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Review Summary: The obscure demonstration of duality between the blissful present and impending doom. The day is December 12, 2012. Hawaii: Part II quietly appears on Bandcamp while seemingly nobody notices...
Hawaii: Part II presents itself in a very welcoming, yet chaotic manner, delivering sounds that provide an easygoing nature in the midst of the conflicting signals. It's like trying to enjoy the bliss of the present while in the back of your mind you know the end is near... and it all starts off with Introduction to the Snow, which simultaneously foreshadows the end while misleading the listener. It's almost like a red sunrise; a beautiful warning of a storm coming.
As the name of the artist suggests, the record kicks off feeling like a musical. Forming together ballads using an early 20th century stylistic choice of vocals that transition into 60's pop rock style with its drums, guitars, and Rhodes. As the album progresses, it uses synthesizers, old recordings, steel guitars, marimbas, various brass instruments, and various string instruments to make it feel like you're going on an interstellar date to a tropical planet.
Suddenly, it takes a dark turn and you realize only a little over 10 minutes have passed. With mashing pianos, hustling strings, busy guitars, and subtle vocals arriving like a sudden realization that you forgot about something dire. But it's okay, it's not important anyway, right?
It begins to spiral out of control. The Mind Electric's symmetrical structure builds up tension. A mix of overwhelming and mostly incomprehensible sounds along reversed music and pulsing beats surround the listener. That thing you forgot about has come back to haunt you and you're trying to fight against it. The song takes a new form using previously mentioned instruments and transitions into an indecisive attitude. 8 bit music backed by female vocals kick in and Shane Maux unexpectedly makes an appearance by rapping. It's a moment of realization, and once that moment ends, the album continues on its attempt to fix its mistakes but ends up causing an even bigger tragedy. All that's left to do is make the best of it.
No matter how "off" one track may seem, there's always something to love about it... and that isn't even the redeeming part. The album is self aware. It knows it's toying with your expectations (and potentially your emotions) through unique methods of genre-mashing, as well as providing very beautiful and pleasing instrumentals that unexpectedly deliver after its meltdowns. Its deliveries, unexpected turns and meltdowns make it an enjoyable listen. On top of that, the album grows insane as you progress, where it slowly becomes more indecisive and cynical, and in an attempt to free itself, it becomes deserted. Despite the chaos, you're anything but frowned upon for following along. If anything, you're invited to tag along in the experience. It eventually fulfills its own promises by coming full circle in Dream Sweet in Sea Major, which is arguably the greatest way to end such a journey.
This album throws so many cryptic messages, sounds, and concepts at the listener that it's difficult to comprehend everything in one listen. It does all of this while throwing you off in ways where specification could spoil the experience, if that's even possible to sum up in one summary. You really don't know what to expect until you listen a second time... and once you're able to successfully decode the messages, it will be clear that this album holds not only many different meanings and interpretations, but also fits into the primary theme being "the end." To determine whether it's a happy or a sad ending is completely the listeners choice.
To end off, if you know anything about December 12, 2012, that day was a few days away from December 21, 2012; which was predicted to be doomsday. While that prediction remains false, Hawaii: Part II serves its purpose as a hidden gem reminding us to make the best of our hardships instead of trying to fix what's already done.
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Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off
You can stream it here.
https://miraclemusical.bandcamp.com/album/hawaii-part-ii
This is my first review on Sputnik. I acknowledge that marking something as a 5 on my first review is something to be reasonably skeptical about... considering a 5 is an incredibly high position of acclaim on this platform. However, I am sure that this album is a classic despite its obscure nature.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Pretty neat first review, welcome to the site fren (:
Couple of things - you describe rather nicely some of the more abstract/conceptual things that this record excels at, but I'm still clueless as to what it sounds like. Like, are we talking IDM, indie folk, rap, rock, what exactly? I'm not saying slap a genre tag on it, especially if it is a genre-bending record or difficult to pin down, but give the reader some sense of what to expect, describing what it actually sounds like rather than just what it means or symbolises.
Also I'm not sure what you intended to covey with the last sentence, other than that this came out on the falsely predicted doomsday, but it reads odd to me.
You've clearly already got a handle on discussing the abstract though which is cool to see, and regardless I'm intrigued to check this out.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Now I've actually listened to this, I understand entirely why you might not have approached their sound directly with your writing. Cause what the mother of heck is this? Weird, enigmatic goodness.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off
See, this is one of those reviews where you don't understand it very well until you listen to the LP.
Plus, if I were to cover how exactly this LP sounds, it would be a really long winded review... And if this review didn't make you curious, just please listen to it already. I promise it's gonna deliver something to you one way or another.
All of this was completely intentional, my friend.
(Late reply... I know. I'm sorry)
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I take your point, although I'd be a little careful in taking that stance. If a review doesn't make sense until the reader has actually heard the record, I'd suggest the review may not have done its job, in that it's unlikely to entice anyone to listen to it beyond the morbidly curious. In all honestly, it was the 4.4 average that made me give this a whirl.
I don't mean to be overly critical, as the writing here is great, but I suppose my point is that it feels like you slightly skipped over some of the essentials. Broad, enigmatic statements aren't a substitute for descriptive writing, nor are the two mutually exclusive. You could add all the necessary colour to this with a brief sentence or two, or a choice descriptor slotted here and there, without necessitating a longwinded commentary. Because yes, their sound is somewhat difficult to pin down, but it's certainly not above a more concrete discussion. It's cinematic, symphonic, orchestral, dreamy, catchy, sepia and anachronistic, bubbly and energetic, highly textural, bright and colourful, has a pop flavour to it - etc. etc. etc.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off
Thanks for the critique! Might edit it later today and fix it up. Probably gonna add a paragraph dedicated to that missing aspect.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off
So I made the edit. I added three paragraphs explaining how it sounds and feels along with a few minor edits to other paragraphs already written. Hope the review stands on its own better with this inclusion.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Incredible album, and very well written review, Sonically, I don't find this album nearly as chaotic sounding as the writing in this review suggests, besides maybe in the way it genre-mashes... Depends on the person I guess.
Admittedly it is nearly impossible to describe the sound of this album as a whole - I think it does most certainly play like a "musical" if anything. I think one really just needs to go into the individual tracks.
Anyway, this album definitely needs more attention but I'm glad that it's sort of a gem at the moment.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off
>Admittedly it is nearly impossible to describe the sound of this album as a whole
This is EXACTLY why the review never approached the sound directly before being edited. I tried my hardest to describe it, but it was absolutely difficult. I'm glad it satisfied you.
Usually with every other album, you can describe how it sounds. This is an exception, and that factor is only a small fragment of why I call it a classic. It's so familiar, but so alien at the same time.
It's very strange how I get something new out of it every time I listen to it. That's just my experience with it at least.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
This album is still the tits. Needs more attention. Or maybe it doesn't
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