Hello Reader,
One great thing about having a Mac is iTunes. I slide a CD into my stylish, stainless steel laptop and already all the genre information is written out for me. Now, I'm not so sure if other programs do that too, but I like to sit here thinking smugly that it only happens when you're sporting a glowing fruit on the backside of your screen. Anyway, so I've popped in Ammi's new EP Laodicea, released on Common Cloud Records, and the genre info says, "Gospel & Religious." As the CD begins, my confusion grows because this is certainly not Gospel. I'm thinking that someone had to purposefully write that, and they are clearly mistaken. What's that you say? You want me to actually review the music now? Oh yeah, sorry...
Well, after an intro of gurgle, scratch ambient noises, it heads into a solid back beat and a wonderfully distorted bass synth that is reminiscent of one used on "Good News for the Puss Pickers" by The Danielson Famile. Automatically my cold reviewer's heart is thawed by the connection. The singer's voice is also worth mentioning. If I had to do one of those horrible, "Sounds like so and so crashing in an airplane into so and so," analogies, I would choose Pedro the Lion with Robert Smith.
This EP is a lot like Gilligan's Island, that is to say there is only one skipper, and that being the song "Blue Screen Brain." The highlight of this EP was "Born," the second track which featured the Danielsonesque synth, but admittedly I am a bit swayed towards it for its luxurious lows. Speaking of lows, the bass sounds lovely throughout the recording. If you'd like to hear this EP for yourself, they've made all of it available for stream on purevolume.com. The music is a bit hard to pin down, so decide for yourself what you want to call it, but I think you'll agree that it is not gospel music.
PS: My wife wanted me to add that she liked the CD and we will be keeping it instead of throwing it away. Oh yeah, and I am not endorsed by Macintosh.
3.5 tocks
