|
https://vapidkoi.bandcamp.com/album/lost-and-found I finally did a thing! After arsing about never releasing anything for real, I decided I had a more or less complete mini-album in this lot. It's more a proof of concept, something I did in one long stint to prove I could actually crank stuff out. It's not super polished or even well contained but dang it, it's done and released! It's a blend of influences, from pretty doom to weird noises and even some hip hop I guess. I figure it's not most people's cup of tea but I'd appreciate any suggestions for future efforts! Don't even have to be nice. Thanks guys! Edit: Aaaand I hosed up the thread image. Nice.
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2017 09:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 08:31 |
|
|
1. It's a risky decision to put a long instrumental track right at the beginning of a short album. It sounds like a dramatic introduction to something big, and I don't think the album is going to deliver. 2. Your vocals aren't mixed well. They get buried and it's hard to tell what you're saying unless I try really hard. I think the low volume might also be bringing more attention to lip/tongue smacking sounds than you may have intended. You also sound VERY low-energy. I can't decide if I like that juxtaposition or not - we'll see how the rest of the album plays out. 3. Good sound, doesn't overstay its welcome. 4. I dig the kind of sound fabric you're creating here. A simple ostinato surrounded by noisy, lightly aleatoric elements. At this point though, i'm feeling as though I've given up on the album being cohesive. It's basically a mixtape, and not one that's well-crafted. 5, 6. I felt indifferent to both of these. Regarding the low-energy almost mumbled rapping on track 2, I don't hate the idea but I don't think you pulled it off (if that's what you were intending). Maybe I felt that way because that was the only track with vocals, so I never got the chance to hear you really own the style. I've listened to a few albums posted in these forums, and many of them suffer from what I see as a problem with cohesiveness. You describe the album as being a blend of influences - I see that most apparently with the post-rock sound of track 1 and the hip-hop sound of track 2. The rest, I guess kind of? If you're interested in polystylism/eclecticism, you really have to own it. Being only lightly polystylistic like you were here just makes it sound like you don't know what you want to sound like. Guys like John Zorn and Mike Patton (hell, throw Zappa on there too) are successful in polystylism because they do two things: 1) they exaggerate stylistic changes to make it clear that's what they're doing, and 2) no matter the stylistic shift, there's always an element that still makes it their sound. Not an easy thing to achieve, but good luck if that's the route you're interested in. As it stands, I don't know how Vapid Koi sounds after listening to 6 of their songs. My last comment is the album artwork. What's up with Bandcamp artists using a plain photo as artwork? Just curious why there isn't any identifying information on the photo, like your band name or the album title. Anyways, I assume you're going for a kind of ironic or flippant tone with the artwork. That doesn't do you any favors here, as it just looks like you don't care about your own work - and if you don't care, then why should we? Other artists (like Kendrick Lamar on Section 80) can get away with similar album artwork because they've already established themselves as serious artists. It's a sad truth, I know.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2017 21:12
|
|
|
Hey thanks man, the fact that you put time into listening to the whole thing is a win as far as I'm concerned! All your criticism is valid and noted! At the end of it, it really is a non-so-cohesive mixtape. The story behind it is that I have some mental conditions and I originally made the first track as a demo/guide for my friend. He said it was good and to keep working on other ideas. The long story short is that I was off my meds for a while and things got really bad and I was on a massive manic high (to the point where I felt like I was going to have a heart attack at any second). What you heard is the result of that. I don't actually remember much of the recording process (I got my meds, passed out for a couple days and couldn't remember poo poo basically) except it was two (or three?) days straight just messing with sounds. I think I got about half a dozen hours sleep combined across the entire project. So yeah, it's the sound of an unmedicated me. For all that's worth, good and bad. Musically I appreciate where I was heading at times, but yeah agreed it isn't exactly cohesive. I don't think I was at the time. When I decided to release it, it was more so I'd have a reference online and all that. I don't expect anyone to ever listen to the whole thing really, let alone buy it. That's why it's under the name Vapid Koi. Kind of my bullshit "whatever" project that I haven't figured out a direction for. I do promise you I have another project with a much more cohesive and sensible sound  I agree with all the points you made. But I deliberately didn't want to mess with the structure of it, because of how it came to be. I intend to take some of these ideas and work them into something more logical though.As for the album art? Yeah, it was my attempt at a joke. I did notice a lot of bandcamp artists had that sort of thing, so I got random crap, took a photo on my phone and slapped a Photoshop filter on it. It was funny to me anyway. But I really do appreciate you sitting through the whole thing. Even if you didn't like it, it means a lot to me.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2017 04:09
|
|
|
I'm glad to see you take criticism well . I guarantee you'll get better quickly because of it. Do you know Daniel Johnston? He's mentally ill (bipolar and schizophrenic, I believe), and he made a decent career for himself by leaning into it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qgXYvjVNvk
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2017 14:49
|
|