Keiko Matsui: White Owl

Artist: Keiko Matsui (Offical Artist Website)
Album: White Owl
Released: October 7th, 2003
Genre: New Age/Smooth Jazz





Track Listing:

1. "White Owl" – 5:05
2. "Moonlight Sailor" – 5:11
3. "Steps Of Maya" – 5:47
4. "Precious Time (Solo Piano)" – 3:33
5. "Kappa" – 5:30
6. "Across The Sun" – 4:54
7. "The White Gate" – 7:07
8. "Doll" – 4:50
9. "The Next Plateau (Solo Piano)" – 4:43
10. "Safari" – 4:35
11. "Light Above The Trees" – 8:42
12. "The Wind And The Wolf" – 6:30
13. "To The Indian Sea" – 4:34
14. "Forever, Forever (Solo Piano)" – 3:19

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

I have a sort of obsessive compulsive thing about giving an album 10 out of 10. The thing I don't like about giving number ratings to albums is it makes it feel like a rating of 10 out of 10 means perfection.. which it doesn't. 10 out of 10 means that the album has far exceeded my expectations and highly scientific measurements (actually completely arbitrary). I'm considering revising my rating system to better reflect how I feel albums should really be rated. Anyway, on to the review.

I'm actually a bit of a newcomer to listening to Jazz music. Throughout most of my teen years I was a rocker/metal-head along with some alternative and truth be told I never really ventured into the jazz music arenas. Not to say I was averse to jazz music, it just simply never made it onto my playlists purely out of complete lack of information about any artists or albums available. I discovered Keiko Matsui (an absolutely wonderful jazz piano player) from listening to Sky.FM internet radios listening to their "Solo Piano" channel I believe. So after searching around a bit I came across this album. Now it is a LIVE album. I'll be the first to say I generally stay --away-- from live albums for simply one reason.. sound quality. Often times live albums (while the music itself might be good) the actual sound quality produced from the live CDs can be shaky and sound really hollow and disgusting. So I was pleasantly surprised when I gave this particular album a listen. It can even be difficult at times to recognize that this album is a live album (unless you have some killer sound gear) until of course the customary audience applause at the end of the song tracks. So if you're one that's like, "Ew live album I bet it sounds like shit" (I think that a lot) this one actually sounds really good.

This is a tough album for me to review.. because there's very little that I can criticize about it (I like criticizing..) Every song on this album is absolutely beautiful and unique in it's own way (I'm going to hold myself back from criticizing uniqueness in jazz music). One pitfall that a lot of jazz songs fall into (at least from what I've listened to..) is a number of them generally have that same "sound". One can listen to different artists.. different albums.. different songs.. and you sort of get this feeling of deja vu sometimes.. did I already listen to this? I didn't get this feeling at any time from listening to this album. Another beautiful thing about this album, is there's a good variety of song formats.. What do I mean by that? Simply, every track isn't just your standard jazzy drum, with maybe some jazzy guitar chords, and then a busting saxophone repeating the same melody over and over again. One of my favourite tracks on this album, Track #7, the White Gate, features this really incredible guitar solo type of thing at the beginning which has this sort of flamenco feel to it.

My absolute favourite track on this album would have to be the Track #9, "The Next Plateau (Solo Piano)", it features this beautiful piano solo (this album contains three piano solo tracks all together, Track #4, #9, and #14 (as you can see from the track listing)) all of which are a wonderful experience to listen to. From start to finish one is almost forced to close their eyes as they listen to it as it builds in tension then slowly eases off again.. absolutely wonderful.

If you have ever been interested in stepping into the jazz world, I would definitely recommend this album as a starter album. Once again, as this album has passed the 9 rating on my scale that means the re-playability of the album is very good. Time and time again that you set this sucker playing, you'll be glad you did each time. Every song on this album has a very steady flow of current (meaning from start to finish it carries you along with it). A number of artists have trouble getting caught on a log in the middle of the river.. meaning they'll keep the listener moving along with them then they'll get stuck.. perhaps replaying the melody line too many times, then one may get sick and change the track. The movement of the album has a very nice forward momentum that won't eject you from your seat, but will keep your ears perked up the whole time.

Machinae Supremacy: Redeemer

Artist: Machinae Supremacy (Official Band Website)
Album: Redeemer
Released: March 18, 2006 (Underground), November 28, 2006 (Spinefarm)
Genre: SID Metal


"Underground" edition from the Machinae website.



Track Listing:

1. "Elite" – 4:24
2. "Rise" – 5:32
3. "Fury" – 5:06
4. "Ronin" – 4:17
5. "Kaori Stomp" – 4:17
6. "Hate" – 4:12
7. "I Know The Reaper" – 4:35
8. "Seventeen" – 3:45
9. "The Cavern Of Lost Time" – 0:34
10. "Rogue World Asylum" – 4:13
11. "Through The Looking Glass" – 5:10
12. "Oki Kuma's Adventure" – 5:12 (Japanese for to Big Bear's [Adventure]^[1])
13. "Reanimator (March Of The Undead III)" – 5:00
14. "Prelude To Empire" – 1:37
15. "Empire" – 6:51

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

I was introduced to Machinae Supremacy by a friend of mine a number of years ago when I was still in high school. At first I just liked a couple of their songs; you know how it goes someone recommends a song to you and you're like oh that's cool, then you never listen to anything else. Anyway. That's what my attitude was towards Machinae Supremacy for years, that is until recently I started listening to more of their songs.. and boy am I glad I did. Redeemer is the second studio album released by Machinae within their own self created genre of "SID Metal". There actually are two versions of this album available the one from Spinefarm Records (which is what the Amazon link is), and the "Underground" edition which is what I'll be reviewing here. What's the difference between the two editions? The Spinefarm edition is remixed and has fewer tracks on it, while the "Underground" edition has more tracks. I personally have not listened to the Spinefarm edition, so I can't comment on that particular version of it.

So, back to the review now that I've been rambling a bit. From first track to last.. Machinae held me in the whole time. Before I knew it I had already listened to the entire album.. Best tracks on the album.. well.. all of them are really good. If I have to narrow down my absolute favourite song, I'd probably go with "Through The Looking Glass" (Track 11). The guitar work.. the vocals.. heck even the lyrics are just such a pleasure to listen to. Some people have commented that the singer feels a bit on the "whiny" side, and I think I can understand where they are coming from when they say that.. However, despite this possible tripping stone, the songs are arranged so incredibly that such a thing will not tear you away from listening to the rest of the album. I think it might be a case of a singer that "grows" on you (this is the main reason that the album did not receive a 10 out of 10). Don't get me wrong, the vocals are not bad. At all. In fact in many of the songs a bit of vocal harmonization goes on that is just beautiful.

The biggest thing that attracts me to Machinae is the guitar and arrangement work that they do. The guitar melodies.. the solos.. hell even the verse and chorus riffs are just awesome to listen to. I realize that this is going to be an "import" CD if you buy the "Underground" version from the Machinae website, but trust me it is WELL worth it.

The high rating.. Now.. it is probably going to be a somewhat rare thing to see me rating something so close to a 10 out of 10 rating. That's because I'm a picky cynical son of a bitch. Probably the most important factor that affects my ratings is "RE-listenability" of the album. What does that mean? I can listen to this album from top to bottom MANY times. Which means I don't get sick of listening to the songs after just a few songs (which many bands suffer from), I'm actually able to pop this sucker on anytime and listen to any song off of it and I love it. This is becoming a very rare feat amongst artists.. and so it's always a treat to find an artist that is able to sustain the quality even through multiple listening events (and believe me I have listened to this album A LOT).

Machinae is one of those "diamond in the rough" bands that are just absolutely incredible to listen to, and yet they don't get the recognition or appreciation they deserve because they are a little bit under the radar. I certainly hope that I'll be able to review more bands that are just incredible and yet are still under many people's radars. Keep up the good work Machinae Supremacy, you guys rock.

Andromeda: Extension Of The Wish

Artist: Andromeda (Official Band Website)
Album: Extension Of The Wish
Released: May 29, 2001
Genre: Progressive Metal






Track Listing:

1. "The Words Unspoken" – 5:28

2. "Crescendo Of Thoughts" – 5:24
3. "In The Deepest Of Waters" – 7:07
4. "Chameleon Carnival" – 4:59
5. "Star Shooter Supreme" – 5:18
6. "Extension Of The Wish" – 10:02

7. "Arch Angel" – 5:54

*Rating: 7 1/2 out of 10.

The first song that I heard off of this album was actually "The Words Unspoken" which was directed to me from Pandora. Needless to say I was quite impressed with the song itself and demanded to hear more of it, so I found out that the album in which that song originates is called "Extension Of The Wish". So I listened to all the tracks from it and it was kind of a mixed bag for me (hence the 7 1/2 out of 10). The songs I really enjoyed off of this particular album are Track 1, The Words Unspoken, Track 2, Crescendo Of Thoughts, Track 5, Star Shooter Supreme, and Track 7 Arch Angel.

Now, just because I didn't incredibly enjoy all of the tracks off of this album, that doesn't mean all the other songs are terrible. In fact they really aren't. However. I was unfortunately greeted with a little bit of the "songs starting to drag and mush into one another". Essentially what this means is while some of the tracks stand out (such as the ones I listed previously) some of the tracks felt a little on the weak side to me. Despite these shortcomings, the overall experience of the album is a good one, however you may end up doing a little bit of track favouritism when it comes to this album. The other songs (not listed in my favourites above) are decent songs and they are certainly worth listening to, but the best of the breed off of this album, are the tracks I listed above.

Is this album worth buying, in a word yes. Despite the shortcomings of some of the tracks, this album does a decent job in displaying the heart of the progressive metal genre. While this band seems a bit unknown (I personally hadn't come across them until Pandora popped them up on my radar) I am definitely looking forward to future albums from Andromeda.

The trouble progressive rock/metal albums can come across if they aren't careful is too much meandering and lack of connection. One of the primary points of progressive rock and metal is it avoids the traditional "verse-chorus" song structures that a lot of pop songs follow. They generally meander into more complex arrangements and odd timing structures, and what they need to watch out for is that they don't get "lost" on their way through the song. A lot of criticism arises against progressive type bands because their songs tend to be greater in length and folks used to the standard 3-5 minute song have trouble fathoming what could go on in even a 10 minute song (or in some other band's cases 24 minute songs, ahem Symphony X). If done well these longer songs are incredible to listen to and the length of the song becomes irrelevant. I always base my movie recommendations on the same principle as my song recommendations, this principle is something like, "The quality of a movie (or song) is directly related to how many times you wonder to yourself how much longer until it's over. Obviously if the movie (or song) is good you get that lovely experience of not even noticing the time passage since the movie (or song) drew you in so completely." Andromeda in this album held their own very well, but as I've been suggesting some of the songs felt a little lethargic to me. Despite this lethargy Andromeda held onto me (even in the "weaker" songs) which led me to refuse to hit the "next track" button prematurely.

The bottom line. Check this album out, especially if you're into progressive rock/metal, and even if you aren't but enjoy nice instrumentation.

*Note: I had a very difficult time coming up with a solid rating for this album. I kept re-editing the post changing the rating between 7 1/2 and 8. So if you are looking for the most accurate rating I'm going to call it a strong 7 weakening towards 8 (hence the final 7 1/2 out of 10 rating).

The purpose of this blog.

The general purpose of this blog is to cover reviews of various music albums that I find myself enjoying quite a bit. It seems like a lot of the music that comes out nowadays is a bit on the generic side, the purpose of this blog isn't to get into a debate about what the "best" kind of music is. Being a man of varying tastes there won't be just one kind of genre displayed on here, I am open to most types of music, and if I find an album I find particularly good I'll let you know about it. Cheers.