Customer Reviews

It's Understood

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Metal kids - remember the first time you heard Opeth and realized songs over 20 minutes could be good and non-repetetive at the same time? Jazz kids - remember the first time you got a Coltrane album that was a fast as those tracks you heard on the college radio station but could never remember the names of? This album instills that sense of awe and feeling of 'I never knew I was looking for this...but I've found it and now can't live without it!'

This album is pure and intesne music-nerd highly-technical insanely earnest music. Some describe it as hyper-jazz-gypsy-metal-funk, and as such it draws frequent comparisons to Mr. Bungle. This is true, but Estradasphere, at least on this album, is a work of more grinding riff-heavy instrumentation than Bungle or other 'weird' bands, with a more metal than rock sensibility. What does that mean? Sparse vocals used more for ambiance than as a seperate instument, riff after riff after riff of amazingly complex and energetic musicianship, and the need to just bust out of a lull in loudness into a raging cacophony of blasting grind. This album's first and last songs are my personal favorites, but the entire album is a complete experience and takes the listener on a truly epic voyage. The klezmer-gypsy-jazz sound is the root of this album, but it feverishly and very much tounge-in-cheek-ly shifts to extreme metal, funk, folk, hillbilly country, soft jazz/new age, alt-rap, soundtracks, very convincing original 8 and 16-bit video game compositions, and back again.

Thier live shows are amazing, and so is thier next album. These guys are nothing short of genius. Fans of avant-intelli-music with a passion for metal are garunteed to have a new obsession. If you liked Mr. Bungle more for the music than for the vocals, this is the band for you (other than SC3). Oh yes, these guys inbred with Bungle and SC3 in various ways too complex to map out here. Just get it if you are interested by this review. It's Understood IS THAT GOOD.

This is the first album from the beloved boy band -Estradasphere. The main instruments on the album are drums, guitar (clean and metal), banjo, bass, violin, and saxaphone. The first track begins with a fast gypsy lick, which tears into the twenty minutes of odd-time mayhem that is Hungerstrike. If you think you're in heaven, you are, but it gets even better. My favorite part of the album is The Princes of Xibalba, which is comprised of four songs- "The Princes"- an energized exposition which introduces the main themes, "Los Dias Sin Dias"- a slow, mournful movement which expresses the sadness of the weekends with no "Days of our Lives", "XQiuQ"- a bizarre-sounding song that is incredibly complex in rhythm and melody, and "Hunnahpu and Xbalanque"- Similar to "the Princes", but its is more drawn out and "jammy," and at the same time it incorporates themes from "XQiuQ." Other highlights include "Randy's Desert Adventure"- a compostion which mixes a heavy metal rhythm section with fast melodies on sax and violin. "The Transformation"- as the name suggests, you never know what style they will change to next in this song, and it ends with a drum solo which displays the incredible talent of drummer David Murray. The album also plays around with video game songs, bluegrass, and new age, while cutting back to metal whenever necessary. Estradasphere is great because they can play so many styles without it sounding like they are cut-and-pasting it together. They are the ideal band.

...I'd give it a 10!
This (the first release from Estradasphere) has got to be one of my all time favorites. The album opens with the 20 min. opus 'Hunger Strike', a song which spans over most all ranges ov musical styles(including, but not limited to: Death metal, gypsy, classical, rock, pop.....etc.)and it's all here waiting for you to listen. Go see Estradasphere live and see the spectical for yourself (. . .) Keep the disease alive!!

This is truly an incredible album, but their new album has to be thier best. What you have here is a very talented band of musicians that can change direction at the drop of a hat. They go from metal, to middle eastern, to dixieland, to classical, to jazz, etc... all in one song. If you like Mr. Bungle, then you'll love Estradasphere. I would recommend seeing them live, it's a spiritualy uplifting experience. Especially if you're a musician.

Estradasphere has shattered my musical horizons. While wandering the desert of musical confusion, they appeared like a shimmering mirage, a far distant glimpse of the Palace of Hassin I Sabbah, or a Post-Apocalyptic Euro-Disney. I once read a quote, or heard it, to the effect of "Estradasphere is every song ever played by anyone in the whole history of humanity all in one great boy band"...which may be overstating things, and it may not. This debut album contains some of the best music I have heard in my life, and that is not an overstatement. The first song alone, "hungerstrike" contains dizzying jazz riffs, traces of funk, a smattering of death metal, klesmyr, folk and...well, spelling out the influences misses the point. It is original, and it is mind-blowing. The rest of the album is just as dizzying. However, unlike many fusion-type bands, they never seem sterile. Amazing musicianship and composition, fabulous Nintendo renditions, and even the occasional Tuvan Throat chant make them, in my opinion, the current pinnacle of what modern music can be...caught in the flux of the emerging Information Age, these guys tune in their psychic radar and pick up the emanations of every band in history, and yet manage to make it their own. You must own this. Now. Understand? Understood.

If you are into some avant garde music, but you can't stand noise, this is what you need. Very similar to Secret Chiefs 3 and Mr. Bungle, Estradasphere is one of the greatest bands you'll ever hear, they play it all, listen to this CD and you will be teleported to a world where music has no bounds, and if you want more check out the single from their second CD "The Silent Elk of Yesterday".

This band will like a lot in the future (very near future), so mark my words.

These guys are ridiculously talented! Everything on this CD is very well structured, insanely complex, but most importantly... LOTS of fun to listen to! I am not allowed to die until I see them perform it live.

I've read reviews where Estradasphere are described as "experimental". Obviously the reviewers could not neatly categorise the band, and so applied this oft-misued tag.

Far from it, "It's Understood" is simply an album of exceptional songwriting. A simplistic summary might be "the missing link between Slayer, Beethoven and Frank Zappa", but that would not fully account for Estradasphere's spectrum of sounds.

For those looking for a challenging (and rewarding) album of fine musicianship and songwriting, "It's Understood" will fit the bill nicely.

When you hear the epic opening track "Hunger Strike" from this debut Estradasphere album, you may likely soil your pants. The amount of incredibly dense and tightly structured music packed into this song, and in fact into this whole album, will make you breathless. You'll hear world/gypsy, death metal, bluegrass, new age, video game, funk, pop, and plenty more, and often in the span of a single minute or so. You may say to yourself, "No way they could ever pull this off live," but once you've seen them do it, you'll doubt no more. These guys are underappreciated, but feel fortunate that you've at last found them! If you like Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, Naked City, or even Shakti for that matter, please give these guys a listen. The only reason I gave 4 instead of 5 stars is because their next release, BUCK FEVER, is even better. Maybe one complaint about IT'S UNDERSTOOD is that it runs some parts a little long, and the album sort of gets weaker as goes along. But I should be ashamed for even criticizing something this awesome!-- buy this album, AND buy BUCK FEVER.

Great underappreciated band of honest to goodness musicians makes astounding debut album and rocks out live... hear all about it... NOW! DO IT!