Review: Sliimy - Paint Your Face

Sliimy - Paint Your Face
2009, Perezcious Music/Warner Bros. Records

French sensation Sliimy has ranked as the #1 trending topic on Twitter as well as garnering over one million streams on MySpace without ever releasing an album outside of France. Paint Your Face went to #2 in France, earning gold record certification while Sliimy was still in high school, and allowed Sliimy to gain opening spots for Katy Perry and Brittany Spears on their European tours. Sliimy has shaken the stodgy world of music critics with a sound fresh and full of the exuberant energy of youth, being compared to a pre-adolescent Prince. Discovered by Perez Hilton, Sliimy is the first artist on his Warner Bros. Records imprint, Perezcious Music. Paint Your Face will be released digitally in the United States on September 15, 2009.

Paint Your Face opens with Wake Up, an infectious dance-oriented pop tune that's a can't miss hit. It's pure bubblegum, but the sort that gets in your brain and takes over your thought process. Sliimy walks the line between rap and Jason Mraz style lyrical streams over a toy keyboard and a tight quasi-acoustic dance arrangement. Magic Game follows a similar dance approach but brings some crunchy guitar into play to give the song a vaguely harder edge. If you check out the cover of Paint Your Face you'll note the cover photo finds Sliimy exploiting the Prince comparisons, which are not entirely unfounded in Pop sensibility, but no one will confuse Sliimy and Prince musically. The material presented stays firmly in the Bubblegum Pop and Dance realm. Sliimy spends the entire album singing in falsetto, occasionally blurring gender lines with a voice that's not always discernable (ala Angel from Rent).

Songs such as Paint Your Face, Baby and Trust Me all follow a similar path, acoustic based Dance/Pop with an infectious nature and no real meat to grab onto as a listener. This is music for moving, not pondering and is thoroughly enjoyable for what it is as long as you're not seeking an intellectual listening experience. Mum slows things down a bit both rhythmically and emotionally. Full of angst and regret, Sliimy seems to mourn the loss of something here but it's not entirely clear what. Tic Tac has all the earmarks of a major Pop Hit; this is the sort of song that could go Gold and even Platinum across multiple countries and musical charts. Don't be surprised if Tic Tac is eventually released as a single and becomes omnipresent in popular culture for a couple of months. Ditto My God, the sort of simple Pop/Dance/Love song that makes household names. Womanizer attempts to get to some meat, but is too repetitive and is frankly handicapped by Sliimy's singing voice which is something of a difficult listen. On the faster, Pop-oriented tracks this is hidden by a dearth of legato phrases and rapid-fire lyrics, but where his voice is more exposed Sliimy has a lot of difficulty maintaining a concrete relationship with the appropriate key. The result is a quirky sound that is interesting, perhaps even cute at first, but wears on the listener after a while.

Sliimy seems like the perfect candidate for fifteen minutes of fame. With a quirky sound, a distinctive look and a lot of viral buzz likely dreamed up by a brilliant marketer and a chance encounter with media whore Perez Hilton, Sliimy will likely dominate the US airwaves for a time, only to join the likes of Jordy, Newcleus, Right Said Fred and all of the other bright yet brief comets who have burst upon the Pop music scene over the years and disappeared almost before we knew they were gone. There is some real songwriting talent here, but the presentation is so atypical and musically limited that the honeymoon isn't like to be a long one.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Sliimy at http://www.sliimy.net/ or www.myspace.com/sliimy. Paint Your Face hits virtual and real shelves on September 15, 2009. Expect wide availability through both brick-and-mortar retail and through online outlets.

Review: Troum - Eald-Ge-Streon

Troum - Eald-Ge-Streon
2009, Beta-Lactam Ring Records

Troum is the old German word for Dream, and the name fits the band. GlitH and Barak[H] have been together since 1997 as Troum, but worked together previously in Ambient/Industrial mavens Maeror Tri. Based in Bremen, Germany, Troum has played all over the world with acts such as Spear, Tarkatak, Ultrasound, Bad Sector and Vance Orchestra. Troum is conspicuous for their blending of Ambient and Industrial styles, and their latest album, Eald-Ge-Streon is a protypical album for the band.

Eald-Ge-Streon might as well be titled Ambient Music for the Mortally Wounded and Chronically Depressed. The offerings here feature heavy accents within ambient structures that are reminiscent of things you might hear on an old Pink Floyd album or in a movie sequence featuring strange and wonderful spaceships floating majestically in the air. Elation opens the set with heavy ambience and a constant tension that fluctuates but never resolves. Ecstatic Forlorness takes aboriginal rhythms and blends them into an almost Ambient/Industrial mix (if that's possible). The result is something that sounds like something you might hear in a blighted future industrial landscape. The rest of the album essentially follows this ambient structure, seeming to be more about sound than any sort of structure or musical communication.

Eald-Ge-Streon is an album for those who wish to meditate on the wonders of the universe; fans of Ambient Music, Pink Floyd fans and others who might want more experience and less song from their music. Troum is quite good at what they do, although I generally found the album to lack a real creative spark.

Rating: 2 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Troum at http://www.troum.com/ or www.myspace.com/troum. You can purchase a copy of Eald-Ge-Streon at Amazon.com.

Review: Tiffany Martin - Tiffany Martin

Tiffany Martin - Tiffany Martin
2008, Tiffany Martin

Orlando’s Tiffany Martin has already had a lot of success in her twenty-three years. As a four-year member of Monsters In The Morning, Central Florida’s #1 rated radio show, Martin has proven her comedic chops (Monsters In The Morning is carried nationwide on XM Radio channel 152). Martin has been a powerhouse vocalist all along, and in 2008 she puts her musical hat in the ring with her debut album, Tiffany Martin. The album mixes Pop and Rock N Roll in a swirl of bubblegum bombast.

Complicate Things kicks off Tiffany Martin's self-titled debut; a Pop/Rock hybrid in the style of Chantal Kreviazuk. This is a commercial tune and a likely first single, but doesn't really stand out from the sort of stuff you're likely to hear on popular radio. Consecutively tries to build on the rock edge with a slightly darker sound and themes. Martin is a fine vocalist with real power and presence and does her best to carry the song, but the song itself is just a little too mundane to save. It's not bad, it just doesn't stand out. Wonder Woman mixes Rock, electronic pop and Soul styles for what is likely a near-perfect commercial storm. Martin shines on this song vocally, displaying a vitality and energy that has been less than clear to this point, but the material itself is still average.

I don't generally go this far, but Cloud We're In is awful. All due respect to Ms. Martin, but this is about as cliche as pop music can get. I don't know if it's the original writing or what happened in the production booth but this was just flat out difficult to listen to. Suffice it to say it's probably the most commercial song on the album and likely to be a big hit. Let Me Go, on the other hand, shows what Tiffany Martin is capable of. The first thirty seconds sound like a ballad will ensue until the song devolves into a pop/punk tirade reminiscent of Avril Lavigne. Martin has a truly gorgeous voice. It is evident that this album is her grab at pop stardom, and the song choices here reflect that priority. The material is frankly beneath Martin's level of talent; either that or the production team took whatever respectable musical nuggets were available for this project and brought out the most base qualities in each.

The end result is a truly talented artist who is hamstrung by her songs/producers. This is the sort of album that tends to do very well on pop radio, but popularity has never been a necessary guide to quality. Don't be surprised if a few years from now you see/hear a revamped Tiffany Martin performing a different style of material, and don't be surprised if she knocks your socks off. The talent is here, but this album sells her short.

Rating: 2 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Tiffany Martin at www.myspace.com/tiffanymartinworld or http://www.tiffworld.com/, where you can purchase a copy of Tiffany Martin.