TEN SILVER DROPS

Really impressed by this. Opener "Alone, Jealous and Stoned" is perfect. Starts with atmospheric keyboard and guitar effects, morphs into a radiohead type riff and settles into a beautiful ode to lost love overlaid with echoey guitar. The single, "Lightning Blue Eyes" fairly belts along with some great harmony in the lead in to the chorus and "Faded Lines" is Krautrock for the 21st century. Hearing this prompted me to buy their 1st album "Now Here is Nowhere" (geddit?), and I wasn't dissappointed. If you're looking for reference points - a bit of Floyd, Can, Stereolab, and Flaming Lips. All in all hard to fault and recomended to anyone who ever had some appreciation for any of the bands named above.

My friends from school approached me this past week and invited me to go to a Secret Machines show this Saturday. Not only had I never heard of the band at this point, but I was also scheduled to work that particular night, so making the drive to Philadelphia (2-3 hour drive for me) was out of the question. Later on that day at my friend's apartment, we listened to this album as his way of showing me what I was missing....

Let's just say the moment 1000 Seconds was over I was on the phone with work making up some BS to free up my Saturday night to see these guys. The album is amazing from beginning to end, and from what I've heard they are even more incredible live. I'll find out for myself on Saturday!

Released initially exclusive for iTunes in 2006, "Ten Silver Drops" is an excellent rock album ? both in terms of art and alternative rock. Some psychedelic oddities, shoegaze and even post-rock influenced sound and fantastic production makes here the hell of an album! No weak tracks here.

For the first time I've heard of this album from Roger Taylor's (of Queen) "must hear" recommendations list, and it initially interested me a lot. So I managed to listen through this record. From the very first listen, this album had a great impression on me. Here you'll find the great mixture of nice groovy sound, smart healthy experimentation and excellent catchy tunes.

The album starts with "Alone, Jealous and Stoned" track, which was one of the singles out from this album. A lot of tension, right groove from the very start and deep lyrics ? this is what you get here and on all over the rest record. A solid opening, though not the best song from the album overall, yet one of the most expermintal tracks here: psychedelic effects at the start and slow thoughtful sound overall makes.

"All At Once (It's Not Important)", like previous track, starts with slow effects, but fastly rolls into more mainstream-ish track. A neat track which was released on a single as well.

"Lightning Blue Eyes" is even more uptempo track which provides some catchy chorus tune. It was the first single from this album, and probably this is the most effective track here in terms of pop.

The fourth track, "Daddy In The Doldrums" is terrific work. Probably the best track here. It lasts more than 8 minutes and makes some great atmosphere with slow-yet-violent sound. It's better to hear it once than to read about it for ten times.

Second half of albums opens with "I Hate Pretending", another high-class pop song with remarkable melody and pretty original rhythm section.

Some solid bass work in "Faded Lines", beautiful slow melody in "I Want to Know", and, finally, the final track, "1,000 Seconds". Probably the most Floyd-ish track here. Great closer.

This album is highly recommended to fans of such a bands like Porcupine Tree, Mew, Blackfield, The Flaming Lips, Radiohead, though I believe that any rock fan would enjoy it, because it's just an excellent music work, regardless of any genre labels.

Fascinating experience throughout. Excellent addition to any progressive rock music collection. 8/10