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Skiprope Cello - Diving with Zelda

8/28/2015

11 Comments

 
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Skiprope Cello

Diving with Zelda
self-released; 2015

3.3 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Recording for stereo is a fairly new concept. In fact, it’s a well-known fact that The Beatles mixed in mono and were indifferent about embracing the new technology of stereo. Since then stereo has become ubiquitous but the reality is that a lot of ways people consume music today is still in mono. If you are listening to music through your phone speaker, on your laptop or at your local Starbucks there is little to no stereo separation. 

With this in mind the band Skiprope Cello intentionally made an effort to make sure their album Driving with Zelda was mixed for mono. I will say that since a lot musicians mix their own music and don’t have apt knowledge of engineering they often start panning right away when it comes to the mix because it sounds bad in mono. That being said any halfway decent engineer will know to check to see if their mix translates well in mono. If you aren’t you have no business being in the studio.

The music on Driving with Zelda is a bit avant-garde and mixes multiple genres into an undefined blend of sounds. Up first is “Birds” which sounds a bit like Ariel Pink. I have to say for a group concerned with mono it is surprising that they didn’t have as much concern for other pertinent production elements. There is virtually no low-end and the vocals are way too low in the mix. Some parts were decent like when the female was singing but I could barely hear a word when someone was singing about something around the two-minute mark. A for effort but it came up short of what it could have been. 

The next song “This Side of Minnesota” fares better. There is low end this time around and the vocals sound better. The Ariel Pink vibe is still there although it sounds more dreamlike and psychedelic as if you were listening to one of his songs on a bunch of morphine. 

“Old St. Paul” in one word felt unsettling. It’s a mix between jazz and elevator music with a vocal performance that felt largely monotone and devoid of passion. I didn’t mind it but I didn’t love it. It felt like an episode of Twin Peaks. “High Point” is like a show tune but slightly more pretentious and artsy. He sings, “The pageantry and carnival of the misty streets / Makes it seem like a sensate walk of life / Like a half-dream and a string of countless lines / Is the promise of the night and streets and singing.” 

They close with the most traditional sounding song entitled “Divers of the Riviera” which unfortunately showcases the subpar recording quality; it is a decent song but didn’t quite hit its potential.

Skiprope Cello feels like a work in progress. Their art house music has ears willing to listen but “Divers of the Riviera” is all over the place and does little to define what these guys are about. I would encourage them to keep at it and I can see things starting to click into a consistent sound. It may not be a bad idea for them to work with a knowable producer/engineer to focus some of their creative ideas and work behind the board so the sounds in their heads can become a reality.
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11 Comments
Richard Blaine link
8/30/2015 10:06:14 am

Thanks for the review. Some interesting comments. We do appreciate mentioning "This Side of Minnesota" from a fairly positive angle. Interestingly, in our overview of responses at Sound Cloud, that's perhaps the least favorite song of listeners.

Curiously, we're not certain how your logic is coherent, when you at one point affirm that, yes, many today are listening to music "through... phone speaker(s), on ... laptop(s)" ... but then you take exception over a lack of low-end fidelity in a particular song. It makes no sense to us that if we mixed the album with this target audience in mind, that "low - end" would matter (how many phones translate anything low-end?). We've had a lot of positive response to the track "Birds" - likely people, listening, to music on their .. phones and laptops. Even still, we overall... don't have a high value of strong, low-end fidelity, or, for that matter, numerous other indoctrinated conventions :D. We're forthright in describing our style as lo-fi, lounge, punk-jazz. Birds has a jet-set lounge attitude, not intending to have a driving low-end beat. In fact, we unashamedly bill ourselves as a "lo-fi (lo-fidelity)" band, so it seems to make little sense spending time on the finer points of whether the album has enough "hi" fidelity stamina.

Who's making up all these recording rules anyway?

We would think the indie-music scene and a magazine such as yours would be past that by now, with the likes of even mainstream artists Matt and Kim's first two albums, and White Stripes having become a borderline traditional institution - without using bass guitar.

You mentioned a suggestion, and actually, we've been in and out of a studio for a number of weeks - but... (laughs!) we're intentionally asking the engineer to keep the recordings lo-fi. We're even recording vocals directly into Radio Shack, handheld, cassette recorders, and the like, to stay away from pop-boredom. A number of these tracks have rough mixes which can already be sampled at Soundcloud, and are coincidentally, our hands-down most popular tracks on the site (one such track "The Orange Drink" was recorded bringing Sears quality guitars/drums into the studio - this song and others can be perused starting right here: https://soundcloud.com/richard-blaine-3/the-orange-drinkfeaturing-searsrobuck-instruments). You might notice the favorable comments posted on it. Keep in mind it's only been up for 16 days.

As for... the lyrics not being decipherable in sections - or even regularly - is also... well, we had a collective chuckle about this. We caught Youth Lagoon in concert no long ago. One of our favorite newer artists : D.

We find it curious, that your concern in... hearing lyrics didn't play over into actually... examining, virtually any, of the lyrical content of our EP (aside from a passing reference to "High Point"). The primary cohesiveness of the album (as if there's another unwritten rule about album cohesion) is the lyrics, which is based on the life and writings of F.S Fitzgerald - hence the title of the album referencing his wife and one of her favorite fetishes (Diving). We find it odd a reviewer would seem to have, essentially, zero interest in that (with all the song lyrics posted on the bandcamp site).

Ironically, and thankfully, a number of your critiques of the album presented in a pejorative way we've planned to use for positive, promo, appeal. So, thanks : ). One of our band members nearly fell off his chair reading your description of a certain "monotone," "devoid of passion" song - saying you didn't mind it, but "didn't love it" - specifically asserting "if (sic) felt like an episode of Twin Peaks." I was asked: "Does this reviewer realize Twin Peaks has a massive cult following, and that David Lynch is one of the most respected artists of the last 1/2 century?" I told him (chuckle) "I don't know."

I do know that our entire band happens to be avid Lynch/Twin Peaks fans, so... mission accomplished.

Thanks, again for the review. Wishing you all the best.
Respectfully,

Richard Blaine
Skiprope Cello

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Francis H
8/31/2015 11:06:50 am

Richard, you're too kind. Yeah, albums that are all over the place. Let's see, how about Arcade Fire's debut EP. Or, hmmm. 4 words: of Montreal Sunlandic Twins.

BTW - Are we still getting together for that Twin Peaks marathon?

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Richard Blaine link
9/1/2015 01:04:22 am

TP marathon!

I don't know, Frank. Sounds pretty... "unsettling."

Yeah, couple of borderline classic albums there that are "all over the place." Then again, there's those silly old guys Paul and John who made the mistake of putting tracks like "She's Leaving Home" and "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" on the same album. They really should had picked a cohesive genre and stuck with it when they recorded that "Pepper's" debacle (let alone the dreadfully all-over-the-place "White Album" mess). All the aforementioned was quite "pretentious," for my taste, too.
-Rich

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Francis H
9/1/2015 02:51:08 pm

he he he. yeah, those silly beatles. "Black Bird" and "I Am the Walrus." C'mon you silly fools PICK A LANE!

BTW are you still thinking about recording an "ode" to The Even Ground? Would love that.

Meghann S.
9/1/2015 01:18:25 am

Ok, so I am a follow of theirs on SoundCloud, and I have to say I love the "low-fi" production quality of their music. It's refreshing and also goes with their thematic use of F. Scott Fitzgerald material - responding to Richard Blaine's comments about that. It's sort of like an eclectic throwback to the "jazz age" so why would the production quality be glossy at all? -And I enjoy that all of the tracks are so different from one another. I think it's easier to compile a bunch of tracks that are way too similar, pay lots of money to get high-quality production, and come out with something that is completely uninspired and unoriginal, than to do something fresh and original with a less-produced sound for each individual track. If you guys review for Indie bands, then creativity should trump recording rules. At least that's my vote. Keep up the good work guys!

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Francis H
9/1/2015 02:52:45 pm

you, young lady Meghan, have great taste.

Reply
Richard Blaine
9/2/2015 01:00:03 am

(chuckle). And to your other question. Yeah, perhaps.

Richard Blaine
9/2/2015 12:49:02 am

Thanks for listening! Appreciate the support!

Reply
Francis H
9/2/2015 05:28:25 am

I hope you do the "ode." But I also think you should cover Spinal Tap's "Big Bottoms." Instead of 3 bass guitars, you could have 7 or 8 different bass sounds, like electric, upright, synth. That'd give reviewers all the bottom end then need

I still wish you'd let me review the album at Indie Band Guru and not just old family faithful Potluck Suicide. IBG gets about the same traffic as this site. So what if I'm you're friend. Better than having an enemy do the review he he

Richard Blaine
9/2/2015 04:41:06 pm

Frank (chuckle! ha!). Yeah, maybe (laugh!)
Note - here's one of our personal fav artists on Soundcloud:
BLINDS has over 4K followers. Interestingly, wait, what's missing here?... oh, it has only remotely decipherable lyrics and ... a curiously absent bottom end : )
https://soundcloud.com/blinds2/what-should-i-do

Reply
Francis H
9/3/2015 06:37:31 am

he he he - YEAH, RIGHT THERE!

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