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Blotto
Singles Collection 2004-2007 |
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Tracklist |
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01. slower (flower not needed)
02. it's late
03. it's too late
04. drums a go-go
05. boxer
06. motor ash
07. charlotte
08. week or day
09. sunday dawning, sunday yawning
10. fun machine
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Review |
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Indie band Dip have been around for about fifteen years, not counting the three years they spent before their first major release as "Dip the Flag." They've tweaked their sound a lot in that time, making the genre game even harder than it usually is. Depending on the album, you might hear them called grunge, or psychedelic, or often, for lack of an appropriately odd word, experimental.
So what's the experiment for Fun Machine? The title of the opening track is the album's mission statement: "slower." Fun Machine is an experiment in slow. What fast-tempo songs there are tend to be buffered on both ends by slower tracks. Melodies seem to loop forever before changing, and heavily-distorted guitar riffs echo off endlessly while the chords steadily plod away.
If you're willing to meet the album's languid pace, however, there's a lot to enjoy here. Fun Machine works incredibly well as an album; its songs are full of trailing endings which set up the next tracks well, or pauses which accent the arrival of a driving bass line. Instrumental tracks, which comprise half of the album, set up and space out the vocal ones perfectly. The winding, tweaked out guitar solos, which have gotten Dip called psychedelic before, never overstay their welcome or throw off the balance of a song. The pace isn't the only thing deliberate here; Dip has put a lot of care into making Fun Machine a coherent, fluid piece.
If there's a weak point to the album, it's the lyrics; they're predominately English and often don't make a whole lot of sense even when they're in Japanese. The opening track and "sunday dawning, sunday yawning" have some nice imagery, appropriately enough about being dragged under to dark places full of noise, but the majority of the language on Fun Machine is there for its melody and sound, not for its meaning.
Fans of heavy guitar, psychedelic guitar or both should definitely check out Fun Machine. Even if that's not typically your thing, it's worthwhile to give the album a listen through, or loop through the whole thing a few times, just to appreciate the flow. There's an amazing amount of method to Fun Machine's slow madness.
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