“I lay in the bathtub, as if i were dead. I lay in the grass as if I were dead. The trees have died, the sky is death. The wind blows over my skin, as cold as death. Empty houses of death.”
Cheery stuff then.
Thankfully I’m up to the third track out of four of this short, short E.P. from GSpider and Farah. From the artists monikers alone, my first thought was ‘Oh dear, the heads of TLOBF have finally fallen off the edge of sanity and sent me a grime album to review’. And after listening to this E.P. a few times, I can honestly say that I’d probably would have preferred the challenge. There isn’t really anything exciting about the Bruise Colour Blue E.P. It’s just a bit bland, with most of the music ending up sounding like a lazy, tired cross between Telefon Tel Aviv, Nine Inch Nails and in the case of opening track ‘Bruise Colour Blue’, Hadouken!. All random claps and snares, a few organic sounds here and there eventually add up to the same old electro edgy bollocks that anyone with a home studio set up and a decent set of plug-ins can do. Some of the synth sounds are also quite weak, the grimey bass on the verses of ‘Bruise Colour Blue’ in particular sounding quite tacky and cheap.
The vocalist on this E.P., Farah Holly Nemat, is touted as ‘a true gem lyricist and spoken word artist’ by the labels press. And while she has a sultry, smooth voice that sometimes works across these three tracks and one remix, it can also come across as lispy and grating in equal measures. No more so as on ‘Mojave’, source of the lyrics that open this review. Almost whispered, the sound of her tongue on the roof of her mouth is so noticeable that it almost destroys the elegant, if slightly morbid, poetry. Diversity is also not one of Farah’s strong points, and if it is, it’s certainly not evident on this extended player. The songs are littered with optimistic phrases like ‘All I ask of you is long term suffering, I will be with you in spirit, in the wreckage’.
These songs are well produced, and clearly time has been spent perfecting the sounds and lyrics so they flow as perfectly as possible within and around their opposite elements. However, there isn’t really much interest to be gleaned from this E.P., with all the tracks being far too similar. A certain sound attributable to the artist is fine, but when putting out such a small collection of music some variation is always appreciated. Having the last track as a remix is a bit of a cop-out too. Especially when the remix is very much, stylistically, running along the same vein as the previous tracks, and indeed the song that’s being remixed itself. If this was sold as a single with two b-sides, listeners may be more forgivable to its one-track mindedness. Sadly though, as it isn’t, we are left with what is quite a dry and soulless collection of anti-pop electronica that many people have already crafted to a much higher standard.
45%
GSPIDER on MySpace
Farah On MySpace
Related posts
Other albums by this artist
Dear Sean,
You have obviously missed the whole point in gspider’s music. Which is typical for people that are plaqued with a constant flow of 3rd and 4th generation, overdone, overprocessed, kill yourself,copycat,crap!
Gspider has already done it all or close and rebels with unpolished music. He has played with some of the most influential groups of all time. His music is supposed to be unpolished!
Anybody can go get a fucking laptop and plugins/programs. Anybody can polish a turd these days including you. Gspider uses no programs,garage band,reason progarms,plugins etc. Your boring and don’t get it. It’s ok im sure your about 25 years old probably and don’t have a clue or experience in your so charished field.
Also Farah is not supposed to be a polished artist either! Jesus christ I do a music zine and sometime want to give it up because of boring people. I hope your not in a band. That would be a tragedy. Dig deeper, hit the books, you need help and insight!!
Peace,
Thank you,
Kevin Walsh
Zine #25 is out.
P.S…I interviewed Gspider for my UK zine and he is truly one of a kind guy in this world of fakes.Refreshing
^
“I hope your not in a band. That would be a tragedy.”
LOLZ
Dear Kevin Walsh,
It seems you are very biased towards Gspider. That is perfectly allowable, but in my case, this review was based on my view, untainted and through virgin ears towards both himself and Farah’s musical efforts in this E.P. If you’ll actually read the review properly, you will see that i don’t accuse either artist of not being ‘polished’ or even untalented. That was not the focus of my criticism by any measure.
Please don’t pull the ‘i write for a zine’ shit either. Considering the lack of basic grammar, and multiple spelling mistakes, i can make an informed guess at the quality of your output within ‘Zine #25′. I hope you practice what you preach, and you will also ‘hit the books’ to improve your writing.
And i am 22 years of age (close enough to 25), and i am in a band, so i hope the tragedy somehow renders you unable to write such sloppy and hastily scrawled bullshit on this reputable site.
Peace,
Thankyou,
Sean Bamberger,
TLOBF is where you are right now.
P.S…When accusing someone of being boring, you DO NOT write ‘your boring’. That will change the meaning completely. I would correct the rest of that swamp of elitism, pretentious bastardisation of long words and over-use of commas that you call a response, but it may take me all day, and frankly i have better things to do.
I love the new Gspider and Farah E.P. It’s cool and weird YAY!
Sean
Cor,r ecting some one s gramm ar is a total cop ou t and show s you have no ammunition. Now i kn ow you’re ca,l,l,i,n,g in life ,? professor gramm uar
cause music ain””t it.
I do respect the TLOBF establishment though.
love,
and kissing,
I lay it to rest,
Kevin Walsh
Ur Rpli ws th wun wif N;o Ammunishun as U didnt ac,tully reed whut i wroat yu just bcame a reaktionary 4/ th sake of it. ur rgument was bas[]d on wht u thught the maja critic”?!sms of GSpiDeR Wr (Lak Of Pollish), WHn InFCT i didn@!{“£*(t Eva Tlk abut that!>
nd if u wnt to b a writa/journey list then! gramma n splling r importants!
Nd Ys,., This Rgument Has !(***Gun on 2 Lng.
Bst Of Lck With The Zine!
Snea (Dr Grammar)