Word: drummings
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...When I first put the disc on, I was dismayed by the guitars, overly saturated with distortion and punk-pop sensibility. It didn’t strike me as Blink 182 necessarily, but the same simplistic chord progressions were evident, as were the fuzzboxes and somewhat predictable guitar and drum breaks. Now, a few days later, I’ve gotten better acclimated to this, the first release from Stars Look Down. I’m still not enthralled with frontman Trent Gay’s voice or with the hardly-changing guitar sound and tempo, but the melodies...
...boring. A more apt description would be that it is clearly meant for idiosyncratic listening: the swelling and intertwining sitars, guitars, flutes, and blend of obscure and traditional string instruments, flowing together with seemingly little to no percussion dividing it up (let alone any trace of the pervasive drum torrents of the previous track) and no clear song structure at all, strikes the listener as specifically designed for one in a meditative or transcendent state, or someone who has recently consumed copious amounts of psychotropic substances that would allow them to get to the bottom of what exactly the Boredoms...
...this time, Gagnon streamed reverb-enhanced “Simpsons” clips paired with a broken backbeat and whirring turntables. Upon starting the actual performance piece, Gagnon indulged in some very bizarre laptop electronica and trance that seemed centered around atonal passages matched with thumping bass and punchy drum loops. The dissonance of the act became more pronounced as time went on. It would have been cool if the RPL had decided to create a sort of general tonal dynamic with their stage time, building from a low point to a crescendo, but they instead kept their loops...
...colorful melodies, the band easily settled in with the audience while effortlessly building up to the exciting “Johnny’s Landing.” At the outset of this number, Corea percussively tapped metallic synth sounds in offbeat rhythms to Weckl’s elaborate drum beat. The tune developed gracefully with a catchy bass line and calypso guitar accents. Gambale, Marienthal and Weckl played solos showing exquisite touch and truly unfathomable technical prowess...
...shifts in feel, the song was a real crowd pleaser. The house roared and to overwhelming approval the band went into its encore, the classic Jimmy Health tune “CTA,” which the band covers on their Paint the World album. Starting with a massive drum solo, the tune developed into a superb rendition with stand-out solos all around. Corea, donning his signature KX5 synth (a mini-keyboard worn like a guitar) stood center stage with the band and played away with a smiling youthful glow...