The following is a repost of a comment from Myspace from me to my new friend Matt Terrell, aka Small Mammal. Matt is an independent electronic music producer based in Asheville, NC, and he and I recently conducted a CD exchange. I thouroughly liked his CD and wanted to pass on the good word about it.
Read on for my review of Small Mammal’s self titled CD, which is a great value at $5. Matt is distributing this title himself and can be reached via his myspace page. You can also download a promo 2-track pack from the CD here.
Matt,
Got your CD in the mail yesterday. I’ve had the chance to listen to it twice since then.
The CD is very intricate, from the moment you pick it up. I loved the cover – I’m very in to the idea of CDs as a “tactile” format. I like picking up a CD and looking at it, and the packaging certainly has an effect on me. Unfortunately this idea is lost on a lot of people, since the days of going to the record store for a few hours is gone, having been replaced by iTunes.
The intricacy continued once I got it in my CD player. I can tell that every sound on the disc is the result of a deliberate, programmed action. The live guitar and drums sound great especially after you get them into your sampler for modification. Nice glitchy chops and edits. The quality of the samples and instruments was very consistent and pleasing.
My favorites on the disc were tracks 1, 2,and 3. (10 is a close runner-up). I can’t say I’m familiar with all of your influences(like Boards of Canada), but my musical heritage does include some Aphex Twin, Autechre, and Dntel(as well as Postal Service). I can definitely appreciate the IDM(if that’s a word you’re comfortable with) influence in the first few tracks’ glitch-hop style. The rest of the disc is simply fascinating and I can definitely hear the echoes of Phillip Glass’ complex chord composition, Corea-esque electric piano, and the great use of space found in Dark Side-era Pink Floyd throughout.
The disc definitely has made it in to my “rainy day classics” file, along with Massive Attack’s “Mezzanine” and Aphex’ “Druqs”. Thanks Matt for conducting this experiment in the barter system with me. I hope you enjoy your new CD.
Good luck,
Karl
P.S. Matt contacted me directly on the “Contact” page here on randombeats.com, which began our exchange. If there are any other independent musicians out there that want to engage in a similar CD exchange, I’d be glad to hear from you. All it will cost you is postage.
