Growing - His Return
[Classic Robosexual. Updated with working mp3 link]
This is a pretty easy album to review. Three tracks and no irritating
long song names or movements, no maps to the music or divisions within
tracks. If you've listened to Growing before, you'll know vaguely what to expect (Here is the Robosexual review of The Soul Of The Rainbow And The Harmony Of Light), but if you haven't, let me break it down for you. Growing
makes a sort of noisy, droney music along the lines of a Windy &
Carl with more distortion, or some random psychedelic band's
instrumental break drawn out to album length. It's music to live in
and have take over your whole head. It's thick, powerful, and
well-done - and if you can imagine other songs as punctuated lines,
chorus-verse-break etc, imagine Growing as a big, fat green brush stroke that encompasses your whole sonic field of view. That's a little much, maybe.
The first track, "In the Shadow of the Mountain," which you will hear, is my favorite. It begins with a shimmering, chopped up guitar that makes reappearances frequently, along with some kind of maraca. Then come the other guitars. The big ones. You think it's loud now? Don't worry! About 4 more layers of distortion are coming. Despite all the layers and samples, Growing still finds room to get some honest melodies in there. They don't stray too far from the base, and it's mainly just augmenting the single chord that makes up the whole song, but damn, it sounds good. The next track, a midget by Growing standards at 4 1/2 minutes long, is the only one in my mind that actually has vocals. It throws me a little, but if you just consider the voice another instrument, it shouldn't distract you too much, and the rest of the song is great anyway. "Wide Open" is a nice long track that doesn't pretend: what you hear is what you get, but it's going to get louder and louder until it cracks open and dies. There is a little melody if you listen for it, and many layers to pay attention to, but don't expect a sudden change like they are wont to do sometimes.
It's great headphone music, and I love to read to it; the distortion doesn't distract me, somehow, and the melodies are pleasant enough that your mom might take a shine to them. It's a nice album and if you like it they've got more... so quit reading, and start Growing!
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