:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Friday, September 22, 2006 ::

Single Reviews: Protokoll- DNR (Illicit) & Seth Lakeman - The White Hare (Relentless)

The Sunday Times Culture Magazine ran an article about dub-step last week. The genre, along with its close but dirtier relative Grime, has been around for a couple of years now and is just staring to reach some kind of mainstream acceptance. For example, riddims from Pinch (War Dub), DMZ, Kode 9 and Random Trio all appear on the soundtrack to the movie Children of Men [due for release 25.12.06]

The Times comments on the rate of change in electronic music:

"...electronic dance music has been in a state of impressive, not to say baffling, flux. No other area of the domestic pop spectrum has generated subgenres at such a rate or become so adept at inventing intriguing names for them."

From within this community the outside world seems to move very slowly. I look at the outside world of indie / alternative rock and perceive little to no noticeable change over the last 10 years. Then along come Protokoll, and set everything back another 10 years.

This '80s inspired dirge could only redeem itself through incredible song writing. It doesn't. I try very hard to listen to the lyrics and work out if something catching or profound is going on, but I find myself unable to take its message in. Everything is lost in the fuzz.

Likewise with Seth Lakeman, for whom times appear not to have changed since he first heard "The Times They Are A Changin'." He can't even rustle up a B-side. The instrumental version is merely the original tune with the vocal fader down – you can still just about hear the vocals on the overspill from the other mics anyway – and it's guitar part's refusal to progress in any way on full, monotonous, view. Someone felt the need to fade it out half way through, presumably out of embarrassment.

Based on these efforts I can't see how either act ever got off the pub circuit. I'd like to shake them, and anyone who buys it, and tell them things have moved on. But in the big wide world, I'm not sure they really have.

Seth Lakeman - The White Hare is released on Relentless on 16.10.06
Protokoll- DNR is released on Illicit on 31.10.06

:: Dan 22.9.06 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post]    ::
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