Customer Reviews

Slow Motion World of Snowpony

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

snowpony's music is interesting, if not wholly engaging. it provides the link between the early '90s british alternative "shoegazing" scene and the mid-late '90s trip-hop explorations of the british community. snowpony combine wall-of-sound guitar soundscapes with weird samples and horn loops. with members of stereolab and my bloody valentine, there are obvious comparisons to those bands here, but it's also reminiscent of luscious jackson and solex, while being different enough from its influences to be original. the songs are great examples of pop craft, intelligently constructed with samples and loops as much as with conventional playing. overall, an interesting and satisfying listen. cool bonus: check out the sample of sonic youth's "100%" in "3 can keep a secret (if 2 are dead)."

Okay, you saw the package design and it said "ex-members of My Bloody Valentine and Stereolab" so you purchased it! Whoa, not exactly the sound you expected was it? This was my experience. I didn't really know if I liked this album because I was sort of expecting Stereolab vocals with My Bloody Valentine music. After listening a few times I decided to let go of my expectations and listen to this album with a new sense of objectivity. It took a few listens before I actually realized how complex this album is! The music is full of nuances that, once discovered, really captivate the listener. Katherine Gifford's vocals seem flat but yet it lends itself to the music by the mere contrast that it is. Snowpony has a unique sound and I would love to hear more from this band.

Reading the mixed reviews of this cd I was a little surprised. People seem to have wanted it to be a sound-a-like of Stereolab and My Bloody Valentine. The 2 differ so much I can't see that that is at all realistic. There are influences of both sounds, but this debut stands on its own two feet. It's shoegazing for the post shoegazing era; it's a wall of beautiful noise. I had not listened to it in a few years and rediscovered it while programming music for my online internet radio station, www.radioioROCK.com. I then had to load it into my ipod so I could take with me everywhere, and have started tracks over several times just to hear the intricate manipulation of sounds. Listen to "Easy Way Down", "Way to Survive", and "Snow White" to see why this cd is still amazing after 6 years. MORE than worth checking out.

Snowpony is Stereolab on really bad acid. This album is a lot of the happy Europop collective.

But if you take out the organs, add razor cut guitars, dark samples, and darker themes, you get the Slow Motion World of the Brigid Bardot on a vicous bender.

This is, texturaly, a lot thicker than a Stereolab, and is a lot more modern. Samples, guitar, noises from God knows where, pop like goasts from the Heathkit.

If you had the kindest, gentelest, most forgiving friend you could think of and pushed them until they went on a angry tear, that is what it is like to listen to this.

There is a lot of subtance here, and listening you can hear more and more layers each time 'round. But Snowpony is more, deliberately about atmosphere and mood.

This is used for a PENNY and you would be nuts not to check it out.

The more I play this CD, the more I like it. The music goes from left-field alternative pop as in "Easy Way Down" and the Garbage influenced "Snow White" to Another Green World period Eno with the ambient/song styled "St. Lucy's Gate". The atonal horn arrangemnt of "Bad Sister" is absolutely bizarre. Although Stereolab and MBV are two of my favorite bands, it is refreshing that Snowpony doesn't sound like a rehashing of their music but is something quite different.

Amazingly catchy and infecious melodies- dark in a Smiths kind of way, but very addictive. The lyrics are extremely vivid and uncliched and evocative. The drums are kind of Manchester-y (some songs actually make you want to dance and headbang and sing along all at once). There are lots of heavy metal guitar samples right alongside motown sounding horn sections and slide guitar samples, and very hookey driving bass lines. Dont expect anything like Stereolab or MBV (the two bands from which some of Snowpony's members are alums); its quite a different style of music. Darker, more rhythmic.

it's too bad this was such a letdown, it sounds something like a cross between garbage and moonshake, (except a lot less intense than moonshake). the lyrics are pretty bad, too, with lamely clever bits like "three can keep a secret if two are dead". john mcentire (i think) produced this, but the result isn't notable, really a kind of over-produced symptom of this whole non-linear recording fad (a technique which has been around for ages, but for some reason people wanted to make a big deal about it when stereolab's dots and loops came out). if you like my bloody valentine or stereolab, *don't get this*!!!!

I had really looked forward to hearing this because I am a big Stereolab fan. Unfortunately, on this CD, K. Gifford's vocals are rather listless especially when compared to her singing with Stereolab. This, along with the so-so songwriting made this album a big disappointed. Get yourself a copy of Stereolab's "Mars Audiac Quintent" or "Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements" instead.

I heard the first track of this album on a compilation CD over a year ago and I've been searching for this band ever since. The CD's only a little bit of a disappointment, with a couple songs that seem like they're just there as filler, but when this band is good, they're *really* good.

A really wonderful debut. Gifford's rather flat vocals stick way back in the brain as do the rather eclectic arrangements and assortment of sounds. Finally some new music to listen too.