Aleks and The Ramps
Aleks and The Ramps – ‘Pisces vs Aquarius’
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Got this one in the mail last week and had a good listen to it this morning. Even after reading the accompanying press release it’s hard to pick a single out of the album Pisces vs Aquarius, which is not really a good thing. While I can appreciate the ambition of this recording it falls short of its goals and it is not helped by the limited vocal style and range of the singer, who I’m guessing is Aleks (was not very clearly stated in the presser) and makes it a bit of a challenge to pay attention to the lyrics. With violins, banjo and glockenspiel in its list of instrumentation, this record is often imaginative in parts but ultimately undercooked, it seems that this record suffered from under production, which could be blamed on inexperience on the studio or just lack of production expertise on the desk. Their myspace section states ” daytime television + suburbia + nintendo ” as influences, not particularly inviting reason to be listening closely. From this recording alone I’m not sure if I want to see them live.
that’s the thing. you NEED to see them live. it’s unlikely to make any sense otherwise.
I’m always concerned when people stress you have to see a band live – good songs should be good recorded and live. If they’re not, then something’s wrong somewhere.
yep that’s right
Typically that is valid, Dom, but aleks and the ramps have such a ridiculous and engaging stage show that it really does contextualise some of the more off-the-wall elements on the album. I can’t be impartial about the album alone because i saw them live first.. but i find the album extremely engaging, and while i do think that it is a good album, i’m sure the mental images i get when i listen to it of the basketball-uniformed members dancing around all over the stage also come into play.
This is a very unusual review – critiquing the press release and Myspace almost more than the music itself. I don’t think this is underproduced at all, certainly not compared to the endless march of guitar-guitar-bass-drums rock records that are shunted from new release shelf to bargain bin every year.
I also have to say I’m deeply uncomfortable about the attitude engendered in the phrase “even after reading the accompanying press release it’s hard to pick a single out of the album… which isn’t really a good thing”. To insist on a single is to miss the point of many great albums, and furthermore, to expect the press release to play this role is to view music (listenership, and specifically, criticism) in a particularly shallow – and some might say unfulfilling – light. This idea exists very prominently in the realm of through-the-motions music journalism – a world where ‘critics’ slavishly work their way through endless mountains of CD cases and accompanying press releases, searching for words to reflect what the presser tells them, and peppering the result with a weak sprinkling of a personal opinion. I’m almost certain this is the world you are trying to avoid by starting this blog.
Of course, you are entirely entitled to dislike this record, and your opinion of the record is not what I take issue with.
You will note that there are countless incredible bands worldwide whose press releases do not make the cut with you; whose Myspace influences are infinitely more farcical than the Ramps’. However, were you to ignore these bands or discredit them based on those factors, you’d be missing a lot of amazing music.
All because they didn’t have a great publicist… do you see what I’m saying?
I think its a bit like Pink Floyd’s Piper at the gates of dawn (not musically but the idea). If you listen to the album you’re like wtf was that? But then when you get to know what Pink Floyd was all about in their live show, you realise that those songs were just an image of the whole spectacular affair that was a Pink Floyd live show. I haven’t seen Aleks and the Ramps live but maybe its like that.