Thursday, April 03, 2008

A Ball of Wax

I don't even know how to start talking about Ball of Wax. It goes something like this:
1.) gather together a bunch of skilled but diverse musicians - a whole bunch of them (35 if you're counting)
2.) split said musicians into eleven randomly selected bands - the only rule is no one already in a band together could be working together here
3.) give said random bands 24 hours to write and record one song
4.) each said band would come up with a name for themselves and a name for their newly birthed song
5.) assemble said songs into one collection
6.) title said collection Ball of Wax Volume 11
7.) listen to said collection and be amazed
OK, enough with the "said" stuff. To piece it all together, it's quite a creative project that gives birth to some truly diverse results. Due to the nature of the project, the album as a whole doesn't necessarily gel as a complete and well-rounded work of art, rather consider it a gallery of songs where each song is meant to be taken individually rather than as a piece of the whole. Keeping that in mind, there are some tracks that will amaze you when you consider the timeline of their production and leave you wondering why the members don't get together to make an entire album together, and there are one or two tracks that seem like the group's members never totally came together as a cohesive unit with a unified vision.

Check out the second track on the album, the exotically titled Ilona, You Should Still Be My Vampire Attendant, below. It's got a Lou Reed feel to it that I'm definitely diggin'. It was recorded by Kiernan (from Hecka Ar), Kenny Day (from The Luna Moth and Secret Highways), and Jon Rooney (from Virgin of the Birds and Morning Spy). The trio came together under the name Daughters of Darkness, inspired by a Belgium horror movie of the same name.




Visit the compilation's official site and its label Beep Repaired.


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