Sunday, August 4, 2013

MP3 REVIEW: Charlie Nieland “Under Dark”

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                After listening to Charlie Nieland several times on his solo effort “Under Dark”, I questioned whether or not there was anything that he could not do.   After listening to “Under Dark” several more times, I realized that there is in fact nothing he cannot do. 

                From ambient to not, “Under Dark” will take you through a musical journey that will leave you feeling like a long road trip, yet when it is all said and done you’ll be left wanting more.   There are drum machine beats that carry this toward hip hop and something of that like which I cannot place because I don’t remember all the variations on seapunk (I know it has a name though, I just like to refer to it as “not quite seapunk”)

                There are hooks and there are samples, and really there is a little bit of everything on “Under Dark”.   Could it be an abstract, rare gem that is tucked away and not found or discovered by anyone for a very long time, lost in its brilliance?   It could.   Is there a chance of it being a pop sensation, blowing up television screens in Japan and then eventually the U.S.?   Also something I’ve considered. 

                Songs like “Hallucination Beach” are a fine example as to why this is such a fine piece of music.  I like to compare music to different forms of media, such as to say, “If this album was a movie, it’d be…”, but in this instance I would rather see the movie based upon this album.

                No, I don’t believe that this album fits the qualities of being inspired by a movie or television show, but rather it should do the inspiring.   Some great director should listen to this one day and create an accompanying visual piece to go with it.


                Though if pressed, I would compare this to a book (and book only, not the movie) for “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”.   It’s not the soundtrack to the book as you could say that book is to literature on the whole as this album is to music on the whole.    I don’t think makes sense, so I probably should’ve just stopped after the previous paragraph.  

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