Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding, 1 Jul 2004
After his considerably light-hearted "Chocolate Wheelchair" album, Aaron Funk returns with the more serious and intricate "Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding". The strange title is fitting: it's an album full of metallic, elaborate and evolving tracks, and is a lot darker and more serious than its predecessor. The opener, "Huge Chrome Peach", sets the scene with a light but unsettling synth backed by sharp drums sequenced in the complex style that has become a trademark of Mr. Snares. It's good to see some new ideas being put into use on this album: some circuit bending of a speak and spell is present on tracks "Keek" and personal favourite "Ion Divvy"; there is definitely an 8-bit feel to a lot of the synths overall. Although not dark in the same way that his earlier stuff is. Where "Doll Doll Doll", for example, used nightmarish spoken word samples to weave its atmosphere, HCCBU uses subtlety and restraint. All of the tracks share the same dark, edgy atmosphere and it is a ittle samey in places, but on the whole it's an incredible album. There is still the original snares style that fans have grown to love, the brilliantly named "Destroy Glass Castles" for example sounds like a robot attaching a million paperclips to itself and rolling down a mountain made of circuitboards. This is definitely more of a mature sound from Funk and demonstrates his progression technically and musically very well. Anyone that liked winter in the belly of a snake is sure to love this album just as much, if not more. This album is simply mind blowing. Buy it
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Venetian Snares takes one step higher, 18 Oct 2004
I didn't think too much of this on my first listen. However, repeated plays revealed much going on below the surface. Venetian Snares' previous albums have all pushed certain boundaries of electronic music that much further, but this one feels much more like Aaron Funk is finding his own inner boundaries to go beyond. Much like Autechre's most recent albums Confield and Draft 7.30 (both of which I also struggled to appreciate on first playing), HCCBU has a complexity and beauty to it which only begins to be understood and fully appreciated with repeated listening. Complex melody and harmonic structures at first can seem like random noodlings, but become intensely involving and moving the more familiar you become with them, yet more is revealed with each new listen.Albums like Chocolate Wheelchair and Glue Funk Hits, both excellent, feel like they are extrovertly showing others what Venetian Snares can do - indeed, some of it sounds like an electronic battle cry to others musicians. But with HCCBU, Funk seems to have moved to a new level where he is making music purely for himself - which I don't doubt is really the case with his previous work - but here it seems that he is doing it on an inward level rather than an outward one. In a way it reminds me of the piano work which Aphex Twin featured on Drukqs - the musician is moving on to somewhere else, but the movement comes from within rather than from without, these are musicians who are developing and refining a real sense of 'self', at least on a musical plane. Where Venetian Snares will go from here is a mystery, but this represents the present peak of this remarkable musician's talents. Modern day Mozart/Bach? I'm beginning to believe it.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Immense Introspective Album, 28 Jul 2004
The Venetian Snares sound generally took me a while to warm too. Fans of more traditional dance music and even fans of Aphex Twin and Squarepusher may find some of Aaron Funks music, on first listen, is just pure noise. And his first album on Planet Mu, Making Orange Things, is just that. Inventive noise nonetheless. Although Venetian Snares haven't been around long, there is still a wealth of material to check out, and the diversity and scope of the albums is simply astonishing. Check out Winter in the Belly of A Snake, Higgins Ultra Low Tar, Songs about my Cats, Chocolate Wheelchair album, they are all truly inspiring albums with much to love.
But HCCBU is the evolution of the snares sound. A subtle and rhythmically complex album. Thats an understatement. One of the most rhythmically inventive albums ever made. I would love an hour with Aaron in his studio to see how on earth he creates his music. So much going on in his songs that you can never tire of listening to them. Don't expect and chunky songs in the 'Dance Like you selling nails' vain, think darker, more progressive sounds in the Autechre vain, but tinged with Venetian Snares madness.A must own album for anyone who likes complex and involving music outside of the mainstream. IDM fans and Snares fans should already own this album. My favorite of his albums to date and without a doubt his most musically innovitave album. not the most diverse, but this is an album in the truest sense of the world. Welcome to the world of Venetian Snares.
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