http://waxworks.bandcamp.com/album/bienfang
The Waxworks has put out quite the number of free albums. It was hard for me to choose which one to go with, so I went with "Bienfang". Something about it really sticks out to me, and I greatly enjoy it. I highly suggest to anyone who reads these reviews to listen to this ambient, dark, occasionally snare rush-y album. Now, I grew up around a lot of Aphex Twin and all of Richard D. James' other monomers, so there's a certain place in my heart for snare rushes, and this producer plays all of the right strings on my heart chords. I probably will review a few of the other albums on the page.
Onto the review, "Sketch 1" is the song I'm referencing in particular when I say the album can be a little snare rush-y. It's not, at first. It's actually really ambient, really smooth. It's super dreamy in the best of ways. The lfo is set really well to the gate, that's something I can truly appreciate, it helps it flow really well. Suddenly the rush hits you right in the face, except it's kind of like when you're running around with your friends, having a fun time in the summer sun, and then one of you trips and everyone laughs and has a fun time anyways. It's exactly like that. Now, "Sketch 2" on the other hand is just straight ambiance. It's sleepy gold, a really slow and soft drum beat, a heavy bass that I feel is a sine bass. It's pretty repetitive, but pretty in the sense of beauty, not in how repetitive it is. I almost fell asleep about five times reviewing just this one song. Just saying, it's really good at what it does. Now, as ambient as "Sketch 2" was, "Sketch 3" is three-fold. It's super ambient. I'm pretty sure it's just a recording of an abandoned breeze-way, which might be the coolest sound thing ever. It's calm in an mp3 file. It's sleep, mixed with some warm milk, and a little bit of wind noise, set on the nightstand of the tempur-pedic company owner. It's that sleepy.
"Sketch 4" keeps the sleepy-ness, of the preceding two songs, and throws in a Legend of Zelda feel. It's great, it's reverb-y, it's bitty, and it's kind of awesome. I mean, it's really good. I love it. Potential favorite here, but I really like "Sketch 1" so it might be a tie. "Sketch 5" is rather minimal, it's really nice though. For a one minute song, it's really good in the variety sector. It manages to keep my attention by a series of well placed blips and beeps. It's a nice intermission-type song. I feel like in order to keep to my strict policy of only reviewing half of every album, I'd have to review half of "Sketch 6", but that sounds too weird. So instead, I'll just review the whole song. "Sketch 6" starts of really a really funky vibe, it sounds like something from that game Da Blob I think it was. I like it a lot, actually, it's a really good sound, and that drum beat seems to fight the sleepiness that the rest of the album cast on me. Finally, after a little glitched sax, everything's all rush-y. It's really fun, kind of like the song to best define what I imagine it to be like being the guy from Infamous.
This album is fantastic, it's a hodgepodge. I really like when an artist can make eleven songs that are all at least slightly different. It really makes for a good listen, especially since even the faster songs are just as sleep inducing as all the other songs. It's easily a gem, and I'll more than likely end up reviewing a few of the newer albums as well. In the mean time, I hope you enjoy the album, I know I did!
No comments:
Post a Comment