Cutthroat Convention - Gunfight@The Gates

Cutthroat Convention - Gunfight @ The Gates (Doubleedgescissor)

This time we are reviewing a very good CD from a 3-piece strange electronic rock band from London called Cutthroat Convention who got in touch with me after reading my reviews and asked me to review their latest release which they sent me in a lovely handmade envolope which they had printed pictures of scissors on. I like it very much when people get in touch and send me new music to review because I like to listen to different kinds of music and I get sent all sorts of stuff that I might not of heard otherwise.

The homemade envolope
with scissors on it.

           The cd is called Gunfight@The Gates and this is interesting to me because the arts centre where I do these reviews is called the Gate - we've never had any gunfights here though because we are different kinds of people than people who have guns; I wouldn't mind carrying a gun round but I wouldn't use on people unless they tried to threaten me, this doesn't happen to me though so I don't suppose I really need a gun.

            The music on the CD is kind of like punk rock but with synthesisers instead of guitars and I thought this was a very good idea and I liked listening to it very much. It is also very strange music and I thought this was good about it too because it mad me laugh.

             The first song on the CD is called G and it starts off with a noise like a door buzzer and then someone shouts out "This is madness." and then it all starts up and it is a bit mad so the person who shouted that was right. The reason that it sounds a bit mad is because there is lots going on in the song and it doesn't stay the same and it is very fast and there is lots of shouting and when I think of the band making this music  I imagine them jumping about and throwing their instruments around - I don't know if they really do this but it would be good if they did. I liked this first song a lot.

              The next song after this is called Ec=Mc Cow which made me think of a lion in a car crash, it is strange music that sounds a bit like 80's disco and a bit like crazy heavy metal  - this is only a short song and then the next one is called E in Disgust but I didn't think it was that disgusting and that it was probably a nicer tune and more tuneful than the others have been up to now but I still thought it was a bit strange - good strange though and I liked this one a lot.
              B Rip is the next song and this one is the most heavy metal sounding so far and reminded me a bit of Black Sabbath who I like a lot especially Paranoid which you can see in a video below. I liked B Rip a lot but I thought it could be a bit longer because it was only a minute and a half.

              

              Eb/flo/hate is after B Rip and this one is very mad indeed with backwards bits and noisy keyboards and screaming and fairground noises, it is a very noisy song but I liked it a lot because it was good fun.

               ABCDivorce is next so I suppose it is about divorce, maybe it is about a man going to the ABC cinema in Shepherds Bush (which isn't there anymore) after his divorce. If I got divorced I would probably walk around the streets being a bit sad for a bit but I would probably get over it. This is a bit slower than the other songs and also longer and a bit calmer but it is still a bit mad and strange - the strangest bit is the singing because it sounds in some parts like a robot singing.
                After ABCDivorce is DBase no pzlaens which I think are made up words but I could be wrong and maybe it's a foreign language but I don't think it matters because I think Cutthroat Convention can call their songs whatever they want even if they do make up words. This song is another quieter one and the singer on it sounds like he has just got up and is still a bit groggy, the music on this is very strange indeed and I couldn't really make out what the instruments were.
                Next is DC/Superunconducter and this one is quite noisy and very strange and then after that is Haol which sounds like a riot after a football match where they are all shouting in the street and banging stuff, this is a short one two. I liked both these songs.
                CC is after those and this one sounds a bit like a BBC newsreader from the BBC studios, which are also in Shepherds Bush, reading the news in the middle of some roadworks where people are drilling the road so you can't hear him properly, it is quite a funny song and I liked it a lot.
                  The last song on this CD is Ba dishonored and this one is very noisy indeed and songs like a violent computer game with lots of shouting and noise in it. I've never really played computer games because I can't work them but I used to watch my cousin Keith play them in the arcades and used to enjoy watching him. I liked this one a lot because it was so noisy and mad and I thought it was a good way to end the record.
                  Overall I would say that I liked this band a lot because they are funny and mad and noisy and I think if I ever went to see them in concert it could drive me a bit mad but I think it's ok to be a bit mad because you get over it. I am glad that they got in touch with me because I wouldn't have heard of them otherwise - I would give this CD 10 out of 10.

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. - IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O - IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out (Riot Season)
This time we are reviewing a record called IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out by a band of Japanese hippies called Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. The reason I am calling them hippies is because by the looks of them on the back of the record they are hippies because they have long hair and beards like the hippies from the sixties and their record cover looks like a record from the sixties because it has a sixties pattern on it - I've never been a hippie because I've always kept my hair short but I wouldn't mind growing my hair a bit.
             This record is funny because when you take it out of the cover it's not black because it is red with white splashes on it and I thought this was very interesting because I've never seen a record like that before.
           This record is also interesting because even though it is an album it only really has one song on it called IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out U.F.O. with part one on side one and part two on side two. It only has one song on it because it is a very long song and you can only fit so much on a record.

Acid Mothers Temple:
"Japanese Hippies."

            The music on side one starts off with a long noise and then the guitars and drums and some strange keyboard noises and some singing all starts off together after a bit and it's very loud and very rocking indeed. I tried to make out what they were singing but I couldn't even though they were repeating it over and over but I suppose they could be singing in Japanese and sometimes it is hard to hear the voices anyway because the guitars are so loud. The music keeps doing the same thing over and over again and I think this is a very interesting way to make music and would be very good to listen to if you were a hippie. The music doesn't carry on the same forever though because it changes and the singing stops and there is more guitars later on which I think are played very well and they're also lots of great science fiction noises from a keyboard that I liked a lot. Near the end of this side of the record everything starts getting faster and faster and a bit mad and they sound like they're having a lot of fun and then it all comes to an end with all sorts of different things going on - I liked this very much.
              On the other side which is part two of IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out U.F.O. and it starts off with long guitar noises and voices which sound a bit like throat singing which is a type of singing you sing by going AAAAAAHHHHHHH. The guitars all get a bit noisier and there are also noises which sounds like metal being chucked about and also a noise that sounds a bit like a donkey. After a bit of this messy type music the guitars and drums start up again proper all of a sudden and it is the same tune as was on the beginning of the other side of the record except maybe a bit noisier, this goes on for a while and at one point I thought it might go on for ever but it didn't because what it did was get noisier and noisier and more mad-sounding and then stopped with a bit long noise - I liked this side of the record too and think it is very interesting to have a big long song getting noisier and noisier and going mad because it makes a nice change from shorter, more normal songs.
               Overall I would say that I liked this record very much; I thought it was interesting, noisy, a bit weird and good fun, I would give it 10 out of 10.

Mindspan - The Second Cycle.

Mindspan - The Second Cycle (Silent Season)
And now we are doing a CD from a Canadian label Called Silent Season. The CD is by a guy called Mindspan and is called The Second Cycle, it is called The Second Cycle because it is the second CD that Mindspan has released though he has also made lots of other records and CDs where he calls himself ASC.
           Mindspan makes quiet, slow, relaxing electronic music that is very interesting to listen to and I think it would be very nice to hear when you are in bed so that you could fall asleep while you were listening to it, it would probably make you have interesting dreams if you did this.
           The first song is called Dying Embers and it starts off softy with a soft drum beat that sounds like a heart beat and other spooky sounds at the back of that which made me think of being stuck in a sandstorm in the middle of the desert. I liked this one a lot as I have never heard music this slow before and I always like hearing new things, I thought this was a great way to start the CD.
           The next song after this is called Exothermic and I didn't know what this meant so we looked it up and it said something about energy and heat and light but I didn't really understand this either. At the start of the tune I thought this song sounded like a street parade in a rain shower because the drums reminded me a bit of a marching band and the noises in the background sound a bit like a rain shower. Later on in the song an organ comes in that sounds like a church organ and there are also noises that reminded me of scaffold pipes being banged. I thought this tune was very good too if a bit spooky but I think it's ok to have spooky music.
           Awakening is next, so I suppose the tune might be about waking up in the morning and it does sound a bit like when you wake up in the morning and your head feels a bit fuzzy - I always feel a bit fuzzy in the morning until i've had a coffee and a cigarette but after that i'm usually alright for the day. The music on this one has more quiet drums which again sounds like a heart beat but maybe a stronger heartbeat than in Dying Embers. Over the top of this there are noises like electricity crackling and whooshing noises like the wind makes, it is a very interesting tune and it made me think of all sorts of different things.
           Cyan Relay is the song after this and this one starts with a sound like water crashing on the rocks at the sea shore, I think a lot of the CD sounds like big storms and so it also makes me think of the end of the world where everyone is dead and the world just stands still and all the houses and land have no people and all you hear is the weather. I think it would be a shame if all the people in the world were gone but that it might happen because we have too many wars and we don't look after the world very well because people can't be bothered.
           Conscience is a bit of a change because there is more drum sounds in it and these sound a bit tribal, there are also wooshing noises again which reminds me of the seas again - It is a very relaxing tune and I liked it a lot.
           The next song is called Propulsion and this one reminded me a bit of a factory or a building site because there are noises like metal machines working, It is a bit faster than the other tunes have been so far and I think this is a good thing because although I like the slower ones it's always nice to have a bit of a change.
            After Propulsion is another faster one which made me think of a night time train journey in a horror film and after that is a song called Snowflake which is not quite so fast and which did remind me of snow I suppose, but not just a snowflake more like a big snowstorm where ploughs have to come out or people wouldn't be able to go anywhere; I liked these two tunes very much.
             The next song is Subdued which means calm but I think there are calmer songs on this CD because it is another fairly fast one with lots of funny noises like a far away siren and
 banging wood and lots of other things all mashed up so it is hard to make out what they sound like but that's ok and I did like it.
               The last track is called Flotsom and it is another fast one but with a different beat so it sounds different and I think that overall this CD though it sounded all the same to me at first when I listened to it close I heard all different things but I had to listen really hard. I really liked listening though and I think other people should listen to it because it might be quite different from what they are used to and they would probably enjoy it. I would give this CD 10 out of 10.