MoonSpeak
groundweller EP
The first track is the SEVEN MINUTE LONG "Artifactor". Goddammit. Right off the bat, way too goddamn long. And in case you're wondering, no, it really doesn't change all that much in ONE of its seven minutes. It's a very, very simple drum loop with some drones. I believe that, in order to properly judge a song, you HAVE to listen to it the whole way through. And in seclusion. That means you not only have to find time to listen to the song period, you also have to find the time to get alone, sit in the dark, and listen to the song, ALL the way through, with no interruptions or anything. This is the only way you can really absorb the music and appreciate everything about it.
So when a song goes on for THIS long and does virtually nothing for me except the same general sound for seven straight minutes, it gets a little grating. I just want to tell, "GET ON WITH IT", or "YEAH. UHN-TISS UHN-TISS DUN-DUN DUN-DUN. I GET IT." Some view longer songs as a way to immerse yourself get lost in the music? I just view it as a huge waste of my time. I mean, come ON... The beat isn't even that special, not enough that it needs to go on endlessly.
Brevity is the soul of wit. That's the lesson to be learned here. The only thing I really learned after listening to this song is that I hate cymbals (either that, or the song MADE me hate cymbals...)
"HiRiSE" is a song that has a stylized title, so you KNOW it must be rad. And just for funsies: Let's make it even slower, but twenty seconds longer! Wow! That is just so RAD. Ugh. It's times like this when I start thinking less about the music I'm listening to, and more about insignificant crap, like, why is the word "relapse" in brackets next to HiRiSE? Is it like "edit", except she got really drunk while editing it, and thought it sounded better anyway? Who the fuck knows. So far, the song hasn't done anything to warrant being nearly eight minutes long. The main riff has a sort of melancholy cadence, which is okay, I guess, except there's just no depth about it. I'm really starting to loathe the stock cymbal usage. Tss. Tss. Tss. All day. Everday. Tss. Tss. Tss. Just another uninspired track to add on to the pile.
You know, I want to like a lot of this stuff, I really do, but it's difficult when everything is just so bland and lifeless.
This next song, 19"80' (yes, spelled with the inexplicable quotation mark and apostrophe) I've actually heard prior to the release of the EP. It was originally titled "As Satisfying As Having Sex With A Woman". No, seriously. I told her that it was the stupidest thing ever, and I honestly think a prepubescent twelve-year-old BOY would be above naming a song that. And I'm not sure if I had anything to do with the title change, but I'd like to hope so, because I'd rather not believe that any sane person would name their song THAT and then expect to be taken seriously in the music industry. It's not even because it's needlessly perverted (even though it is. Like, it screams, "Hey, everyone! I just put 'sex' in a song title! Look how edgy/nonconformist/dangerous I am!" I fucking can't stand that shit). It's that the song doesn't even have a semblance of anything related to sex. You couldn't have sex to this song, it wasn't designed to be like that. So, yeah. Awful title, glad it was changed for the final cut, regardless of who or what the catalyst of that decision was.
(A tiny digression: The reason I'm so adamant about titles in music is because it is literally the first thing you know about the song: It's title. You know nothing else about it other than that. It sets up expectations. It's like meeting a genuinely good person for the first time when they are having a shitty day. Someone shit on their cupcake, and they're a little mad about it, so they take their anger out on you. You dislike this person who you would have liked on any other day. So, if your title fucking sucks, your song fucking sucks. Or at least, I'm gonna listen to your song with a negative attitude. That's how I process shit.)
The song itself is supposed to be a tribute to early 80's action movies (which is actually what the original song title was TRYING to reference, except Pumping Iron is NOT a fucking action movie), hence the title (I still can't make sense of the random quotation mark, nor the apostrophe, however). I agree; it does have a sort of 80's action flick flair to it. Particularly the percussion, which is arguably the best among all of MoonSpeak's music (hint: there's not a cymbal to be found). I like it.
The next song is an interesting one, because it sounds like a cover of a different song, played out of tune. If that wasn't the effect she was going for... Ouch. It's catchy, but it sounds like a lot of the notes ought to be higher or lower than they are. Then a wild distorted guitar appears, which sounds pretty cool, but it ends up drowning out the beautiful off-key notes that I was starting to like. I'm also starting to think that the vast majority, if not every single track she has EVER made, it arbitrarily named. The music starts getting less and less related to the music. Maybe it's just me, but this music just doesn't scream "...And the cow Jumped Over the Moon" to me. The ellipsis there (the one that no one will bother to pronoucne, a la Metallica's ...And Justice For All) bothers me in particular. In general, I dislike when negligible crap like that is tacked onto titles, because I personally prefer substance over style. MoonSpeak so far has shown me a lot of style, but substance? We have a deficit.
GEMS:
- 19"80'
- Visitor From the Red Planet
GERMS:
- Artifactor
- HiRiSE
3/5
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