|
Van Der Sar
"Your Friends Are Knives" CDR
self-released
Genres: lo-fi, indie pop
November 2006 |
Hometaped lo-fi indie pop, mostly guitar, voice, drums and piano, are
the name of the game here, and Van Der Sar brings it with the
attention and care that such a project warrants. Unfortunately Your
Friends Are Knives suffers a bit from blandness, but as far as
bedroom pop goes, there is enough decent stuff here to garner a look. Aside from solemn "Gris et Nuageux" and pensive "Northern Ghost,"
these are predominantly guitar-based pop/rock songs - melody seems to
come pretty well to Van Der Sar, and his voice is solid albeit
unworthy of note. As can be expected, the
compositions are a bit unpolished - for example, "Actress" is a tad
stiff and unfilled. Still, a chorus like that of "Boiling Lakes" or
the uniqueness of "I am the only other person in this room" shows what
this songwriter is capable of. As a lo-fi nugget, this is a treat -
but some more practice writing music and a better studio could work
wonders for Van Der Sar. Promising.
myspace
70%
Fun Fact: This disc
(and others by Van Der Sar) are three bucks a crack through the
mail... sweet deal for some obscure lo-fi action.
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 8 tracks, 34:31,
distributed by
the
artist,
released 2005] |
