CD Review: Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
Published June 08, 2006
Pink Floyd is gone. Or their time has past. Or they've gotten too old. Or something.
Okay, okay. I know you're thinking that we don't need another one. True enough. I'm not saying that Secret Machines is the new Pink Floyd. It's just that of the several bands that have pushed my Floyd buttons over the last few years (including Godspeed You Black Emperor, Tortoise, and Radiohead), Secret Machines has pushed the most.
The similarities tend to be along the lines of atmosphere rather than tempo and roots. Floyd's music, never moving much past a fierce mid-tempo plod, was nonetheless informed by the blues. I hear none of that on Ten Silver Drops. I do hear songs that attempt to rock out past ThePlod™ — not very Floydian.
The sonic overlap shows up on the opening "Alone, Jealous And Stoned". Keyboards and analog-sounding synths create a very spacey vibe (to say nothing of the reverb-drenched electric guitars). This is followed by the elongated notes of feedback and panned helicopter burble that introduces "All At Once (It's Not Important)". These kind of touches are all over Ten Silver Drops — from the crushed guitar at the beginning of the sinister "I Hate Pretending" to the jumpcut sound battles that open "I Want To Know If It's Still Possible".
"1,000 Seconds" closes out the program with a unifying musical theme and an odd fadeout into space.
None of this is to say that Secret Machines are in any way cloning psychedelic rock's past. Far from it. I hear a lot of new and interesting ideas going on here. As much as I'm having a good time listening to today's fresh twists on garage rock, it's nice to hear a band not afraid of longer song forms.
By the way, which one's Pink?
Mark Saleski is a writer and music obsessive based out of the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. On his best day, he hopes to channel the ghosts of Lester Bangs and Jack Kerouac. He spends the hours of 9:32PM to 1:37AM carving out music reviews and essays for Jazz.com, Blogcritics.org and other publications.
- CD Review: Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
- Published: June 08, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Rock
- Writer: Mark Saleski
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vocals too. dang....who does that singer sound like? hmmmmm.
Nice Review...
The only problem with this idea is that even if The Secret Machines pull off an energized escape from- The Plod™ - They won't have a guitarist that is anywhere near the caliber that is David Gilmour. I believe this will keep them in the atmospheric trap that most wanna-be retro bands,including Radiohead, find themselves in these days. Unlike Pink Floyd, these bands don't have the talent to create soulful,electrifying blues when they get tired of experimenting.
guppus, you don't think anybody has talent except for the handful of TrueMetal(tm) groups you listen to.
personally, i don't give a hoot about evaluating "talent"...the music has to be interesting to me and that is generally completely independent of "talent"/chops.
I have to admit that I was more than a tad let down when I first listened to this one . . . I had the enormous stomp of stuff like "First Wave Intact" in my head and that sound is nowhere to be found here. And I wanted more of that, dammit. So I filed it away and let it sit until I wasn't thinking of what I wanted Secret Machines to sound like, pulled it out and suddenly loved what I heard. Definitely a lot more subtle and definitely a grower, but definitely a keeper.
Are you positive about that, Mark? I mean besides responding to some pretty lame attempts at metal reviews on this site, do you really know what I listen to? I can see already that your "Up in arms" about trying to find the next cheap thrill, so besides me giving you a compliment then inserting my own OPINION, you show your fins like my Betta does when he gets pissed...Good Luck with the "Diverse" bands that you choose to waste your time on.
i've seen the list you published in another comment thread....and i'm not even saying that i don't like those bands/or that they're not "valid" (whatever the hell that even means)
it's just that going down the road of "has no talent" usually leads nowhere.
c'mon, tell me you don't play the role of metal evangelist here on bc! maybe you should write reviews of metal bands. i'd sure be interested.
Unlike Pink Floyd, these bands don't have the talent to create soulful,electrifying blues when they get tired of experimenting.
Sounds to me from the review like they are not trying to create soulful, electrifying blues. Mark said Secret Machines don't really emphasize blues in their music. It wouldn't seem to be about talent but rather choice in musical direction.
Well, Mark, I have posted quite a few band lists in quite a few threads. Those lists are dependent on what genre of music the article covers and it is there,mainly, to communicate my p.o.v.
My comment was,merely, an opinion and NOT an attack on what you find interesting. Sure, The Secret Machines "rock out" alittle more than Pink Floyd but,to me, there is no substance... Just filler no explosion. Again...MY OPINION!
As for writing reviews, I have tried on B.C. but because I suck with html and I forgot the rules of penmanship for this site... I stopped.
HereAnd Here Lastly, Here.
"Sounds to me from the review like they are not trying to create soulful, electrifying blues..."
Umm...WTF, Try reading my whole comment next time. That's not what I was saying...
well, gees...you should pick back up again. those were fine reviews, especially the first.
we have editors (and others) galore who can help with html issues.
Guppus, before I go to your "WTF" comment--- as Asst Music Editor let me just say we want VERY little HTML in our articles. Your lack of knowledge there is actually good, not bad. We have had to strip out more worthless code than you can possibly imagine. it gives poor Phillip nightmares.
If you need some help in MT (the interface) I can be of some help and Phillip Winn is a great deal of help. He has actually been working on a tool to make the whole posting process even easier. Let me/him/us know if we can help. You're welcome to resume the writing anytime.
That's cool... Thank you.
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Saleski- very interesting sounding stuff. Sounds like a band mining some of my favorite Floyd elements. Are they instrumental, vocal, both?