Artist: Andrew WK Album: I Get Wet Genre(s): Rock Subgenres(s): Hard Rock Released: 2001 Length: 35 minutes Language(s): English Label(s): Island
Track List:
01. It’s Time to Party
02. Party Hard
03. Girls Own Love
04. Ready to Die
05. Take it Off
06. I Love NYC
07. She is Beautiful
08. Party Til You Puke
09. Fun Night
10. Got to Do It
11. I Get Wet
12. Don’t Stop Living in the Red
Andrew WK I Get Wet Review
I Get Wet is a short collection of non-stop, hyperactive party anthems by an extreme extrovert named Andrew WK, who draws stylistically from 80’s hard rock and the glam rock scene while fusing it with the speed and simplicity of punk rock. The average length of each song isn’t much over 3 minutes and most of them barely take a moment to slow down.
The music is dominated by the guitar and has keyboard and piano lines playing alongside it with thumping hard rock drums not far behind, whereas the bass is pushed underneath all of this and you’ll have to listen intensely if you want even a small chance of hearing it. The album is accompanied by an overly sleek production style where everything is loud, fast and repetitive, leaving little space for variation. This might sound negative but when put into practice it has a surprisingly positive outcome, although it’s worth noting that this could have just as easily been the downfall of the album.
Most of the lyrics are straight forward and are presented largely in the form of mantras and shout along anthems, all of which will get firmly lodged in your head for weeks after listening to them. Themes strongly revolve around partying to your last breath, women (Girls Own Love and She is Beautiful), motivation (Got to Do It and Don’t Stop Living in the Red) and more partying.
There are two oddities that break away from the established formula for the lyrics. The first is about killing people in Ready to Die and the other is I Get Wet, which seems to have been written from a woman’s perspective but is barked non-stop almost entirely by Andrew WK for the duration of the song and you can’t possibly keep count of many times the title line is repeated. It does feature female vocals for the last part of the song, which are probably there to break up the snarling and yelling voices momentarily.
At the end of the day I Get Wet is a big, loud, straight forward, over the top party album that lacks any form of subtlety where you don’t need to engage your brain but you will get hours of fun out of it so long as your tongue is planted firmly in your cheek.
Artist: Devin Townsend Album: Ziltoid the Omniscient Genre(s): Heavy Metal, Rock Subgenres(s): Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock Released: 2007 Length: 54 minutes (CD 1), 14 minutes (CD 2) Language(s): English Label(s): HevyDevy (Canada), InsideOut Music (Europe), Sony (Japan)
Track List:
01. ZTO
02. By Your Command
03. Ziltoidia Attaxx!!!
04. Solar Winds
05. Hyperdrive
06. N9
07. Planet Smasher
08. Omnidimensional Creator
09. Color Your World
10. The Greys
11. Tall Latte
Devin Townsend Ziltoid the Omniscient Special Edition Review
Ziltoid the Omniscient is an album that was created, written, produced, recorded, engineered, programmed and mixed almost entirely by Devin Townsend alone. Mastered by Ue Nastasi, additional support was also given by Dave and Mike Young (additional engineering), Fredrik Thordenal (Drums) and The Beav and Dave (additional dialogue). The paragraph below provides an outline of the concept so if you want to avoid any spoilers skip ahead.
Ziltoid travels to Earth in search of the universes ultimate cup of coffee (as explained in ZTO). Dissatisfied with the brew offered, he goes to war with Earth and sets out to capture the fleeing humans as they leave Earth in search of a way to stop him. Further into the adventure, Ziltoid encounters the Omnidimensional Creator who reveals the truth about his existence that leads to an unexpected conclusion. A more detailed synopsis can be found by reading through the lyrics and supporting text in the albums booklet.
Townsend showcases his vocal talents through a range of spoken word voices, varying degrees of aggressive singing and shouting mixed with higher pitched and cleanly sung verses. Instrumentally, keyboards are more prominent during the softer moments but they do have some interplay with the metal parts of the songs although they can quickly lose out to the relentless mechanical drumming and synchronised guitar riffs. Songs like By Your Command and Ziltoidia Attaxx, (which is one of the two songs to feature guitar solos, the other being N9) exemplify this style.
Solar Winds takes a different approach, featuring dramatic keyboard work and soft guitar playing while departing from the percussion entirely for a brief time. Eventually it builds up into a hard rock song before shifting into the hammering metal style again over a 10 minute period. Color Your World has a flawless transition between the metal and soft progressive rock parts that will make you question whether it’s even the same song until a raspy voice slowly roars “Ziltoid… the Omniscient” out of nowhere. Planet Smasher briefly gives the bass time to breathe by plodding alongside the guitar to create a sense of foreboding as it trudges on ominously. Townsend takes this opportunity to show off how deep and guttural he can make his voice, while making it fit the tempo of the song aptly.
Hyperdrive is probably one of the biggest standout songs on the album because the music has a strong ethereal quality and a repetitive guitar hook that will stay in your head long after the album is over. Townsend’s voice follow suit as he sings in a soft and distant way for most of the song. N9 begins with an intense barrage of drum patterns and the keyboard jumps to the forefront and calls out with a sense of urgency, waking up the listener just in case you were getting too comfortable listening to Hyperdrive. The vocals are delivered in the same way as they are in Hyperdrive, which would makes it a good introductory song to metal for someone who isn’t fond of the harsher singing style but is interested in what can be offered musically.
Two short interlude-type tracks are present on the album. The mid album Omnidimensional Creator is a dialogue between Ziltoid and the Omnidimensional Creator that disappears as fast as it arrives. The second is the albums closer, Tall Latte, which prevents it from finishing with the bang you’d expect, but it is necessary to finish the story. Other parts of the plot can be missed quite easily as the instruments are made the focal point in the mix and not always the vocals. It’s also worth noting that some of the lyrics are not directly related to the story and could contribute to this problem.
All in all, Ziltoid the Omniscient is a highly entertaining and unique sounding album that doesn’t neatly fit into a subgenre. It could easily speak for itself based on the musical merits alone but the accompanying story, despite the narrative flaws, is joined with a great sense of humour (something that the metal realm often lacks) and a creative style of song writing that makes it an exciting and memorable listening experience.
Track List (CD 2):
01. Don’t Know Why
02. Travelling Salesman
03. Another Road
The special edition CD has three tracks, the latter two of which do not relate to the Ziltoid concept. The first track does and opens with Ziltoid stating “you will hear some terrible, terrible bonus material but you know it’s Ziltoid so it’s fun” and manages to live up to both parts of the statement and the title, with Ziltoid going on a long, unfiltered tangent spanning several subjects in Don’t Know Why.
Travelling Salesman is an upbeat song with a strong rhythm section and overly loud, punchy drums and slurred lyrics. Another Road features a fuzzed out electric guitar with some lively solos and a metronome ticking away over the top of everything for no discernible reason. Townsend’s voice is placed right at the back of it all for the duration of the song. In summary, the material has some novelty value to it and is worth a listen or two, but it isn’t the kind of thing that you will keep coming back to.
Rage Valley is the second EP released by duo Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen of Pendulum fame, performing under the moniker Knife Party. Consisting of 4 songs and clocking in at a little over 18 minutes, the duo manages to seamlessly fuse dubstep and electro house into a condensed, yet remarkably diverse listening experience that ends with Sleaze, showcasing the newly emerging fusion genre Moombahton (a combination of reggaeton and house music).
The eponymous track greets you with a sample of a gun being cocked and fired, which queues the song to jump into life. Starting out as a minute long frantic build up, it anticlimactically stops and begins to rebuild itself again more rapidly for about thirty seconds before unleashing aggressive bass lines and thundering percussion. It eventually calms down to introduce a more prominent synthesiser sound before reverting back into the bass heavy parts. Continuing in this fashion for the remainder of track, it sets the mood of the EP quite clearly.
Vocals are sparsely arranged throughout the track Rage Valley and build in frequency as the EP progresses. The documentary-like introduction to Centipede is noteworthy for referencing the Pendulum song Tarantula and metaphorically killing the band off when stating “as quick as lightning, just like the tarantula it’s killing, the centipede has two curved hollow fangs which inject paralysing venom. Even tarantulas aren’t immune from an ambush”. This is before dropping into an unrelenting dubstep frenzy that makes up the remainder of the song.
The latter two tracks, Bonfire and Sleaze, feature repetitive choruses but the line “until they kick us out” from Sleaze is repeated ad nauseum and could be the considered the low point of the EP just for the sheer frequency at which it is repeated. It will also make you forget about the well-crafted and tense, crawling introduction in no time at all. Bonfire, in contrast, sounds like a complete redux of Fire Hive (from their first EP 100% No Modern Talking), having toned down the bass, added a larger instrumental break between the minimalist lyrics and features a trumpet and a reggae inspired rhythm that has been brought to the forefront of the song, setting it apart from the rest of the EP and making it instantly recognisable.
In short, the lyrics are still something to be desired but Rage Valley showcases better song writing and a refined edge that 100% No Modern Talking lacks. If comparing the direction of the two EP’s is anything to go by, future output from Knife Party will be well worth the listen as they continue to change their sound and push forward into new territory.
