MP3 REVIEW: Splashy the Blame-Shifter, Lenina and Ship Canal “Bourgeois Kerb Stomp” (Herhalen)

http://herhalen.bandcamp.com/album/bourgeois-kerb-stomp

                “Bourgeois Kerb Stomp”, which is just such an excellent name for anything, is a three way split featuring eight tracks which means Splashy the Blame-Shifter and Lenina get three tracks each whilst Ship Canal only gets two, but when you add it up in terms of actual it may just even out because the two Ship Canal spots are rather long.

                This opens with slow and sullen piano notes, which bring out hints of “Mad World” if nothing else, and that first bit by Splashy the Blame-Shifter is quickly interrupted by Lenina, who kicks off the second track with a rampant flurry of static guitar noise.   There are bits of drone within the Lenina track and also somehow bits of rockabilly as well.     On the third track we go into an eleven or so minute opus by Ship Canal that is quiet and FNL.   Spoken word bits and some background tones end up in loops as it does get a little bit louder and some strings and an almost militant marching style come out.

                Right away, within these first three songs and my first time listening to them the most important thing that I learned was that I needed to listen to these through earbuds and even then it didn’t always help.   I basically had it set at a certain volume level for STBS, then when Lenina came on it tried to blow out my speakers, and thus I turned it down considerably, but then back into Ship Canal I’m finding myself turning it back up.

                Somehow (Probably because of the elimination of outside and background noises) earbuds did seem to put this on more of a level playing field where I could just listen to it without having to constantly adjust the volume, but if nothing else this also helps demonstrate just how unique these three artists are in their own right and the way that their individual qualities juxtapose each other is just uncanny.

                If you can find that comfort level with the volume to make it through the first three songs, then this will definitely be a cassette you will enjoy for the rest of the duration of it.    I started off listening to it while paying close attention to each track and remembering who it was exactly, but ultimately each band assumes their own identity and I no longer found myself having to do that.     

               Though none of these artists is really that far away from the other, as tracks three and six sort of resemble each other and are not by the same artist, so it does also have this way of tying everything together in the end.