a_phake's Mind bloggle

was checking out Glassnote Recordings recently & stumbled upon this band. well i heard ‘Fader’ on the radio a while back & it was one of those songs that sorta jumped out among the clutter because of its unique sound..

These guys have a very Jimmy Eat World/Foals type sound, a very warm rock n roll feel. What i especially dig is how effortlessly the feeling & vibe of the band translates thru the speakers on the core tracks of the album. The other tracks aren’t bad but you find yourself listening to them instead of being transported.

Mix & master wise i will categorize it under ‘Loudness Wars’. Meaning an extreme amount of master bus compression was used on some of the tracks, so much so that by track 8 or 9 my head started to hurt. (more on that later)

But my first impression of the album was a really good one. I absolutely love it when tracks 1,2 & 3 are all excellent. I found myself actually turning up the volume by track2. There really aren’t any horrible songs on Conditions, just that all the songs aren’t as strong as the 4 or 5 core ones : Love Lost, Rest, Sweet Disposition, Fader & maybe Science Of Fear

Vocalist Dougy Mandagi really has an amazing voice & style. His delivery emphasizes melody & texture rather than lyrics. As a matter of fact much of the time i couldn’t understand what he was saying & it really didn’t matter to me.

When the band weren’t trying to impress with lyrics/ storytelling; or when the producer wasn’t trying to get your attention with some crazy song dynamics (Soldier On, Resurretion) that was when Temper Trap was at their strongest > when the vibes were allowed to flow:
 

Before i forget to mention Dougy’s amazing falsetto, lets jus say that this shy looking asian dude beats Bono, Mick Jagger, & Barry Gibb combined (although that would sound like a mess). I was waiting for his voice to get annoying a la Radiohead but im still here listening.. On track 8 he sounds kinda like a Curtis Mayfield/Jagger hybrid

I find some of the mix decisions on this record interesting. As metioned before, the compression here can really get insane. Two such moments would be the last chorus of ‘Fader’ & the second half of ‘Resurrection’. Talk about KFC greasy! In the case of ‘Fader’,  i wondered if iTunes was malfunctioning when the volume jumped about 2dB for the last chorus. I had to consult you tube to see if my file was faulty. Another issue i had with that song was an audible scratch/crackle sound that was being used repeatedly (u know the sound your DAW makes when it is overloading?). And again, the vocals are just squeezed so tightly in the mix it becomes thin. 

There is one thing i like about the overall sonic approach though. A lot of emphasis was placed on the drums & the bass while the guitars were held back a bit. I think that is what made this album sound as big as it did without making it sounding noisy. Guitars can really compete in the mid range & i thought that they were balanced well. 

Overall Conditions not a sonicaly experimental album. You get the same basic sound with every track. But that doesn’t seem to be the goal. If you want some groove to rock to, or some feelings to pierce your entity, then give this a listen. 

to me its always interesting finding music integrated within music. In 2005 David Bowie was a favorite of mine & i remember reading about his rivalry with Marc Bolan. Then last night found myself talking to a guy who very cleverly weaved the chorus of T. Rex’s “Children of the Revolution” into the production of a song for Trinidad’s own Brother Resistance :

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Now Listen to the chorus of this one :

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Gotta Love the giant toothbrush :)