"Parallax Error Beheads You"
(Domino)
four / ten
|
|
MAX TUNDRA "Parallax Error Beheads You" (Domino) four / ten |
While I'm sure Max Tundra is a sound ol' skin, I find him incredibly annoying. He's just too, you know, nerdy. Always with the big words, glitchy synths and bright jumpers. Admittedly, his music is interesting, and the guy can slap together one hell of a catchy pop song when he just calms down a bit, lashes back the Ritalin and stops bouncing off the walls.
Six years in the making, his follow-up to Mastered By Guy At The Exchange is pretty much what you'd expect from Max Tundra - short poptronic excursions with an unhealthy barrage of ideas that would happily accompany any '80s arcade game.
There's a ridiculous comment in the press release that states that the album sounds like it could have been made by an eccentric millionaire pop producer. Bullshit dude - it sounds like it was made on an Amiga that Max had lying around since he was a teenager. In fact, it probably was. The drum programming on tracks such as 'Number Our Days' and 'Gum Chimes' is indeed amazingly intricate, but as with most nerdcore and 8-bit music, the quality of the samples fail to deliver any sonic depth when played on a good stereo.
But it's his voice that grates the most. The high-pitched falsetto and over-wordy lyrics had just about forced me to whack a screwdriver through my ears, when solace came in the shape of the track 'Nord Lead Three', a glitched-up Akufen type affair where Mr. Tundra manages to not sing for the first three and a half minutes. Best three and a half minutes on the album too.
Nerds might like this album, but I don't.
Johnny Doobs
www.maxtundra.com
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................