SUBAUDITION – The Scope
Auerbach Tonträger–4 039053 301525– April 21st 2006
By Dan Fisher
’Imagine a spring morning, how the mist intoxicates you as you walk towards the lake shore. The water surface isn’t covered but with a mere inch of ice. You think to yourself that any morning now the ice will be gone, the waters will be flowing boundlessly. As you inhale the cool spring air once again, you realise that the answer has been in plain sight all along – a moment of release.’
The quote above is from
Subaudition head honcho Antti Korpinen, who was asked to describe the ghostly images conjured by the music on this album. Notice the poetic language that renders the artist as possessing a very open soul. This immediately captured this reviewer’s attention. He seems to be taking a look at a world that is in a state of flux, where new things are being born while others perish. Using ethereal pianos blended with acoustic guitars, saxophones, keyboards and vocals, Antti and his partner in crime Roope Niemelä tread a tender path through the cyclical nature of humanity. A lofty ambition indeed. But does the album live up to this description?
If I was to sum up this album in one phrase it would be ‘hit and miss’. It’s true that in some respects they have achieved an all enveloping sound that is, at times, incredibly moving. But all too often there are a number of factors that let
The Scope down. First the production is substandard (pun intended) in the majority of the songs. Simple things such as bad tuning between the guitar and piano, ambience (or lack of) that made certain parts stick out like a sore thumb, poorly mixed vocals and even mistakes! Now on something like a punk album, I could forgive these points for being part of the band’s ethos; the I-don’t-give-a-shit-fuck-the-man attitude. But when you’re recording an incredibly sensitive acoustic album you don’t want to hear bum notes!
Tenhi, consider this a warning to you too. Another element that grates on my enormous beard is the way some of the songs seem to stop abruptly. It’s as if the band was in the studio recording and someone suddenly came in and said: ‘Whoa there guys. Can’t go over three minutes, twenty seven seconds. It’ll cost you if you do.’ Why would they do this on purpose? To this reviewer it smacks of sloppy structural planning of the songs, and if that’s the case then may Danny Filth do a turd through your mum’s letterbox.
Having said that, the album does have its highlights.
’Counterwise’ is a well crafted piece and
’No Angel’ uses some interesting spoken vocals that I wish were used more often throughout the album. However, I can’t help but think they need to use what they have learned here to build a more mature album in the future.
Subaudition are to be commended for offering heartfelt, delicate glimpses of beauty to the listener while taking them on a spectral glide around the work of
The Scope. I am interested to see where this band progresses but at present it’s hard to ignore their obvious shortcomings.
5/10
UM’s Review Rating Scale
Official SUBAUDITION Website
Official Prophecy Productions Website
