TAPE LOOP - Reviews, Loopers speak their brains Options

[Sostie]

Here it is. Your own, brand new, Loop review thread

[Ade]

I like the disc title.

Anyway, here's my review for: Noise Museum - Kick In The Head


The initial opening salvo was a tad disappointing on first listen, as I'd really enjoyed Rory's previous mix. But it has grown on me a little more now.


1 - A bit Franz Ferdinandy (Lazy-Ade Descriptive #25). I quite likes it, more so than on first listen.

2 - An instrumental of distortion guitars and drums, which does little for me to be honest. It does get a bit more structurally interesting just before the halfway mark, but it doesn't really develop much beyond that point, and it's simply not tuneful enough for my taste.

3 - A much more promising start to this one, with some nice delayed guitar notes, and a more interesting drum structure. Has a bit of an eerie feel to it which is quite good. Sparse lyric content, doesn't kick in until after the halfway point. It's okay.

4 - Continuing with the 'eerie' tone of the prior track, this is more up-tempo, with female vocals, much more my cup of tea. I like it. A mild touch of James Bond-esque brass stylings here and there, and almost reminiscent of B-movie background music in places too. Would definitely consider seeking out this artist/group. Not bad, not bad at all.

5 - Sounds a bit like Radiohead, but with an American Thom Yorke. The croaky vocal is rather endearing, although this is mainly when the backing melodies kick in for the chorus. Really quite nice though, and the first of my real favourites. The compilation seems to be getting progressively better with each song.

6 - Shimmery subtle backing, with rather bland male vocals. Takes a while to reallly get going. Quite a pretty little tune when all the melodies are working together, though it doesn't really grab me enough throughout.

7 - Short and very sweet. Piano and lovely strings, with some lovely guitar notes and various "lala lala la laaa" male and female vox to sweeten the mix. A really nice little dose of relaxing gorgeousness. I really want to know who this is. Sweet.

8 - Piano and triangle intro, before strings and brass sections join in, accompanied by that most distinctive Scott-Walker-inspired voice, part song, part narrative. One his more 'serious' sounding songs, and while not my preferred style from this artist, is nonetheless most enjoyable. Together with the track before, this makes for an interesting detour from the less refined voices of the first few songs on the disc.

9 - Haunting female vocal 'ooooo's with distorted echoey piano accompaniment, and just lovely. I was almost entirely convinced it was from the Donnie Darko soundtrack, but I know it isn't, because I checked to make sure. But I do know it, and I love it. Easily my highlight of the compilation, and the remaining songs do fall a little short in its wake. Must find out more.

10 - Downtempo, and a little sluggish, although it improves a bit when the strings kick in toward the end.

11 - Meandering drumbeat, and sparse, echoey guitars. Very chilled. Sounds like a mixture of Sufjan Stevens and Kings Of Convenience. The vocalist sounds of Scandinavian origins perhaps? It's quite nice, but again, it's not especially diverting. Still, I might be interested to check out more from this artist.

12 - To make another lazy comparison, this struck me a little like My Bloody Valentine without the distortion and density. Not enough melody or anything more interesting going on to really appeal to me.


It's the shame that the final three tracks follow a similarly relaxed pace, and that they don't have much else to them to really appeal (to my palate, at least). Just personal preference I guess, but I'd have liked something a little livelier to see the disc out, given that the bulk of the disc moves along at a fairly relaxed pace. Partly as the disc peaked for me at track 9, I guess the outro seemed a little too drawn out with nothing to truly add something a bit more contrasting for the last 15 minutes.

That said, a better disc than my first appraisal suggested. It gets a not entirely unfavourable 6.8 out of 10.