Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be [Import]

Max Tundra | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 26, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Virgin
• ASIN: B00004VTE1
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #792,863 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Cakes

2. Lamplite On A One Horse Shoe

3. Ah, There's Deek Now - Let's Ask Him

4. Lausanne

5. Tuli, A Plain Ride From Canvas

6. Bill Sholem Quintette

7. Ink Me

8. Balaton

9. Subsi Kuku

10. 6161

11. Carbon Cones

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Melodic, Glitch, Abstract & Obscure...(all in one album), August 18, 2004

By 

fetish_2000 (U.K.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be (Audio CD)

Firstly before you start reading this review, does the idea of an album that mixes computer game-inspired soundtracks with formidable percussion & Glitch, with cheap Casio Synth's sound appealling??....No?? Then I suggest you pass on this album and check the reviews for something else, as this seems squarely aimed at those that have cut their teeth on a variety of Experimental Electronica albums prior to this album.

If your the sort of person that can listen to 'Aphex Twin' at his most abrasive, or enjoy that eclecticism of "Mouse on Mars", "Joseph Nothing", or "Wagon Christ", and many other bizarrely eclectic Electronic albums without so much as a raised eyebrow, then this is for you.

"Cakes" gets the ball rolling with a looping twee musical pop arrangement before Casio-sounding synth keyboard shift and swell into the melody. It's a actually a very melodic tune (something that Max Tundra, seemingly has a knack for), mixing ragged horns and quirky samples to get effect, unconventional...yes, but highly imaginative, nonetheless.

"Ah, There's Deek Now, Let's Ask Him" layers wonky percussion and slight distortion & Stuttering effects & sounds to disorientating effect. In fact there's a chance that you may not even like this at first, such is it bizarreness, but over several listens, the complexity of the track gradually will begin to make sense in your mind. And you'll wonder why it took so long to like it.

"The Salaton" spirals up and down with its arrangements, starting off simplistic keyboard synths and formidable drumming and startling guitar riffing (yes, guitar riffing!!), before evolving with various subtle and not so subtle effects layered over rhythmic instrumentation that ducks & dives all over the place.

"Subsi Kuku" the start of which is almost certainly directly lifted from a (Super Nintendo) computer game (a Role playing game of which the name escapes me), but at a slightly higher pitch & Speed, before guardally shifting course into acoustic guitars, symphonic pop, fuzzy harsh synths and hip-hop samples, and changes direction in the space of one song, more times than over the course of some albums.

"Carbon Cones" the albums closing tracks starts with slightly abrasive effects that impressive shift dynamics, with high powered guitar sounds and exemplary use of acoustic & synthetic instruments, before gradually settling down over the course of the 12 minute running time, into a overwhelming melodic and electronically downtempo minimalism.

This is an album that packs in more ideas into one album (sometimes even in one song), than most artists can pack into three of their albums. It can go from being harsh & abrasive one moment, to beautifully composed and arranged the next. (One track for instance is build around the sample of 'mobile phone interference'), so be warned. It's an album to wants you to meet it on its terms, and won't be an album to impress your friends with. The chances are that (like me), you'll listen to it the first time and merely think it was "Quite Good". But it's only after coming back to it several times that the real appreciation for it, will start to manifest. And on the Third, fourth or even fifth listen, a lot of the musical shifts & genre hopping & Eclecticism, will begin to sound & form into a coherent whole. Again I have to mention that if your new to the Experimental Electronic genre, then this probably isn't going to be the easiest place to start, and I strongly recommended something a little more accessible, but those that worn out their 'Mouse on Mars' albums, and are looking for a new artist to progress the genre, this is going to take some beating.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a winner, January 26, 2002

By 

Jordan L. Kim "snow_design" (la, ca, usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be (Audio CD)

i feel insane for liking this but its a toe tapper. and that's a compliment.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YES, June 8, 2002

By 

Andrew R Kranz (Bloomington, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be (Audio CD)

It is among my favorites. Experimental, moving, genius, fun, and a bunch of other adjectives that I don't know how to say at this moment.