Today is Tuesday February 9‚ 2010
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| Review of Munkie – Chemical Process | |
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By Sea Originally published on Sea reviews Munkie's follow-up album. |
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| I first heard Munkie towards the end of 2003, when I listened to a couple of short samples on a website, liked what I heard, and looked forward to hearing the tracks in full on their whole Progression album. I was happy when the CD arrived, then as I listened to it, and was overtly disappointed. This preaches the lesson as why bands should make full tracks available as samples, rather than shortened clips of tracks. The one track I did thoroughly enjoy was the ambient, vocal-less Ghosts in the Machine, which was played a lot on UMFM in 2004. Munkie is based in Leeds of the UK, fronted by producer/songwriter Jason Clark, who lists influences such as David Bowie, Grandmaster Flash, Joy Division, Kraftwerk, Massive Attack and Radiohead. Kate Peters sings on most of the tracks. Now here’s a funny twist. Just as I was checking up on the Sunshine Music website to add some background information on the story, I found a quote from myself on the disappointing Progression album, which reads: "This is a superb debut album from Munkie, I love "Panic Attack". Go buy it!" I thought maybe this was an honest mistake until I decided to explore the printed press kit that accompanied the Chemical Process CD: "This is a superb debut album from MUNKIE, won the listener vote 5 times!" UMFM Radio (Canada) This was in regards to one of the episodes of my Sea@Night radio show at the end of 2003 when a small panel of live studio audience members listened to the first five tracks of the Progression album, playing Trash It! – this is where you vote on a track by saying you’d keep it in your personal music collection, or delete the file. Out of the first four tracks, the panel voted to Trash half of them, and we cut off voting before the fifth track. I am surprised at this misleading level of promotion. There is no place for deception in the arts, in a professional career, even in life in general. Anyway, I had a chance to listen to their new Chemical Process album a couple of times before these recent revelations and will post my initial thoughts to it. Review of Chemical Process On first listen I was again disappointed in this album, probably more so than its predecessor. I was expecting some of the earlier bugs to be worked out and that it would be a more adventurous release. Whereas Progression featured the well-composed Ghosts in the Machine, this album doesn’t have a track that jumped out at me for something to play on my radio show. Like, Progression, Chemical Process sounds more appealing sober and in a work environment. At night, in a club, close listening or social lounge setting, it lacks something. It is certainly easy listening. Whereas Progression sounded like it could be on the cusp of better things to come, Chemical Process does not follow through satisfactorily for me. Peters’ voice, while not bad, is a little dull for me. The strongest parts of Munkie’s compositions are the downtempo beat and bassline production, and a more dynamic vocalist approach would have been more effective. Occasionally they wander in and out of tune, and the lyrics are bottom feeding fodder a lot of the time. There’s nothing really new from the previous album. It has the same feel, the same style of composition and the same lacklustre energy, as though the intentions for putting these songs together lie in a music-as-an-industry nature. Jess had a listen to the album and shared comments such as Antidote to Strychnine being “melancholy and dreamy”, to Torn Apart “lyrics kind of sucky and sadsacky”, and Cry No More Tears “kinda comatose, reminds me of low-mid budget early 70's film soundtrack”. The track I enjoy the most is probably Fire in the Heart, which is a spacey kind of funky track with a good groove. On the other hand, tracks like Shatter the Circle are pure misery, which makes putting my name next to false acclaim for their music very disappointing. Munkie’s music is not terrible… it doesn’t do anything new, doesn’t sound refreshing like having stumbled upon something miraculous, and is primarily filler fodder. There are some good grooves, and by all means the potential is still residing inside Clark and Peters where perhaps a light being turned on to unleash it is all that’s needed. Conclusion While you might read something differently on other sites or artist promotional materials, my official thoughts on the album are that I expect more out of Munkie, that the music on Chemical Process might be best served in an easy listening or working environment, and that unless you’re a hardcore follower of the world of downtempo, I’m not sure if you’ll like it. I prefer Progression to Chemical Process, and I think the latter has regressed. Furthermore, misquoting the very media to whom you’re sending press kits is alarming and I would hope they, and all artists, learn this lesson before a bigger fish is trapped in such a net. And who cares about quotes and testimonials anyway? If the music's any good, it will promote itself. More information here... Comment on this article? |
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