Customer Reviews

TEN SILVER DROPS [Vinyl]

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let me start out by saying that I absolutely loved (and still do) their last record, Now Here Is Nowhere. I was blown away by their sound, that I have to say, is pretty unique. It wasn't until about 6 months ago when I first was lucky enough to hear them. So, as I got more and more into them, I was thrilled when I learned of a new album due out.
First day out, you bet it was mine. Let me explain why this album is so great: Their songs are more venturous and (yes, I know I'm not the first to use this word to describe them) epic than any band I've heard in the last 5-6 years. Their composition blows me away. The band has got incredible patience; no other band could compose a 9 minute long song that does not rush a single note (see: "Daddy's in the Doldrums"). They have time to throw in a catchy first single that isn't too poppy to scare away older fans (see: "Lighting Blue Eyes"). There's long openers that seem all too familiar, that you swear you can sing along with upon the first hearing (see: "Alone, Jealous, and Stoned"). There's sad, emotional ballads (see: "1000 seconds). There's ground-breaking music that I've never heard anything else even remotley like (see: "I Hate Pretending). Etc, etc. I cannot stress how good this ablum is. Please, please don't go and just download the songs I just mentioned. This is without a doubt "one of those albums" that you need to listen to the entire thing. Each song individually is really, really well done. But the album as a whole? Absolutely amazing. One of, if not the best ablum of 2006.

I have invented the term sophisticated psychedelia to describe this album. It has all of the levity, the strange spacyness, and mystery of psychedelic jam music but with none of the fat, none of the wasted notes, the dawdling, ambling or lingering. It is a perfect harmony of logical preconception and far-out whimsy. And yet this description does not include the other element, the darkness that is both cerebral and visceral, and which pervades the entire album. It's cerebral element comes from the spare yet smart lyrics and its visceral quality is expressed by the fairly deep beats which are used in many of the songs.

These descriptive sentences are the closest I can come to intimating to you what the experience of 10 silver drop is like and yet they are total rubbish, for there is no real way for me to tell you what you are in for when you put the newest silver machines disk in your stereo. Just buy it and play it, and I assure you, you will be astounded, and you will play it over and over again. My only complaint about this album is that it is too short, but I would have this same complaint if it was 3 hours long. I cant get enough of this great thing.

It was sort of coincedence that I discovered this band. I think it had something to do with the persistant suggestion of Amazon's recommendations department combined with the fact that I saw it on the shelf at some music store (I want to sound cool. It was actually a Barnes & Noble), picked it up, bought it, took it home, and fell in love with the band. It just so happened, and I didn't discover this until much later, that one of the members of Secret Machines was in Tripping Daisy, a band I deeply mourn and often pine for.

Layered, dense and emotional. Medatative, and anything but rushed. The tracks on this album are long but don't meander much. They carry their somewhat ambivalent emotional weight (moreso than their previous efforts) without falling into sentimentalism. There's this seductive, almost trancey cohesion throughout the whole piece, and it really manages to pull the listener in.

What I don't get about this, what I don't get about most of popular music, in fact, is that very few people out there are listening to this music. Secret Machines are right there in major-label obscurity. What's up with that? I mean yeah, the songs are sort of long, but I never thought that was a good excuse for obscurity. They're way better than the mass of popular music. In fact, they're way better than the other similarly themed, slightly off-kilter acts you can catch on the more artsy radio stations out there. Plus, what with the power of the internet and all, why is good music like this still floating on the boundaries of the musical world?

As soon as this album started I knew it was going to be all that I had anticpated. When I was highschool I used spend many of my afternoons lying on my back, just drifting along, with Darkside of the Moon on the HiFi. Now I have a full time job, bills, and student loans, but I still lie on my back in the evening, drifting, trying to come to terms with existence, and my new album of choice for this is 10 Silver Drops. It is hypnotic without being sleepy -- its the perfect music to guide you on an excursion into the sky. By far their best album, and one of the coolest albums of the day.

Really nice chill out cd, it takes more then one listen to get into. I really like "I hate pretending" and "Daddy's In The Doldrums". The cd is very consistent, and just peaceful, must have...

They're like rock in how the drums and guitar hit like a burning Hindenburg falling with every beat. They're like jazz in how the hooks ooze out from the grooves as sweet as syrup until you're too deep to get out. They're the Secret Machines, and "Ten Silver Drops" is their second full length release.

Last year, the Secret Machines blazed a psychedelic trail across the United States with like-minded contemporaries Autolux in support of their debut "Now Here Is Nowhere," a similarly constructed collection of acid trips in song form. This new record fails only in its relative brevity: clocking in at a mere 46 minutes, "Ten Silver Drops" is a full length album, but only by the metering system of a rock listening public with the attention span of a camera shutter. Maybe it's not the best driving music, but when you can fly, who wants to stop for gas anyway?

The Secret Machines apparently have enough "fuel" to skip the sophomore slump and go right on into standard orbit. "Alone, Jealous and Stoned" is a handshake greeting, a reintroduction for those who forgot the formula of the opener of their first record, the thunderous "First Wave Intact." Both songs feature a high pressure groove, but where the thunderous "First Wave Intact" was as a pounding headache, the subtlety of "Alone" is akin to a racing heartbeat. Brandon Curtis's breathy vocals are a buoy in the sea of euphoric noise that the song becomes by its end.

Harmonies bounce around like pinballs on "Lightning Blue Eyes," and "Daddy's in the Doldrums" is a standout piece, stretching over the all-important middle section of the record with a stoner beach jam session that crescendos in a tide of aural pay-off every so often. That said, the song is a good mission statement for this band, who seem to be able to recycle this formula into song after excellent song. See "Faded Lines" for yet more proof.

Their restraint may not be the correct prescription for the impatient, and the absence of any instantly accessible tracks like "Sad and Lonely" and the titular track from "Now Here Is Nowhere" could be a deal-breaker for some, but ignore the terribly literal (and ugly green) cover, or just pretend that the record was made in the '70s, and "Ten Silver Drops" secures this band's place in the long and echoing hall of space rock fame.

The Secret Machines each had a romantic/personal difficulty in the period between the critical acclaim accorded "Now Here Is Nowhere" and the completion of "Ten Silver Drops." The result is a better album because of it. The droning jams that made up NHIN now have a bitter bite to them, making a song like "Daddy's In The Doldrums" (and Mama just wants to dance...) impossible to forget.

Eight songs and not one under five minutes in length. Secret Machines don't give a crap about pop conventions and are happy to let songs play out, bashing and weaving till you're hooked. Songs like the opener "Alone Jealous And Stoned" and "I Hate Pretending" - that's the song that gets all paranoid about "an undercover cop in the middle of the road" - make you wish radio would get a grip on what constitutes good rock in the new century and lay off bands that haven't recorded a note since 1988. There's no reason a song as powerful and hooky as "Lightening Blue Eyes" shouldn't be in a power rotation on somebody's playlist. It will make you miss old-fashioned (good) stoner rock.

"Ten Silver Drops" is Secret Machines forging an identity, which was something I thought NHIN was missing. They also have a knockout live show that will make you a convert if you get to see them. They're already playing like they belong in a stadium...you'll not believe three men can make this big a sound.

After repeating listens to this album, I'm still very torn. Is it infact better than their debut album, "Now Here is Nowhere"? I'm still not sure. I think the band direction is pretty much headed on the same path. Yes, there are some differences in the albums, epecially lyrically,but nothing drastic. They have the same sorta "spaced out" sound to certain tracks, like the slow album opener "Alone, Jealous, and Stoned". They have great a rhythmn section in drummer Josh Garza as shown on the great tune, "Daddy's in the Doldrums". There are up-tempo songs like "Lightning Blue Eyes" and "I Hate Pretending", and speaking of that track, you have to hear the drum solo at the end of that track!! The lyrical content seems to be bit more dark than here than on their debut. I also feel that the album is a bit top-heavy. To me, the first 5 songs are indeed the best tracks. The last three songs seem to kinda slow the album down a bit and I don't feel that it finishes strong. As with all their other work, I don't feel Brandon Curtis is the greatest vocalist in the world, but he does have an unique deliverly of lyrics and writes songs to match his vocal limitations. But all in all, the Ten Silver Drops is pretty much more of the same as their previous material. If you like "Now Here is Nowhere", there's no reason not to like "Ten Silver Drops". I definitely think that the sky's the limit for this band. If they continue to hone their craft, they may create some masterpieces in the future.

Key Tracks: "Alone, Jealous, and Stoned", "All At Once", "Daddy's in the Doldrums" and "I Hate Pretending"

These guys are beyond classification. Their music borrows from so many different genres including rock, jazz, and even industrial music. 10 Silver Drops is an amazing accomplishment. This album has everything a music lover could ask for. When listened to as a whole, it expresses a dynamism that cannot be matched by any other contemporary album.

One of my favorites from the album is Daddy's in the Doldrums. It opens with dark industrial sounds. The song is tempered by a steady, deliberate drum beat to give the listener the impression of slow trudging. The vocals are soft, conversational and somewhat accusatory. In the later half of the song the whole sound opens up, drives, becomes a little chaotic, and then closes itself again. It's an amazing listen.

I also liked the song "I Hate Pretending". It ends with the most frenetic, explosive drum crescendo. It's really incredible.

The final song on the album, 1,000 Seconds, also has a trudging quality to it, but with an added sweetness and an added sadness. This is the most touching song on the album, and perhaps the best.

10 Silver Drops is a must own.

I got this as a recomendation from some friends of mine and I've been pretty much, well, blown away by it. It's not over the top awsome, but it's definately worth adding to your collection. The spacy melodies are inventive and despite the fact that people compare them to Radiohead and The Flamming Lips, The Secret Machines has a unique sound that can make it easy to get used to and appreciate.

While this album isn't for everybody, those who would dig it will probably get wind of it eventually. With CDs like 10 Silver Drops this band will definitely get bigger.