Won James Won - "Tol's Toy"
(R.A.I.G. 2004, R007)
Won James Won - "Tol's Toy"
(R.A.I.G. 2004, R007)
From Aural Innovations #34 (August 2006)
I can safely say that I have never heard such a band before. They mix up all kinds of styles, and flip through them Willy Nilly that I find it hard to listen to the CD, let alone describe for you the reader what the CD is about. There are many short-spoken word sampled sections in between each song, lasting maybe minutes, and verging on pointless and overdone. It makes me wonder whom the CD is aimed towards, let alone who in their right mind would listen to such stuff and enjoy it because it changes so much.
Track 5 caught me in a motion of heavy synthesized riffage, but then it was stole from me just as I thought that it was going to go somewhere. Alas, it didn't, and stopped not long after. That seems to be the way that this CD is going to go, all 27 tracks of it. To me there are not enough things musical to get into, and even when there is music, it is not my cup of tea, and there is no chance of it lasting before changing. As far as the music goes it is a bit higgledy piggledy for me, with too many different styles involved to even get a gist of what the music is. When I do hear music I don't like it. I heard a bit of attempted heavy thrash like metal, some light indie styled music, some electronica, drum & bass, some blues, some jazz, and a bit of child like music, as well as a lot of noise. This is what top Russian music could sound like, but to jump from heavy to mellow, to mellow, to annoying, to abstract, to happy, to organic, to sampled nonsense, to shite, etc. Is certainly nothing that I could get into?
On the plus side it is put together very well indeed and each part of madness does catch the attention, but this is where it goes wrong for me, because it tries to grab the attention instead of enhancing it, or encouraging it. This music just leaves it hanging wondering what the f*** was that all about. 15 tracks out of 27 are enough for anyone to turn it off, but be my guests and by all means torture yourselves with 27.
For more information you can visit the R.A.I.G. web site at: http://www.raig.ru.
Reviewed by Albert Pollard