Review Vol 2 The Scattering: RoomThirteen.com Review – November 2009
Slow Burning Car – Volume 2: The Scattering
Find out more about Slow Burning Car here
Intricate and interesting
Mon Nov 2 12:19:32 2009
Rated 11 out of 13 [details]
Review Ratings
Here at Room Thirteen we’ve decided to do things slightly differently when it comes to rating CDs and live sets. It may seem normal to rate out of 5, 10 or 100 – but we’ve decided to rate out of 13. Every live review and CD review has a rating at the top of the page – detailing the marks out of 13. We feel that this gives more versatility than rating out of 5 and it fits in with our love of 13. If you’ve got any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
Opening the album with ‘Adama’, Slow Burning Car begin with a track that heightens your senses as your ears follow snippets of sound. They appear and disappear, teasing you and causing your head to turn in an attempt to catch every nuance. Each snippet, each word, each noise, each sound sits perfectly on top of the one before it, turning the tracks into layers and layers of mind altering music. The beginning of ‘Volume 2: The Scattering’ is creative and unusual.
‘In The Trees’ marks a move to a batch of more accessible track that have a broader appeal with it’s laid back beats and slightly more predictable guitars. ‘Man In Crisis’ is bouncy and smooth combining some of the layered sounds of the earlier tracks with a more consistent flow, while ‘Siren’ is a slow floating ballad. Then there are tracks such as ‘Harum Scarum’ that just scream at you to have fun.
‘Marry Me’ takes on a completely different vibe, a more positive key and decidedly radio friendly. It departs from the sound of the rest of the album and is a well crafted lovely little song, if somewhat unexpected.
Track after track fills you with surprise as they show off their ability to produce music that can take you from pure dancing highs to neurotic confused lows while always keeping that undefinable vibe that marks this music as theirs.
Even their most mainstream tracks are not going to appeal to all. Some will consider it just “noise”, some will gravitate towards certain tracks, but the people that matter will embrace it for the experimental blended creative stuff that it is.
If you could only listen to one song from Slow Burning Car then I would suggest
‘Blowback’, don’t get hung up on the fact that it is a political song, go with the melody as it attacks with words and music the lyrics spat out and the background a relentless, pounding rhythm I suggest this one as it’s a shining example of a track tht evokes the feelings it’s aiming for, while still being an intricate melodic piece.
Slow Burning Car is all about sonic exploration and they take you there with them.
Track Listing
01 – Adama
02 – Ghola
03 – Zeus
04 – Blowback
05 – In The Trees
06 – Marry Me
07 – Man In Crisis
08 – Call My Bluff
09 – Harum Scarum
10 – First Class
11 – Siren
12 – Fabians Stroll
by Jenni Wallace
