The Wiki-album meme (with own additions)
Dec. 11th, 2007 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_elyanBand: Vaadhoo
Album: Kwun Tong Bypass
Label: Biblioteca Teubneriana Records
Artists:
Vocals: Melissa Bedford
Lead guitar: Andreas Cruesen
Keyboards: Glidoler
Bass: Marc Demeyer
Drums: Dave Hlubeck
Tracks:
1) Pigs Fly
2) Polygonatum Multiflorum
3) Fiesta Macarena
4) Pacific Rugby Cup
5) Amica Wronki
6) James Scott Sledge
7) Saddle Tank (Submarine)
8) Gromov Norm
9) Citybanan
10) Harrison County, Texas
11) Condemios de Arriba
12) St John The Baptist's Chruch, Chester
13) Hawkwood, Calgary
14) Wappocomo, West Virginia
15) Internet Tutorial
Vaadhoo - Kwun Tong Bypass
Geographical oddballs second album fails to take to the skies
Vaadhoo, a Maldives-based five-piece with considerable musical game and well-thumbed atlases, have become a minor sensation since their first album, The Federated States of Micronesia brought the world literally into the hi-fi of listeners brave enough to seek it out at the darker end of the Indie racks. Expctations have thus been high since rumours of a "new direction" became rife for their second album. Released two months behind schedule, allegedly following a flyout by Glidoler after mixing nearly obliterated his famously adventurous keyboard parts, Kwun Tong Bypass represents a bid for mainstream recognition which can alas only be describved as a qualified success at best.
The first half of the album can best be described as a hotch-potch of literate, but surpsisingly derivative, pop musing. Opener "Pigs Fly", for example, takes its cues very much from Led Zeppelin's Communication Breakdown, and while the number crunches along in a satisfactory enough manner, Belgian-born Andreas Cruesen is no Jimmy Page, his statuesque riffing never quite managing to escape the pedestrian, despite the energetic crash of Dave Hlubeck's meat-and-potatoes drumming.
While little in this first half is actively objectionable (though the repetitive shoutalong of "Pacific Rugby Cup" is notable tedious), little of it demands a second listen. Even their attempt at political satire, James Scott Sledge, is unlikely to give Bono any sleepless nights. Only "Gromov Norm", with its almost fractal keyboard runs from Glidoler and cunning mathematical lyricism, brings anything new to the party.
As if tiring of this attempt tochange, the second half of the album is much more in the mould of thir freshman outing. "The Citybanan Suite" is a whistlestop tour of the kinds of neglected places which informed so much of wht made the group popular. Strting with the electro groove of "Citybanan" itself, and taking in country and western "Harrison County, Texas", pastoral English rumination (the delightful "John The baptist's Churhc, Chester", which could have come straight out of The Village Green Preservation Society), and even a tenatative stab at world music, with the furious but oddly empty "Wappacomo, West Virginia". Nothing quite satisfies in the same way as Guadaloupe or Battle Mountain did, and while the Citybanan Suite is an instructive listen, it hardly leaves one gasping for more.
Despite these shortcomings (and the frankly foolish "hideen" track "Intrnet Tutorial", which attempts to cast the geography theme in terms of an online "lesson", with predictably risible results), Kwun Tong Bypass is not without its merits. The playing is as assured as on their first album, and some of the instrumental flourishes show great promise, if the inventiveness has be yoked to stronger material. Ex soapstar Melissa Bedford's vocals remain slightly grating, but not offensively so, and her voice shows an increasingly interesting smoky range on some of the more testing material, especially the jazz-tinged Amica Wronki.
All in all, therefore, Kwun Tong Bypass represents a step sideways from the opning salvo of Micronesia, and while unlikely to win any new converts to their place-name heavy rock stylings, should leave the faithful entertained enough, even if somewhat defalted after the preceding hype. Hopefully their next album, already rumoured to be half-written, will expand in new and more consistently fruitful directions.
3 stars
Album: Kwun Tong Bypass
Label: Biblioteca Teubneriana Records
Artists:
Vocals: Melissa Bedford
Lead guitar: Andreas Cruesen
Keyboards: Glidoler
Bass: Marc Demeyer
Drums: Dave Hlubeck
Tracks:
1) Pigs Fly
2) Polygonatum Multiflorum
3) Fiesta Macarena
4) Pacific Rugby Cup
5) Amica Wronki
6) James Scott Sledge
7) Saddle Tank (Submarine)
8) Gromov Norm
9) Citybanan
10) Harrison County, Texas
11) Condemios de Arriba
12) St John The Baptist's Chruch, Chester
13) Hawkwood, Calgary
14) Wappocomo, West Virginia
15) Internet Tutorial
Vaadhoo - Kwun Tong Bypass
Geographical oddballs second album fails to take to the skies
Vaadhoo, a Maldives-based five-piece with considerable musical game and well-thumbed atlases, have become a minor sensation since their first album, The Federated States of Micronesia brought the world literally into the hi-fi of listeners brave enough to seek it out at the darker end of the Indie racks. Expctations have thus been high since rumours of a "new direction" became rife for their second album. Released two months behind schedule, allegedly following a flyout by Glidoler after mixing nearly obliterated his famously adventurous keyboard parts, Kwun Tong Bypass represents a bid for mainstream recognition which can alas only be describved as a qualified success at best.
The first half of the album can best be described as a hotch-potch of literate, but surpsisingly derivative, pop musing. Opener "Pigs Fly", for example, takes its cues very much from Led Zeppelin's Communication Breakdown, and while the number crunches along in a satisfactory enough manner, Belgian-born Andreas Cruesen is no Jimmy Page, his statuesque riffing never quite managing to escape the pedestrian, despite the energetic crash of Dave Hlubeck's meat-and-potatoes drumming.
While little in this first half is actively objectionable (though the repetitive shoutalong of "Pacific Rugby Cup" is notable tedious), little of it demands a second listen. Even their attempt at political satire, James Scott Sledge, is unlikely to give Bono any sleepless nights. Only "Gromov Norm", with its almost fractal keyboard runs from Glidoler and cunning mathematical lyricism, brings anything new to the party.
As if tiring of this attempt tochange, the second half of the album is much more in the mould of thir freshman outing. "The Citybanan Suite" is a whistlestop tour of the kinds of neglected places which informed so much of wht made the group popular. Strting with the electro groove of "Citybanan" itself, and taking in country and western "Harrison County, Texas", pastoral English rumination (the delightful "John The baptist's Churhc, Chester", which could have come straight out of The Village Green Preservation Society), and even a tenatative stab at world music, with the furious but oddly empty "Wappacomo, West Virginia". Nothing quite satisfies in the same way as Guadaloupe or Battle Mountain did, and while the Citybanan Suite is an instructive listen, it hardly leaves one gasping for more.
Despite these shortcomings (and the frankly foolish "hideen" track "Intrnet Tutorial", which attempts to cast the geography theme in terms of an online "lesson", with predictably risible results), Kwun Tong Bypass is not without its merits. The playing is as assured as on their first album, and some of the instrumental flourishes show great promise, if the inventiveness has be yoked to stronger material. Ex soapstar Melissa Bedford's vocals remain slightly grating, but not offensively so, and her voice shows an increasingly interesting smoky range on some of the more testing material, especially the jazz-tinged Amica Wronki.
All in all, therefore, Kwun Tong Bypass represents a step sideways from the opning salvo of Micronesia, and while unlikely to win any new converts to their place-name heavy rock stylings, should leave the faithful entertained enough, even if somewhat defalted after the preceding hype. Hopefully their next album, already rumoured to be half-written, will expand in new and more consistently fruitful directions.
3 stars
