4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
He's got a lot to learn., May 21, 2000
This review is from: Faith in Motion (Audio CD)
This is one of those discs that I would have gladly written a 5-star, filled-to-the-brim-with-praise review for during its first week in my possession. Having had it for about a year now, my enchantment with FIM has faded somewhat. Eric Lawrence Chamberlain(the guy behind Index) has garnered copious praise from all sectors of the industrial community, and I can certainly see why: he really IS a cut above the rest and a breath of fresh air as far as electro/EBM goes. His style is maddeningly complex, sound upon sound is piled on, making for virtual ocean of blips, crunches and synth-notes. He keeps his lyrical agenda away from gothy-cheesy cliches fairly well, rarely even employing vocals and keeping them subdued when he does choose to open his mouth for a track. His Achilles' Heel? In my estimation, one of the most crippling productions I've ever heard. While he does have a knack for pushing the stagnant genre of electro-industrial in new structural directions, he has no idea of how to arrange or mix his new territory. It all sounds jumbled, disorganized, and in his worst moments sounds(and perhaps is) piling on complexities to cover up weaknesses in the songs themselves. This is not to say there isn't some good, and even important tracks contained on FIM; there are, mostly occuring in the final few tracks, where the piled on rhythms and samples actually work, becoming a miasma of flowing noise. I'm not condemnming him at all, in fact I look forward to his future releases and understand that he is relatively new to the scene, and therefore allowed a few mistakes, which, are easily overlooked in the light of what he's accomplished so far in such little time.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
