Be-gone all you post-Comatorium Volta Haters

NaturalScience wrote: Wow, I thought I was in a minority about Amputechture - when it came out it was getting praised up and down around here.  To be honest, it almost put me off the band for good.  Their latest, at the least, managed to cross the threshold of maintaining my interest.

laplace wrote: I like the first two albums most but I'm not repelled by noise. I'm repelled by the way the singing has gotten so ridiculous and the composition so self-indulgent that it parodies their early, better work. I do still try to stay up-to-date on their music because I'm sure they'll do something else I like at some point.

This is me. The vocal effects Cedric lavishes on post Frances albums are just ridiculous, and the compositions on Amputechture are very flimsy. Bedlam was better, but not by too much, as it was overlong and clunky, with awful lyrics, a silly concept, and over-the-top, self-indulgent distortions on real sounds, just for the quirk appeal...

This band used to literally be my favorite band (notice my name...), but that long since changed, thanks to Amputechture. I don't hate them or anything, I just think they have gone overboard.

schizoid_man77 wrote: A little off topic, but my friend burntme their first and last album. I've heard the bedlam enough to know that the music and compositions are really cool, but too action packed, and too much going on in order for me to listen to it even half way through. Is De Loused like this? If o I'll probably listen to it eventually, but I cant say that I'll be able to enjoy it s much as the more chilled out/layed back music I love so much.

Play De- Loused, its intense but there's more space in the music on that album than on TBiG. Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt is on the site, listen to that song first to consider whether you will like it.

Pnoom! wrote: PF never used so much noise that that you couldn't tell what the actual song is, which is a rampant problem on Francis.

There, fixed!

I think they've got 3 very good albums and I good album, with Frances suffering from too much aimless noise making it very frustrating to listen to, becaue the music is fantastic, especially Cassandra Gemini. Amputechture is a strong album but I think they reined themsleves in a bit too much on that album, they werent at the edge of chaos that they revel in, something that they moved back to in Bedlam, which is their best album IMO. Yes, its relentless and dense, but it works from start to finish for me.

Personally, I prefer Jon Theodore to Thomas Pridgen on the kit, he was a bit more sympathetic to what the others were doing than TP, though the quality inn the rhythm section hasnt gone down.

GoldenSpiral wrote: I'm definitely not a de-loused purist, but I think it and Frances are the only ones that work as cohesive albums.  Amputechture was the biggest disappointment for me, as I really only like one song on it.   I think Bedlam is much better, and the first 5 songs on it are some of my favorite TMV songs.  Unfortunately, the latter end of the album doesn't hold up, and after "Goliath" I find myself skipping back to track 1.  It wouldve been a much better EP.

I'm definitely not a de-loused purist, but I think it and Frances are the only ones that work as cohesive albums.  Amputechture was the biggest disappointment for me, as I really only like one song on it.

I like everything except the new one, blech!

PinkPangolin wrote: As for the noise in "Frances the Mute" (thanks for your good opinion Moatilliata) - nobody ever moaned when Pink Floyd produced lots of noise!

Pnoom! wrote: well... Deloused is their best, clearly. Frances is pretty neat and a worthy followup. Amputechture sucks.  It just does.  It's bad. And Bedlam is a slight return to form, but it's too much noise, too little songwriting.

schizoid_man77 wrote: A little off topic, but my friend burntme their first and last album. I've heard the bedlam enough to know that the music and compositions are really cool, but too action packed, and too much going on in order for me to listen to it even half way through. Is De Loused like this? If o I'll probably listen to it eventually, but I cant say that I'll be able to enjoy it s much as the more chilled out/layed back music I love so much.

De-loused is a funny thing. It is just as intense or near enough as Bedlam, but it is intense in such a way that you don't have to turn the volume down throughout the whole thing. It might be something to do with the huge break in the middle of Cicatriz, but i don't know. Any volta fan will tell you this.

And amputechture does not suck at all (referring to above comment). It's got two incredible songs (Tetragrammaton and DOTB) with two brilliant atmospheric pieces (Vicarious Atonement and El Ciervo Vulnerado). The rest, i agree, aren't too good, but that shouldn't bring the whole album down. I think they were just lazier on Amp than in genial work like Frances The Mute.

I'm really looking forward to the next album actually, some really promising stuff there. Omar said that it was acoustic, so we can expect a mellower release. It would be nice to hear this side of the Volta and for christ's sake, bring back the epics! The one thing i disliked on Bedlam is that no song exceeded 10 minutes, which i loved about them because they can 'alf dish out a great epic!

As for post-De-loused material? Frances is fantastic, Amputechture has some utterly untoppable moments and Bedlam is nice in small doses. I think that rances is their magnum opus however, and i even prefer it to De-loused.

schizoid_man77, a piece of advice: before listening to De-loused as a whole, listen to Televators, Take The Veil from about 4:30 onwards and the mellower sections of Eriatarka if you're into chilled out music