the school report reads can and must do better next time
the school report reads can and must do better next time
Quality control. Two easy words to write and say, for sure, but sometimes you just have to point them out. There’s a reason IT companies spend months Beta testing everything they need to ensure their latest piece of software doesn’t piss people off before they have chance to appreciate it’s value. Unfortunately, Rella the Woodcutter could have done with testing the values of this record before releasing it because there’s a pretty half decent EP hiding here but unfortunately you have to wade through a fair bit of shite to find it. There’s a fair bit of One Man and His Guitar going on here and he’s in a bit of an Elliott Smith mood for most of the album, without having the charm, wit or talent to be worthy of such comparisons. Bonobo, does contain sitars and tambourines but I’m not sure if either of those were a good idea. If you make it as far as track four, however, things start to perk up a bit. Black Universe is a real, honest-to-goodness song that shows this guy has SOMETHING in his locker and My Ship ain’t half bad either but switch over to the imaginary side B and you come ear to ear with Leave your home, which contains some truly woeful pipe noises. I’m not quite sure if it’s a flute or a pan pipe but it sounds like something he hasn’t figured out how to play and it really has no earthly reason to be fored upon anybody’s delicate ear drums but then…but THEN, along comes Inside Gratitude which is very, very good indeed and makes you wish he’d spent the time making friends with other musicians and form a band because you get a glimpse of something that could, in the right hands, be truly powerful and the last song, Drugtime Family is big, loud and playful enough to make me recommend you check it out immediately. Ultimately though, the school report reads can and must do better next time.
I tell you what, here you go. Make up the following EP yourselves;
Black Universe
My Ship
Inside Gratitude
The Golden Undertow
Drugtime Family
And don’t touch the rest of this album with a ten foot bargepole.