As the title would suggest, this is 11 tracks of material from Canadian artist Topon Das, better known for his work with Fuck the Facts.? The tracks were written, performed, and recorded by Das himself in 2002 - 2003, with a live drummer helping out on a few songs.? The bulk of the material consists of brief compositions that revolve around spacey guitar and bass passages with programmed beats, all of which has an experimental yet musical tinge.? Not bad, at times promising in fact, though I have to confess that a lot of the work feels stunted and underdeveloped at often less than two or three minutes per piece.? All of the tracks are untitled as well, which also sort of gives off the impression that they're just brief experiments rather than fully fleshed out ideas.? The fourth selection throws in some odd vocal samples that have a "world music" sort of thing going or something, whereas by contrast the following piece is a harsher segment of straight noise that morphs into a loose beat - actually making up one of the best selections on the disc.? The eighth track has some aggressive vocals deep in the mix and is slightly more melodic and structured, experimenting with hints of metal, and this is another interesting direction that could possess some value. As the 10-minute track near the end of the disc proves, longer doesn't mean better or more developed here, but there are some abstract noise passages in this piece that I like as well, so honestly a less musical or less tangible sensibility might be a benefit for these solo compositions. The last track is the only truly metallic track, complete with ultra chunky guitars and more prominent vocals, not to mention some technical flurries that sound totally unlike anything else herein. It's such a tossup, because this is a pretty cool track as well! Inconsistent with the other material, but... something that could yield positive results if explored separately from the more literally experimental side. If nothing else, barring a few unnatural guitar tones, the sound quality is loud and clear, so that's pretty cool. A number of the guitars are drenched in effects that I'm not fond of, but it's more the fact that they have a rigid bite that sounds digital or like a direct line recording, and I really dislike that style of guitar texture a lot. The CD-R comes in a xeroxed package that's hand-numbered out of 100 copies. The artwork consists of diagrams and weird little illustrations, and that's about it. When all is said and done the playing and programming are all very competent, but this is just too crude a release. Visually it's fairly uninteresting, I don't care for the fact that there are no titles, etc. It just feels unfinished, like all of this was put together while messing around rather than representing a complete vision. There's definite potential, but it should be taken further, and I'd like to hear the results if such an excursion ever materializes.
[Ghetto Blaster]
Running time - 30:24, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: they're all untitled]
Ghetto Blaster Recordings - http://www.ghetto-blaster.net
