I have finally fallen prey to the vampiric beckoning of blogs. While the choice to start this has been of my own volition, I have had many people try to coerce me into making one of these things. I can hear the drone’y, chanting voices of millions of bloggers around the world repeating, "Join us.. Join us.." every time I go to one of these websites. I feel threatened and pressured, to say the least. It's a very provocative thing though; to have someone know your thoughts and ramblings without actually having to engage in conversation with them. As pretentious as it might sound, I want people to read the rambling, raw thoughts I spit up -- straight off my cutting room floor. Though I would like to avoid the totally contrived nature of blogs by neglecting the subject of women (or men, depending on your sexual preference) all together. As far as I'm concerned, they don't exist. Not all all. Too many of these things have fallen victim to the whole, 'lol she don’t like me, so I'm going to e-cry about it' charade. Granted, I have things to complain about, but I would hope that my complaints and suggestions would intrigue you, rather than make you want to come through the internet and punch me in the face, repeatedly.
Either way, this is a public introspection of myself, so shut the fuck up and let me talk about whatever the hell I want.
Crude introductions aside, I would like to say that I am absolutely obsessed with this new Zookeeper album that just leaked. If you aren't familiar with the band, Zookeeper is fronted by Chris Simpson (of Mineral and Gloria Record fame), so if that alone doesn't make you want to check this album out, the fact that this album possesses are some of the most lush soundscapes heard in recent music should. To be honest, I have not finished this album yet. The fifth track just ended (Boy and the Street Choir), and I have to say that it's one of the best tracks Chris Simpson has constructed since For Ivadell. While I might be giving Chris Simpson too much credit here, it should be noted that the instrumentation on this album is absolutely incredible. The horns are placed very elegantly, and the epic percussion in some tracks brings an image of the band marching down a parading street, flawlessly playing their instruments and loudly heralding their presence to mind.
If you don't appreciate my taste in specific artists in music, then skip ahead to the next paragraph, as I will write a more detailed review of the album in the near future.
As stated, I downloaded this album. Yes, it is a leak. This is a sensitive subject, so I will just say this -- I do not condone massive quantities of downloading without at least supporting the artist in some way. MP3s should be used as a way of sampling the album, knowing what it sounds like. They sound like complete garbage compared to a lossless file, record or a well-constructed stereo set-up. If fidelity is not your thing, then that might make your logic differ from mine, but one thing I'm sure we could agree on is that MP3s do not support an artist in any means other than recognition. Not everybody has hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars to buy records, cds, etc, so that's why I see MP3s as a means to sample an album. This is another subject I will go more in-depth about at a future date.
It's currently around 5:30 here, and I'm exhausted. Thanks for being a captive audience. I will update this more and more as time goes on.
Zookeeper rocks.
