Friday, March 07, 2008

Gold Sounds: Colour Revolt's new album Plunder, Beg, and Curse reviewed

Colour Revolt - Plunder, Beg, and Curse



On this, their first full length, Colour Revolt delivers on the promise of their 2006 self-titled EP, but only to a certain degree. They get some things right, but there is certainly room for improvement. For the most part, Colour Revolt do one of two things: create slowly building songs with a payoff of epic proportions, or they create songs full of tension that end before any sort of tipping point.

The first few songs follow the 'slowly building' model, starting with first single "Naked and Red" which, while not bad, seems to be missing a little something. The next track, "A Siren" starts similarly to "Naked and Red", but progresses in a different direction. Towards the end, guitar, bass and drums fire on all cylinders, creating a beautiful cacophony of sound that keeps building until all instrumentation stops. It seems a lot less calculated than "Naked and Red," and it's this that makes me believe it should have been chosen as the album's first single. Next, the haunting mood and slow stomp of "Elegant View" eventually veer into loud, unruly territory, full of abrasive guitar feedback and the occasional guitar riff reminiscent of 80s metal (to me, anyway). By the end of the track, the guitars sound absolutely exhausted (one of my personal favorite moments of the album). Indeed, the build up to aural assault is well-done on these two songs.

Most of the other tracks are filled with tension, and the best example of this is the track "Moses of the South." Repeated guitar strumming and a fluid rhythm section start off the song, and persist while various guitar feedback becomes introduced during its progression. It creates an eerie yet somehow endearing atmosphere, and it's the track I like the most. Other tracks towards the end of the album, such as "Innocent and All," do the same thing, but just aren't as memorable.

Final track "What Will Come of Us?" exercises an admirable amount of restraint, but doesn't work well as the closing track. After listening for the whole six-plus minutes, you sort of hope that something big is going to happen, but it never really does. Even though it's a disappointment in that way, I give them a lot of credit for this unorthodox method of closing the album. The band may have thought that it would be interesting to go against expectations and end with a slowly building but quieter song rather than with a slowly building but epic song.

Unfortunately, a lot of the tracks here are pretty mediocre and forgettable. "See It," which follows "A Siren" and "Elegant View," seems like an afterthought after those two powerful tracks. Unfortunately, several of the tracks on the album come off the same way; after listening to the album several times, I still can't recall what some of the songs even sound like (they sort of suffer from 'every song sounds the same' syndrome). Tracks like "See It" and "Swamp" aren't necessarily bad, but they're just sort of unremarkable compared to the obviously stronger tracks. Honestly, there just isn't much to love after the halfway point of the album.

Also, the album's not instrumental, but I don't feel compelled to mention lyrics or vocals at all. The lyrics are too trapped in traditional rhyming schemes (one main complaint I had with their EP as well) to be compelling and the vocals just sort of accentuate the tone of the song.

Rating? 4/10: There are some really strong songs here (as there were on the EP), but unfortunately there are also a lot of unforgettable songs as well, and nearly the whole second half of the album is completely forgettable. I still think the band shows potential to have a strong release someday, but this isn't it.

Listen: Colour Revolt's myspace currently has "A Siren" and "Naked and Red" up for streaming

Waffa Bilal

Incase anyone is interested in the news of RPI arts. Here is my blog post on the recent art department visiting artist Wafaa Bilal. His gallery showing was shut down because the campus replulicans think the arts department is "a terrorist safe haven".

EMELIE EXPLORES

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Ambient Signal 3/5/08 the poor playlist planning show


WRPI 91.5fm!
http://www.wrpi.org/ for webcast

These songs are all over the place!

Sunset Rubdown- The taming of the hands that came back to life
Emily haines and the soft skeleton- Doctor Blind
This will destroy you- There are some remedies worse than the disease
Fleet Foxes- Drops in the river
Gregor Samsa - Untitled #1
Joy Wants Eternity- Death is a door the opens
WHY?- These Few Presidents
Los Campesinos- Death to los campesinos
Beach House- You come to me
Brooke Waggoner- Fresh pair of eyes
City and Colour- The death of me
Jim White- Crash into the sun
Plants and Animals- Lola Who?
A Weather- Spiders and snakes
Strangers die every day- Aperture for departure
Ruby Suns- Tane Mahuta
Colour Revolt- Mattresses Underwater
Ester Drang- All the feeling
Georgie James- More Lights
Efterklang- Mirador
The Velvet Teen- The Raining curtains
Panda Bear- Comfy in Nautica
Damiak- Extended Slide
Japancakes- When you sleep

pinkie swear

artist - song


  1. autechre - track 2
  2. mahjongg - tell the police the truth
  3. ssion (pronounced 'shun') - a wolves eye
  4. ghostland observatory - club soda
  5. benny benassi - love is gonna save us
  6. these new puritans - colours
  7. delta 5 - disco not disco (off DISCO NOT DISCO)
  8. busy p - rainbow man ( off BIPPP)
  9. burial - archangel
  10. goldfrapp - A&E - gui boratto dub
  11. carl craig - at les
  12. craze - sounds better with you, one more rainforest, come true tonight, come around (eli remix)
  13. daft punk - around the world, harder better faster stronger
  14. moby - alice - general midi remix
  15. ursula 1000 - urgent/anxious - ladytron remix
  16. yacht - see a penny (pick it up)
  17. cars and trains - the wires from my broken record player
  18. modest mouse - baby blue sedan
  19. 65daysofstatic - another code against the gone
  20. teargas and plateglass - behold the sea of ills so vast
  21. hot chip - made in the dark
  22. bitcrush - an island, a penninsula
  23. subtractive lad - decay as a lifesyle
  24. xiu xiu - dead raver shhhhhhhh mix - bloodysnowman remix
  25. proem - recommizerate

-Emelie [ 7970 ]

Monday, March 03, 2008

A Moveable Dance {3/2}

[artist - track]
  • Jackson 5 - I Want You Back (Rogerseventytwo & The Walk Remix)
  • The Pase Rock - So Fucking Disco
  • Various Artists - Alors les filles, on fête Noël (Ed Banger/Institubes):
*Das Glow - Vulcanice
*Sebastian - Walkman
*Para One - Midnight Swim (Surkin Remix)
*Bobmo - Home Alone
*Orgasmic (feat. Cuizinier & Charlie Greane) - Stade de France
*Uffie - Hot Chick
*Midnight Juggernauts - Tombstone
*Justice - Phantom
*DJ Mehdi (feat. Feadz) - Pony Rocking
*Krazy Baldhead - Crazy moth9f7ck4s (Midfield General Remix)
  • Get Shakes - Sister Self Doubt (Alternative Version)
  • Pharrell - Give It Up (DJ Grandtheft Acid Remix)
  • M.I.A. - Paper Planes (Blaqstarr Remix)
  • The Blow - The Love That I Crave (Strategy's Strata Club Remix)
  • Zombie Disco Squad - Hit Me With The Horns
  • Hadouken! - That Boy That Girl
  • Supreeme - Who We Are (Royal Rumble Remix)
  • Surkin - Ghetto Obsession (ROCCANOVA Is Ghetto In '08 Remix)
  • Todosantos - OMG We Got It (El Pollo Acido Remix)
  • The Mighty Vybz - Control Mode
  • Daft Punk - Around The World (Kill Da Hype Remix)
  • trixR4kidz - Mathromantics
  • Settlefish - Summerdrip (Amari Night Members Club Remix)
  • Anoraak - Never Ending Romance Disaster
  • Radiohead - Nudez (feat. Too $hort & MC Zumbi of Zion-I)
  • Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor (Smoothed Out On An R&B Tip Version)

"A Moveable Dance" will be on vacation next week! Wooo spring break! Next show on 3/16/2008!!