Customer Reviews

Bounces!

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is a cavalcade of fun and merriment. Listening to this album is a way of getting away from the real world and delving into a world of small, magical animals that just want you to experience the love and joy they are so willing to share. Play along with the Bran Flakes as they take you along on a zany trip to a place you only dreamed possible. From the first note to the last echo this album is escape from the dreary, everyday life you lead.

Not quite as cohesive or engaging as their previous release, I DON'T HAVE A FRIEND, this one is still every bit as manic and off-the-wall. Tremendous fun, with a level of production value which far exceeds most of the tired, uninspired stuff out today.

This new album of The Bran Flakes bursts out with an invite to hop on, there's room for everyone. And the first splash of catchy boom boom, marchy-type music that follows guarantees this 100%. From then on all the exactly right band, solos or emphatic drum beats and flourishes carry you off as if you're travelling a scenic route hanging on sometimes through twists and turns. Sound bites of voices, some declarations, even a pompous ass are treated equally by partnering them with their perfect musical twin. Let the voices have their say, they fit into the wildly appropriate accompaniment they deserve. The music is in charge. I liked that.
What makes this disc compelling is the unexpected. You gotta hear more. Plenty of generous wallops of tympanic virtuosi go delicate or satifyingly loud. You can't stay serious because sponteous non-fake laughs build up a euphoric mood this swift running disc creates. And the last part, surprise end, makes it all personal. Individual.
Bran Flakes latest CD titled Bounces, does just that.

In the style of Negativland, but with a better sense of overall musicallity, the Bran Flakes continue to release musically interesting and amazingly funny songs.

This is very weird, twisted stuff, but in a good sort of way. Can't think of another way to describe it, just stay far away from mindbending drugs while listening... the combination could be fatal.

In the style of Negativland, but with a better sense of overall musicallity, the Bran Flakes continue to release musically interesting and amazingly funny songs.

It is hard to say bad things about this album without feeling as if I am kicking a small puppy. Bounces is charming at first, but it's greatly flawed. Although there are thirty-one tracks, there are really only three actual songs, it is as if this is a single of "Good Times A-Goo-Goo" with over an hour (!) of b-sides and filler.

See, most of the tracks are sketches. Bounces is filled with mid-tempo beats and jolly samples but the end result feels dead and lifeless. "Good Times" works brilliantly, although even that song struggles to be three minutes long. The impression I get is that the Bran Flakes' forte is sub-minute sound collages. The longer pieces of music feel like the shorter pieces of music repeated four times in a row. Consequently this album is neither here nor there. It is not a dazzling display of cut-up technique a la Cassette Boy, because the ideas are generally stretched over a few minutes; but it's not a collection of songs, because the ideas aren't enough to sustain a few minutes' interest.

The samples are often culty and funny but the juxtaposition of unironic advertising jingles and children's music from the 1950s with modern-day beats gives the album a slightly sneery, insincere air, as if it was a technical exercise in distanced irony. And this goes on for over an hour. You can't dance to it and it's not catchy. The more I listened to it the less charmed I was.

Bounces would have been much better if it had been one-third as long, with five tracks as good as "Good Times" and some of the smaller tracks as filler. The title track isn't bad.