PORTMANTEAU

Here's another off the ol' checklist. Portmanteau is the second EP by Ben Sharp's Cloudkicker. Realizing now just how much material Sharp put out in these first few years. Here in the album details, it mentions drum sequencing, which I found interesting. Not like it's a big deal, because if it sounds good who really cares, but I'd be surprised if what I'd heard before was effectively a drum machine. I'd be mighty impressed. I've heard real drums mixed far worse in the past haha. Anyways, this came out when I was like 15, and for better or worse I had no idea about this sort of thing back in the day. I'll count my blessings /s.

I feel a lot safer, realizing this album has nothing over 7 minutes in length haha. We start off this little journey with "Fourteen Nights", with rim-hits playing consistently as strangely beautiful feedback (and more) builds. Pretty heavy then, with that highly effected feedback still ringing out until nearly minute 2. Cool idea here, with the slight laxing of the guitar. And from there, we immediately build with intensity once more. Nothing else happens. We walk right into "Modulator/Demodulator", working off of a soft, reverbed guitar arpeggio. Here, I got bored, skipped ahead, and found something of interest, which starts shortly after its second minute. This shifts again and I'm hearing, for the second time in my Cloudkicker kick, a riff that could be found via Mastodon. I feel pretty good about this one. But not great. Any wins this track has are all in its second half.

Cohesiveness continues on as we seamlessly make our way to "Of Smoke and Fog". In its heaviness, and I feel this sounds odd, it's awfully atonal, or something? Maybe the opening riff, as simply put as possible, is chromatic. As I type this, the composition morphs and the china gets a nice smacking. This song is almost, like... breathing? Almost though we get these moments of intensity and then the composition itself gives its response. And here I am, even through its ambient close, finding myself enjoying this'n most thus far. Finally--I say with a greater kindness than I could muster with his first EP--we get to "God Be with Ye" [And assuming God isn't anti-Semitic, this has revealed itself to be a very thoughtful prayer of hope haha /s]. The rhythm section is pretty gargantuan, the bass at least, I felt perhaps, mixed a little too loud for my liking. There's a galloping kickdrum and a super-effected drone from the guitar(s). The middle section is pretty cool... Ok, I'll take that back. What I thought was the middle was just... the end. What a drag. Fade to black should have come at least 2 minutes sooner.

With the moments I most expected to be strong, it sort of let me down. Yet this turned out to be the best, perhaps most cohesive release of Cloudkicker I've yet heard.