- JURA
Right, this is a bribery review; I got this record for free from Daniel Patrick
Quinn, with a promise that I'd review it. It took me some time, but here I am,
and I feel that the album has grown on me a lot since I got the album. I hope
Daniel will accept this as an excuse for being so late with the review! A
bribery review as it is, the rating COULD be a bit higher than the record
actually deserves. But, I've tried my best to be objective and to see the album
from a neutral point of view.
Now then, over to the Question: Daniel Patrick Quinn, who's that?
Well, he's a 22-year-old nostalgic who's been digging Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt
and Nico quite a lot lately, and that's quite obvious in his music. This stuff
is recorded on analog equipment with an old synth, and various odd instruments
like a violin here, a trumpet there, a bass here and some percussion over there.
He claims that his intention was to create something that sounded as little of
its time as possible, and he sure succeeded with that! This is NOT a record
you'd give to the average 14-year-old! Another intention of his was not to be
too pretentious with his voice and instrumental skill, but to use both in the
best of ways, hopefully ending up in something coming from the heart. And, I
like all this! The problem is, as always, to transform all these intentions and
thoughts into music on a CD, but I kind of think that he succeeded there, too.
Daniel loves what he's doing, and even if his borrowing from Robert Wyatt are
quite obvious from time to time, he manages to
capture a sound of his own.
Now, the PROBLEMS I have with the album is, for one thing, that's it's a double
CD. Totally unnecessary, as neither of the discs are longer than 25 minutes. A
single CD would have made more sense. As it is now, the first disc features
songs with vocals, and the second disc consists of instrumental tracks. Well,
that's more of an administrative thing, but I thought it was worth mentioning...
Now then, I can complain more! I think that Daniel's voice gets a bit too whiney
sometimes - he sings very brightly, and on a few tracks he just sings too much.
It's not that much a problem, though, as half the record IS instrumental!
Musically, the songs have one hook each, which is repeated over and over for
everything between barely 3 to over 9 minutes. That's pretty much the point
with ambient music, I know, but I've listened too much to Soft Machine's "3",
and the songs on there have various phases and variations. Even if Quinn's
songs aren't by far as long as those 20-minute thingies, I think he could
have gained by varying the individual songs a bit. When it comes to a broader
perspective, and you look at the album as a whole, it is as diverse as a retro-ambient
record can possibly be, and that's good, very good. He also manages to create
a nice mood in each song, and those odd bits of violin and trumpet makes the
stuff even more special. I adore that cover painting, too - reminds me of
a 70's edition of the Lord of the Rings that I have! And, as a whole, I really
do like the album, and if I seemed a bit harsh in the review, that's because
I want Daniel to get better! Like, get a band and start doing more avantgarde-ambient
stuff a' la Soft Machine! The fellow has talent, and if he'll just get it
all right, he'll produce a hell of a record, I'm certain, even if his second
album, "Jura", was more a step backwards...Anyway, the record can be purchased
through Quinn's label's homepage, www.suilvenrecordings.com.
Mail your comments and reviews!
Right, I had hoped for an improvement over "The Winter Hills", and I get this? A
60-minute, one-chord, non-melodical ambient drone with certain similarities to
Brian Eno's "Thursday Afternoon"? Well.
I guess I sounded a bit harsh there, and that was my intention. But, I don't
diss the album! Nothing at all happens in this track, but it isn't unpleasant,
like some 80's mainstream can be...it's actually kind of cool with a slowly
moving record like this, cool that someone cares to record it and cool that a
label cares to release it. And, the disc's name wasn't chosen without reason -
this stuff most perfectly illustrates some pre-historic world. Where nothing
really happened, all right, and the record is as slow as evolution itself. So,
it's really good for getting away from stress, mobile phones and computers and
everything modern - turn on this record and turn into a palm tree back in the
days before dinosaurs!
The question is, do you really want this kind of records? Anybody could record
something similar, and this stuff is that kind of music which you put on once,
and soothes yourself, but then you'll drop it somewhere far back in your record
collection, and then forget about it. It isn't bad, but it isn't really anything
special, like the first record was. I COULD give it a 3 or something, as it
isn't really good in any way, but I could just as well give it a 7, as it
isn't bad either. And something in between wouldn't work. So, the question
mark will have to do, for now, at least. If you'd happen to be interested
in the record, you can get it from www.suilvenrecordings.com,
but you better get the first record first.
Mail your comments and reviews!