(Bribery reviews and home recordings)
REVIEWS:
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Hell (Disclaimer), Mercury's Star (Joe Hinchcliffe), Jogging Is The Bestest (Mark Prindle), The Drapes (Daniel Fjall). LOW POINTS: None.
Not only are a lot of the web reviewers, posters and commentators on George Starostin's Music Babble forum (basically the biggest hangout for the members of the Web Reviewing Community, where you'll find almost everybody posting) huge music listeners, several of them also record music themselves, myself included. And this collection right here (a great idea in itself) is pretty much a great representation of the varied talent that exists among the musicians here. Assembled and sequenced by Chris Willie Williams of Disclaimer fame from MP3s contributed by the artists themselves, with Steve Knowlton designing the artwork and coming up with the Starostin-inspired title, Locusts, Roaches and Ants really deserves to be taken song-by-song in this review, since there are several styles covered here during the compilation's 51 minute length. So here we go:
1. Mike DeFabio "Ritalin Rock" - Although sample-heavy electronic music isn't really my thing, I can definitely respect the amount of creativity and work it must take to get a piece like this together. It's pretty much built on a catchy drum groove with a lot of sound effects and frequently amusing dialogue bits (particularly the 'are you on drugs?' one) and a convincing Public Enemy sample as a sort of 'chorus'. An interesting piece this one is.
2. Steve Knowlton "Saskatchewan" - Steve's vocals on this one might be an acquired taste for some, but this is a pretty well-performed and somewhat melodic Latin-tinged and somewhat jazzy pop song (nice piano line in there!) whose best feature for me is actually the highly mixed guest guitar solo.
3. Willie Simpson "Dead In 41" - Somewhat more lo-fi sounding than most of the other tracks here, with just a couple acoustic guitars, but a fairly catchy singalong tune about World War II (it may be difficult to get that 'I... shot a Nazi between the eyes' refrain out of your head). I can't think who those vocals remind me of!
4. Disclaimer "Hell" - This one is definitely my favorite song on this compilation, and it really makes me want to hear more from the Chris Willie Williams' solo outfit. It's got a simple, but highly infectious, sort of 'wah wah' riff going, and quite colorful lyrics. I also really love the low-register quality of the vocals, smart bouncy vocal hook, and especially the twisted take on a famous Abbey Road lyric in the chorus ('in the end the love you take is inversely proportional to the love you make...'). Also, very well-produced, and the feedback use is particularly creative. Excellent song overall.
5. Mike Kozak "Walk Me Home" - A very lengthy instrumental that sounds as if it was recorded entirely by computer. The main synth-trumpet(?) theme here is really cool, and it builds off of it expertly with several neat embellishments (including banging noises and other instruments), though probably not nearly enough for a 6:52 minute length. Cut it down by a minute or two and I'd undoubtedly like it even more.
6. Joel Larsson and Adam Johansson "Gamle Klassiker" - Quite entertaining acoustic/bass pop tune with a probably unintentionally hilarious tone to the melody and lyrics (maybe because it isn't sung in English). Extremely catchy, if a little too short for me at just under 2 minutes.
7. Monkey Syndicate "Heterosapiens" - The craziest and most cartoonish song on here, this is very over-the-top with its' outlandish Spinal Tap sort of concept, spoken word passages, and occasional vocal hysterics. It's more than just a novelty tune, though, as the sound effects are very creatively done, and the guitar work, while occasionally simplistic, is top-notch.
8. Mark Prindle "Jogging Is The Bestest", "A Guy Who Said My Web Site Is Overrated (Why Does Everybody Hate Me So Much?),” and “My Songs Would Be Significantly Less Sucky If I Bothered To Save Up For More Powerful Recording Equipment” Mark Prindle has had unarguably the most celebrated and notorious music career of any of the WRC members, and these three songs (condensed into one track cause they're all so darn short and punky) are a great example of why. Particularly noteworthy is "Jogging Is The Bestest", with its' multitude of cool riffs, neat percussion noises and catchy vocal hook, but the other two are interesting as well, whether it's the lightning fast riff of "My Songs..." or the moody atmosphere and odd vocal effects of "Why Does Everybody Hate Me..." Fun stuff.
9. Daniel Fjall "The Drapes" - I've heard this described as a song that sounds right out of a commercial, and I wholeheartedly agree with that asessment. Very smoothly flowing, longing pop ballad with an undoubtedly excellent vocal melody. Also, it's the most professionally produced song on this comp by a long shot, and it's got a great guitar solo, too. Too bad record companies had the nerve to reject it, as it's really good!
10. Poly Lite Plus "Fun Festival" - This is probably my least favorite track on here, as it's more of a short noise jam (with inaudible distorted vocals) than an actual song, but it's still pretty enjoyable for what it is. And this song has the same keyboards Casey Brennan uses, so that's cool.
11. The Hector Collectors "Tantric New Romantic" - A flat-out fun quirky pop tune that not only has a top-shelf melody (one of the best hooks on here), but also manages to reference a bunch of synth pop bands, and has a really great, to the point keyboard solo, so it's okay by me!
12. Physical Illusion "The Open Window" - Of course, it's hard to be objective about my own work, and while this has crappier sound quality than most of the songs, I think it's still a good condensed three part epic (in spite of those laughable vocals), and I still love that final part with awkward manic 'drumming'. Among most other songs on here, though, it feels embarassing to me. :)
13. Joe Hinchcliffe "Mercury's Star" - One of this collection's most widely acclaimed songs, and for good reason, as it's an expansively produced and just plain gorgeous sounding ballad. Man, I just love the guitar sound he gets on here, as well as that lovely symphonic ending. Out of all the songs on here, it's the one that evokes the strongest imagery in my head, by far. I just wish it would have been developed a little more, as there's only one verse with vocals here. As it stands, this is a really close second to Disclaimer's "Hell" for the album's top song. This guy's got a lot of potential.
As you can see, there's quite a bit of diversity amongst the approaches here (as Chris Willie Williams rightly points out in the nicely detailed liner notes, which are another really cool aspect about this album), and that's a big reason why it remains entertaining to listen to. That, and the fact all of these songs are somewhat good and inventive in their own way, and a few of them even approach greatness. Too bad none of these bands/artists on this comp are exactly, uh, well known, as some of them should be, damn it. Ah well - very consistently enjoyable collection anyway.
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