Trip Lava- Oddball in the Corner Pocket
(Self Released)
Trip Lava- Oddball in the Corner Pocket
(Self Released)
From Aural Innovations #39 (May 2008)
This is a very cool but musically challenging CD. This is a one man project by Joel Lee. It is a compilation of circular improvs where he plays bass, real drums, guitar, loops, drones and keyboards. The tracks all morph into each other with the last minute or so of most tracks being some strange sounds and things that lead you into the next psychedelic trip. 13 tracks in 45 minutes. Hit Single starts the CD off with a quite primitive garage rock like drum sound and some different layers of keyboards and highly effected guitars, some looping. Halfway through it is pretty tripped out stuff and it just builds in intensity. Hi Hat, well, after the baby sneezes, begins with a hi hat and occasionally a heavy distorted guitar comes in and out but mostly a pretty groovy guitar riff is played. Lots of layers that lead directly into Glass Disco, which features a very intense bass loop and guitar loop that are almost like competing and then he layers in some strange synth sounds. Flying Tremelo is the longest track at 5 minutes and also one of the coolest. A nice bass line gets things going as layer upon layer of spaced out stuff floats in and out and it is very psychedelic. It leads into Gallop Light which has a very intense sound that tries to dig into your brain but you somehow want to resist. Flange Rock is one of the more spacey tracks and less freaked out to start with anyway, but Joel does not like to keep it too normal for too long. An interesting one man jam of sorts. Floating has Joel playing the drums and then a bass line gradually joins as lots of spaced out guitar or synth or both with a lot of delay get mixed in for a pretty spaced out feeling. Sirens is a track that really puts you on the edge as the sounds are mixed real up front and are tripped out…Glass Disco Pt2 begins with a fast paced looped bass line and other loops on top of that. Gallop, not sure what that was. Squish has some sort of tribal groove rock thing. Electro Glass Climax Pt2 ends the CD with some intense drumming and looped madness and then some intense guitar soloing before the track totally chills out and your mind trip comes to an end. Just a warning... don’t listen to this stuff in the headphones... it may induce vomiting or odd behavior.
The CD is available at CD Baby for only $5… Grab it if you dig really
experimental stuff… This guy is good at it.
Check out the Trip Lava myspace site at: http://www.myspace.com/triplava
Reviewed by Scott Heller