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GF music review club


Carvalho Diablo
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I, Gemini - Let's Eat Grandma

 

OK, so second listen started and now writing my thoughts on this album. First listen left me feeling dazed and confused. So second listen is where I am writing my review from...

 

Deep Six Textbook:

 

Children? Maybe. 17. Children. First listen I wanted to switch it off and wonder if I had clicked on the wrong button. But then I thought about the children in Stranger Things. They made an adult show, so maybe these children have made an adult album.  So on second listen, have they? I would have to say yes.....and no. The first track is deceptively slow but with a brooding beat that would have fitted nicely (weirdly enough) into Stranger Things. Quite a long track that doesn't feel long at all. Clever. 8.5/10

 

Eat Shiitake Mushrooms:

 

Slow goes into mid-tempo. This seems to be just an instrumental but it eventually kicks into the vocals. The delay actually makes the song seem a lot longer which is not necessarily a good thing but once it starts it's easy enough to listen to. Mix of rap and song which for children would probably be fine, not too good for me personally. But saying that, it's well produced and bounces around quite nicely. Has a Japanese Manga feel to the sound, bit too long though. 7.5/10

 

Sax in the City:

 

Reggae seems to be the order of the day here, although not truly just hints. Honestly? Not for me this one. I think this belongs on an album for kids. Harsh. However, I do like the production and it's impressive that a couple of children have delivered this album. 6/10

 

Chocolate Sludge Cake:

 

I didn't notice it on first listen as I must have been distracted. 35 seconds in and still hardly anything has happened. Just a very quiet sound that takes more than a minute to actually develop. It's a long song at 6.36 and where the first track did a good job of making the track seem to go quickly, this one really doesn't. At all. Two minutes in and all that's going on is a couple of recorders playing. I have no idea how to review this. Two and a half minutes and it's come to life. But all that means is there are more instruments coming in. Not my bag, baby. Three minutes in and it's getting a bit messy. I gave it a go, but no. 4/10

 

Chimpanzees in Canopies:

 

I feel like what I wrote for Chocolate Sludge Cake applies here too, just without the long, drawn out intro. A bit messy and not really my bag. 4/10

 

Rapunzel:

 

Piano intro is nice, again has a bit of a Japanese feel to this track. Probably way off target there. The long tracks seem to have very long intros mostly. This track would probably lend itself to a children's animation movie. I can see them being success in this field. As a track, again just not for me. 5/10

 

Sleep Song:

 

Is it really bad that the title of the song for me says it all for me personally? I can see why people may like this album as it's well produced and quite an achievement for kids to be brave enough to record something that isn't bubble gum pop but it just doesn't tick my boxes. 4/10

 

Welcome to the Treehouse Part One:

 

Part One? There's another part? Oh dear. 3/10

 

Welcome to the Treehouse Part Two:

 

How strange. Part Two is actually totally different and I quite like this. Clever drum beats and atmospheric sounds. Possibly as good as the opening track. 8.5/10

 

Uke 6 Textbook:

 

Is that a ukelele? Brilliant fun. Clue is in the track title. George Formby would be proud. Nice outro to the album. 7/10

 

First two tracks were really good. Last two tracks were good too. In the middle, not so much.

 

Overall score 6/10.

 

Definitely wouldn't listen again. However I am curious to listen to their second album which had superior reviews so for that reason I am glad I did listen to it for a second time.

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Good prompting Shep, cheers. 

I know I'm behind on reviews, I think I have Lee's to catch up on, will do that over the next couple of days.

For my AOW, I'll choose The Stooges - Raw Power.

And wish you all a very merry Xmas and a happy new year.

 

EDIT I've fucked up here Shep and posted a link to a single song, can you do the honours for me please?

 

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55 minutes ago, cloggypop said:

Careful now, CD. There's a few versions of this album. Probably best sticking with the original 1973 David Bowie mix that all the band hated at the time. 

Interesting. Just had a quick listen to Search & Destroy and must say that I much preferred the Iggy mix. That said, I see that Toxteth repped your post Cloggy, so the Bowie mix it is.

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It's a 10/10 from me as well.

 

I used to have Iggy & The Stooges in this album's lettering on the back of a leather jacket as a young punk. 

 

These days I just stick to changing my helicopter landing music on MGS V to Search & Destroy. It just has to be the best intro to an album ever the way that guitar just explodes into life while Iggy sings about being a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm. 

 

Best band that ever walked the planet. 

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1 hour ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

Great album choice and one I've not listened to I  years. Never realised there's a few versions so that will keep me well occupied. 

There's the Bowie version, the original Iggy version (was bootlegs but then available as Rough Power on Bomp) and then the much later Iggy mix. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Happy New Year everybody, 2019 here we go.

 

Review : Raw Power by Iggy Pop and The Stooges

 

Never been a huge fan of The Stooges tbh, although the one time I did see them live I remember I really enjoyed them. Anyway...

 

[presses play]

 

Search & Destroy - Right off the mix is raw (and fucking awful), Iggy's vocals are clear enough but the drums are almost inaudible. Okay, but what a great song ! Great chorus, great (Ron Asheton?) solo. Bowie mate, what's going on ?!

Great start to the album, Search & Destroy is full of colour and energy, catchy as fuck.

 

Gimme Danger opens with a nice acoustic guitar and a barely audible tambourine panned hard right. Iggy sounding  very Jim Morrison. Gimme Danger picks up the pace slightly about halfway through, but still very Doorsy, which is alright by me.

2/2 so far.

 

Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell screeches in with high octane and burning rubber and another great rock n roll riff. Iggy sounding throaty, gritty and up for business. More nice guitar work, a real stomper, great live I bet.

Keeping the run going. Good stuff.

 

Note: I can hardly make out a single word which Iggy is singing due entirely to the awful recording and mixing.

 

Penetration goes in balls deep, another good riff, vocal again extremely high in the mix and I can make out the lyric here. Iggy sounds deranged and completely fucking crackers tbh. Is that a xylophone I can hear ascending throughout the chorus?

Another tick in the box. 4/4 so far.

 

Raw Power shoves it's way in with another big dirty guitar riff and some keys (or is it someone with a drumstick and a beer bottle?).

"Raw Power baby just won't quit, Raw Power I can feel it." Feeling it too Iggy lad, I could very easily get down to this live in some sweaty dive bar. Filthy guitar sound with some amp break up keeps this roll going. Best song yet ?

 

I Need Somebody plods in, noticeably slower and more considered. Some nice acoustic jangle accompany the patented Iggy Pop drawl. Drums like biscuit tins, the record does sound fucking awful (reckon they spent the production budget on smack?), but the songs are full of life and attitude and energy, bringing a smile. Another great song.

 

Shake Appeal  has a shuffling riff, hand claps a-go-go. Iggy screams his lyrics from his throat, the killer rock n roll solo doesn't last nearly long enough for me. Weakest song yet imo.

 

Death Trip sounds like the production has gone back in time inside of a biscuit tin, "Sick boy, sick boy, going round, losing my grip", so I'm guessing Irvine Welsh drew inspiration from Death Trip en route tae the scheme?

Nice riff again, worth the effort to pick them out. Vocals again have that Doorsy feel. Fades out with a bastard of a solo.

 

Okay then, feelings? Raw Power is clearly a set of songs which were intended to be listened to in a live setting, written and performed with an infectious energy which doesn't always translate to listening to them on your living room hifi.

Understandably The Stooges needed to get their songs out there, to a wider audience, but fucking hell Bowie lad. Not sure what else to say. This album sounds outrageous, raw as sin, like ramming a rusty pipe up a stray cat's arsehole.

The songs though were (mostly) excellent, full of youthful vigour and infectious energy, overflowing with piss and vinegar. There's loads of soul here.

Take it or leave it.

 

It's an 8 from me Clive.

 

 

 

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Raw Power, it's a 9/10 for me.

 

Apparently Iggy's vocals were run through a small Fender amp for the effect on most of the tracks. If you listen closely Iggy's not shouting on Search and Destroy, it's almost like he's whispering, it's actually very quiet. It's just cranked up in the console.

 

Iggy's mix is basically Iggy stoned as fuck cranking everything to maximum. But it's not compressed ( in the sense of using a compression unit) it's compressed from the tape machine being dimed into the red. So you get that powerful 'out of control' distortion. It's all mid frequency dominant which creates that explosiveness energy. Nowadays all the Metal guys take all the mids out of their tracks and it leaves them sounding flat and lifeless. The push of the sound is in the mid frequency. 

 

Bowie's mix is more subdued. It's a better mix for sure, more articulation in the instruments and dynamics, but Iggy's mix is better for me because that's how it was intended. It was made to sound dangerous.  

 

Special mention has to go to James Williamson's guitar work on the album. Apparently the electric guitar parts are just an AC30. Nothing else. Williamson would string two guitars, one with a normal set of strings and one with these specific strings, that can be tuned up an octave so they sound like the high strings on a 12 string guitar. Apparently if you play both guitars together it gives a much better sound than a 12 string. The one with the higher octave strings is used on the acoustic parts in Gimme Danger. 

 

Standout track - Gimme Danger

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Sorry, been busy with a newborn child and house shit. 

 

I have done one for Blackberry Smoke, just as finally stop playing last week (only messing) I have not got round to Listening to Let's Eat Grandma more than once yet. I'll get onto it as soon as I get a minute to do good stuff like this. 

 

 

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