White Noise Sound - White Noise Sound

White Noise Sound - White Noise Sound
2010, Alive Records

Welsh rockers White Noise Sound launch their wall of sound at an unsuspecting world with their self-titled debut album on September 21, 2010. With the help of Pete Kember (Spacemen 3, Spectrum, E.A.R.) and Cian Ciaran (Super Furry Animals), White Noise Sound have realized a sound that calls on their forebears, acts such as Brian Eno, The Velvet Underground and even Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. Awash with synthesized sounds and feedback, White Noise Sound turn their name into fashion, fashion into art, and occasionally even cull something like a melody out of their sonic playground.

White Noise Sound is a droning electronic fair crossed with occasional doses of rock guitar. "Sunset" opens, the most commercial and intermingled track on the album. Unfortunately the marriage of sounds comes across as bland rather than intriguing. "It Is There For You" is more ambience than song with a spoken word vocal and minimalist arrangement. "There Is No Tomorrow" shows a bit more depth; layering electronic sounds with horns. It is the most extensive attempt at arrangement offered up by White Noise Sound and the highlight of the album. Unfortunately White Noise Sound seems to slowly fade away thereafter, as if the one attempt at real integration in the songwriting process sapped the creative flow from the band.

White Noise Sound is more performance art than songwriting, mixing and matching sounds in a primarily electro environment while trying to appeal to a wider demographic. This approach appears to have been backfired, as White Noise Sound fails to really generate much business with their self-titled debut.

Rating: 1.5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about White Noise Sound at http://www.whitenoisesound.net/ or www.myspace.com/whitenoisesound.  White Noise Sound can be purchased on CD from Amazon.com.  You can also purchase it directly from the band at their website.

Miniature Tigers - Fortress

Miniature Tigers - Fortress
2010 Modern Art Records/ILG

Band note: If you're staying in a house in the middle of the Adirondacks that could double as a horror movie set, watching The Shining may not be the best choice. Then again, listening to the dark anxiety and energy that runs through Miniature Tiger's sophomore album, Fortress, perhaps it was the perfect choice. Inspired by the abject terror and angst of that experience, the Brooklyn-based Miniature Tigers cut an album full of reckless energy and adrenaline that compensates for any deficits you might identify with pure energy and the sense of bravado that covers fear.

Miniature Tigers start strong on Fortress, opening with the melodic 1960's pop style of "Mansion Of Misery" and speckling it with vast tracts of psychedelic sound. The melody is pleasant enough at first but becomes highly repetitive as Miniature Tigers chose to express AB composition by differentiating with changes between pure pop sound to psychedelic fugue. "Rock N Roll Mountain Troll" describes someone most people have known at one point in their life. That guy who went to school or work and then spent the rest of his time in his room getting h and playing guitar or drums or some other instrument. The song is incredibly catchy and fun to listen to, with a catchy melody the Beatles would have been proud of.

"Dark Tower" finds Miniature Tigers in the backwaters of human thought where philosophy and a profound sense of epistemological melancholy meet. It's a song about trying to find yourself while navigating the waters of human interaction and relationships, filled with all of the angst and fear that such confrontations inspire. Things get a bit slow in the middle of "Fortress", but pick up again for the near-novelty tune "Japanese Woman Living In My Closet". While Miniature Tigers might appear to have driven right off the deep end here, the infectious pop melody is nothing to sneeze at. Much the same can be said of "Tropical Birds". Miniature Tigers float their way past the last bastions of sensibility into a land where Syd Barrett cavorts with pop princesses and writes million-sellers. As odd as the song may be, there's an essential draw to it that will have you hitting replay nearly in spite of yourself.

Miniature Tigers walk their own musical path on Fortress, engaging in a delirious mix of 1960's rock and pop with easy listening tendrils gracing the edges of their sound. The retro movement has finally brought back psychedelic folk-rock, and Miniature Tigers play it like they invented the sound.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Miniature Tigers at http://www.miniaturetigers.com/ or www.myspace.com/miniaturetigers.  Fortress is available from Amazon.com as either a CD or Download.  Fortress is also available from iTunes.