My Mad Music Corner: deepness of disorder

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Up Hold - Intersect Of Light & Dark

Other than going after other albums with Up Hold's non-album songs, like 10 Templates or the alternate soundtrack to Beck, I've pretty much found all of Up Hold's main releases-- I'll go after the CD/VHS combo single for Sight at some point, but it isn't going to get me any material I don't already have. All this EP really offers that's in any sense new, if you already have Deepness Of Disorder, is two B-sides smack dab in the middle: "Dimension" and "Signals", which sound like they'd fit right at home in the final cut of the album anyway.

The two songs that did make it to the album aren't very different; "Emotions" is the only one with a discernable difference, and that's just that the synth outro is a little longer. They aren't the best tracks on that album, either; I intentionally waited to upload those to YouTube so I could put up the whole EP there, but if this hadn't existed, these would've been among the last tracks I'd have considered uploading. Really, only get this if you've become an Up Hold completist... the B-sides on this are alright, but the material on Fork was overall more interesting.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Intersect Of Light & Dark

2. Dimension

3. Signals

4. Emotions

I assume this means they want demo tapes? I wonder how many bands sent something to them.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Up Hold - Deepness Of Disorder

When I wrote my initial wave of articles on Up Hold back in January, I had been able to find every Up Hold release on Buyee except this one, strangely enough. Back then, I had predicted that this album, their third and final, might end up sounding like the kind of radio-friendly nu metal that polluted American airwaves in 2002, the year of its release. I predicted this despite that I couldn't, in good conscience, totally consider Up Hold nu metal-- they were still a hardcore punk band with a few stylings of that genre thrown in, come their 2000 album Engine.

I was correct.

When I finally found this for purchase, it was on Amazon, and it took literally a month from initial payment to delivery. (EMS has spoiled me.) When I finally popped it in, I was horrified-- the band went drastically softer for the most part, in a way that screams "selling out" more than it does "maturing sound", and of my days collecting Japanese music, this has easily become the most disappointing experience I've had with an album from a band I really like.

However, as I went through a few selected songs on here, transcribing their lyrics for my typical YouTube upload, I focused more on the sound of this album, and it began to grow a bit on me. I don't know if I'd say I like it as an album, but there are definitely spots I do like. But in any case, this album is the least good of Up Hold's entire discography, and what makes that claim sad for me is that this was their last full album. Their occasional forays into their older sound make for some of the better songs here, but the one notable example, "Sign", blatantly copies its intro directly from "A Man Shaped Box" off of their first album Water. There are a few tracks where this softer style is actually taken into some interesting directions, including "Programmed", easily my favorite song on here, but that's the exception, not the rule.

My overall recommendation would be to try and find this if you're curious, or wishing to complete a collection of this band, but otherwise, stick with every release before this one. On a related note, my copy of the Intersect Of Light & Dark single/EP has yet to arrive, but two of the songs on here are from that release, and they aren't by any means favorites here. Alas, I will get around to posting about them shortly after that shipment comes in.