Review Summary: Sometimes, ignorance really is bliss.
In September 2011, AnonyWolf posted a set on Soundcloud entitled “Off The Air (We Want Snow!)” Its cover consisted of a plain wall of sky blue accompanied by nothing more than a badly-cropped low-res picture of a frog. The music itself was a jumbled mess of singles taken from previous “releases,” made up mostly (if not entirely) of loops from various copyrighted songs or royalty-free sound packs, with nods to obscure movie or internet references or inside jokes between him and himself.
This is the kind of musical genius that the Age of the Internet had spawned. Many people had decided they no longer required a record label, business sense, artistic talent or even real instruments to make the kind of music they love and be heard all across the globe. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet for poor AnonyWolf, even today, despite having taken a more “professional” approach with the re-release. He replaced the sh**ty MS-Paint album art with something easier on the eyes, replaced the weakest tracks from the original album with faster and more experimental bonus tracks, and blended most of what was left together for a unifying effect.
The 2013 CD Version of OTA(WWS!) retains 10 of the 14 tracks from the original version, and none of the bonus Soundcloud tracks (thank heavens). There are a couple discontinued tracks that I did like, such as
Low Main and
Glorious Adventure Theme, which had sort of a catchy, nostalgic nature to each of them, but were seen by Wolf as “nothing but filler.” Nevertheless, the 2013 release, with all its bells and whistles and added bonuses (salvaged from previous albums after his PC crashed for the
nth time), is nonstop fun for the whole family.
The downside to this album (as with many of his works), is that you can never tell which parts are authentic Wolf material and which parts are sampled or ripped from other people, unless you’ve heard said samples already beforehand. For example, I only just found out today that
Hate The Lie You Live is mostly a rework of a nasty acapella by Reh Dogg (what the f*ck is a Reh Dogg?).
Mandarin, one of the most critically acclaimed AnonyWolf tracks to date, also happens to be a complete rip-off of “Phoenix” by Daft Punk (of whom he is a big fan).
I’ve Gotta Get Up is a rework of “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas; and 2011’s 8-bit cover of Rivers Cuomo’s “Lover In The Snow” now features vocals by AnonyWolf himself. Other than that, I’ve stopped looking around for hidden samples, because once I realize the true nature of each track, I can never listen to it the same way ever again.
In retrospect, I probably gave this album an unfairly positive review, but it’s a fun listen overall, and I plan to keep it in my collection for a long time.
