 Mike
Allen
"Cirrhotic" CD
SunSeaSky
Productions
Genres: IDM, epic rock
SunSeaSky
307 West Lake Dr.
Random Lake, WI 53075 USA
May 10 - 16 2004 |
From the Cirrhotic press release:
"Cirrhotic: A term used to describe a severely
damaged liver usually in the case of alcoholism. None of the
things discussed lyrically will leave you smiling nor the overall
mood and ambience of the sound. The homegrown feeling can be
felt in almost all the tracks. It expresses feelings of
complete hopelessness in a world that is rapidly going to hell and
the dark places your mind can take you when dealing with those
feelings and the people that think they can ease that pain with
arrogance and their own neatly packaged version of right and
wrong."
Katrina & the Waves this is not. Cirrhotic's
thirteen songs run the gamut from IDM to acoustic pop to epic rock,
though not once do they offer anything but downers and upsetting
introspections. The result is dark, eerie, and surprisingly
listenable. Though this disc can be tiresome and dull at
times, there is plenty of really solid material here that makes up
for the occasional lapses into mediocrity.
Mike Allen is at his best when he is working with a
pop-based approach. However, this is not always the case - "Cirrhosis"
offers up plain, almost industrial-influenced IDM - which
is fine, but it won't push Allen above the competition. So
many electronica artists have already done this type of thing before,
and many have done it better. "Professional Responder"
and "Scientism" show what Allen should always be
making - melodic,
dark pop arrangements, heavy on atmosphere and melody.
Sometimes, as is the case on "Cells and Souls" and "The
Mother Degenerative," Allen relies too much on atmosphere,
and the melodies are boring and ineffective. With this type of
release, a diverse selection of pop hooks needs to be employed, or
else the music can become tiresome.
Cirrhotic is a listenable, though scattered album.
Approach with caution; this disc may have an impressively gloomy
texture, but this doesn't make up for a lack of accessibility in
some of its less enjoyable tunes.
76%
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 13 tracks, distributed by the
label, released 2003] |
