CD Review: Community Service
Jan. 18th, 2006 23:00![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillI said I'd have to do a review of the current CD in my stereo. I picked up The Crystal Method's "Community Service" on sight, not having heard of it before; I stared at the back, said "If they think they can make Rage Against The Machine palatable, I'll give it a listen," and bought it. I like TCM, I like mix albums, why not?
They have a few bands I recognize (Orbital, Garbage, and RATM), plus about three remixes of their own. One thing I have to say, though, is that if you're expecting a discrete remix of a song you know well, you won't get it. With most of these tracks, the only way I could tell whether it was based on a song I had heard before was by a snippet or two of a voice track. The biggest exception is P.O.D.'s "Boom", which seems to have all of the song lyrics intact. A bit too rap-style for me, but no more so than some of TCM's own work.
I have rarely run across a more thorough meshing of good and excellent segments in a mix track. Even in continuous CDs, I generally have tracks I love and tracks I could care less about (or even skip). This CD, though, doesn't stand or fall on one or two tracks; one has to take it as a whole. It has a professional sound, of course, very confident and musical, with some melodic twists you don't get from a lot of the less-practiced musicians. In fact, one of the things I found I like the best about this CD is the fills, the transitions from one section to another, between phrases. Some of them were pretty standard, but several of them added some chord or extra fillip that made me think "I never realized that this drum fill sounded flat/hollow before I heard it this way". That extra fulfillment made my day.
It goes from upbeat, almost cheerful, to heavy and brooding, then back to energetic by the end. The RATM track is not bad at all, and scores somewhere in the middle for me. I did think that just because Orbital thinks "this love is driving me crazy", that doesn't mean I need the mind-control laser sound between my ears, but oh well. Everything else is good.
Definitely one for the musicians to appreciate, with all the layers and odd twists and chords, and it's as heavy on the bass as anything by TCM. I'll pick up "Community Service II" when I get a chance -- I note it has a track of "The Crystal Method vs. The Doors" on it.
They have a few bands I recognize (Orbital, Garbage, and RATM), plus about three remixes of their own. One thing I have to say, though, is that if you're expecting a discrete remix of a song you know well, you won't get it. With most of these tracks, the only way I could tell whether it was based on a song I had heard before was by a snippet or two of a voice track. The biggest exception is P.O.D.'s "Boom", which seems to have all of the song lyrics intact. A bit too rap-style for me, but no more so than some of TCM's own work.
I have rarely run across a more thorough meshing of good and excellent segments in a mix track. Even in continuous CDs, I generally have tracks I love and tracks I could care less about (or even skip). This CD, though, doesn't stand or fall on one or two tracks; one has to take it as a whole. It has a professional sound, of course, very confident and musical, with some melodic twists you don't get from a lot of the less-practiced musicians. In fact, one of the things I found I like the best about this CD is the fills, the transitions from one section to another, between phrases. Some of them were pretty standard, but several of them added some chord or extra fillip that made me think "I never realized that this drum fill sounded flat/hollow before I heard it this way". That extra fulfillment made my day.
It goes from upbeat, almost cheerful, to heavy and brooding, then back to energetic by the end. The RATM track is not bad at all, and scores somewhere in the middle for me. I did think that just because Orbital thinks "this love is driving me crazy", that doesn't mean I need the mind-control laser sound between my ears, but oh well. Everything else is good.
Definitely one for the musicians to appreciate, with all the layers and odd twists and chords, and it's as heavy on the bass as anything by TCM. I'll pick up "Community Service II" when I get a chance -- I note it has a track of "The Crystal Method vs. The Doors" on it.
