grin, who no a whole lot is known about even from those who have been forced into working with him. It seems that he smiles quite a bit and this is probably how he got the nickname. I could be totally wrong about this and that could be his real name, in which case I apologize profusely.
The Sweet Life is completely instrumental. The tunes are heavy, dingy and very aggressive. Archer’s keyboards are very prominent and he does seem to play them like he was a guitarist with lots of gusto. The pounding rhythm section doesn’t give up either. This stuff reminds a little of the band Guapo at times with a more straightforward jam rock approach. Those of you out there that like a dose of heavy Rhodes like you get with bands like Magma should check this stuff out. Probably the only minor drawback to the album is that there isn’t a whole lot of diversity and the group seems to stay in the same gear throughout. Although with this kind of stuff, it really doesn’t need to be constantly changing. The heavy mangled keyboards are enough to keep me interested for this albums 42-minute duration.
So, just how good is this one? Well, in the words of the immortal Jackie Gleason: “How sweet it is!” More information on The Sweet Life and equally excellent releases can be found at the Sluggo’s Goon label site and also check out the group’s MySpace page for some kickass sound clips.
Member:
avestin
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by avestin)
Date:
4/6/2008
Format:
CD (Album)
I never heard of this group before and only got to know of their existence when Floyd sent me the list of album available for review. Curious, I listened to some Myspace tracks and decided I’ll go for it. I can’t say I regret it. Only 3 guys in the band; Dave Archer (At War With Self) on keyboards, Matt Hankle on drums and percussions and Mr. Grin on bass.
Opening up with heavy and fuzzy keyboards with a standard drum beat, “Moron Pills” goes straight into business. The rhythm set by the drums doesn’t vary much (which is a shame actually) and the chorus sounds like it’s taken from a car commercial song (don’t know why it sounds so familiar). Anyway, while it’s good entertainment, I feel they should and could have made much more out of this piece; developing it more, adding more intricacy to the playing, some twists etc. The drums part is rather simplistic, building catchy though a bit monotonous frames for the music to develop in, though it does get more energetic as the track goes on. Otherwise, there’s some good fusion playing going on, simple, yet effective. The keyboards playing is the one that stands out the most followed by the bass which gets better as the track progresses.
“Homeschool” has the fuzzy keyboards governing the most of the first 3 minutes, backed up with nicely done drum part that seems to be everywhere. It goes on with a great slow but powerful rhythm, set by both the drums and bass with the screaming keyboards soloing around.
The rest of the album doesn’t change much in terms of style, but each track has its own identity and melody, therefore I won’t go over the others as well; I’ll only say it all accumulates to one fun piece of fusion that is great to listen to. The most obvious trait they show is their ability to create haunting repetitive rhythms, dominated by synths and backed up by efficient bass and drums.
This album is an entertaining piece of music, catchy, not too complex, jazzy and cool and alternatively heavy and fuzzy, almost psychedelic. Not the most original stuff at times, but still entertaining. This will appeal to you if you like heavy, fuzzy fusion; say a simpler and less complex One Shot. I look forward to hearing more from these guys.
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