Crystal Mass (Tear Garden)

"Michael Holloway" <futurepet@hotmail.com>

Four years later and at last, the much anticipated (and much delayed)new
Tear Garden album is here. But don't expect the soft lushness of To Be An
Angel on this new disc. There's a lot more electronics here, acting as
textures and loops and noises (think Cyberspider). But beneath these
layers
of Cevin-Key-Wisdom, the basic song structure is very similar to To Be An
Angel after all -- dry percussion, slide guitar, thick bass.
But the songwriting suffers from a problem that previous Tear Garden
releases never had -- it's too basic. Beyond a small handful of truly
wonderful songs (the opening Lament, Desert Island Disc, and the utterly
beautiful Castaway) the rest of the music too often verges on being
stagnant
and boring. Sure, it *sounds* great -- the production is top-notch, and
the
level of layering is often beyond beleif. But the musical themes seem to
have been forgotten behind the rest of the sound-collage. This disc has
too
many songs without a chorus, without even a chord progression -- they are
just long sequences of the same two-note bassline over and over again,
with
added noises and Edward's voice. It's fun, it's textured, it's good
listening -- but it's not great Tear Garden. If one-chord loops are your
idea of good music, then enjoy, but I'll be more likely to throw on To Be
An
Angel or Last Man...

Johnny Wohlfahrt <nervesandgel@yahoo.com>

well i rushed to the store at 10a.m. to pick up a new
cd and was i dissapointed with the results. don't get
me wrong i'm a huge lpd fan, and although i'm not to
fond of skinny puppy, cevin keys music for cats is one
of my favorite cds. i listen to crystal mass about 15
times today to try to like it, and it never worked so
i did give it a chance. i relize that bands have bad
jam sessions but do they have to release it???? i do
enjoy track 2 but out of 9 songs thats pretty
pathetic.

"Seth Durbin" <sethad@hotmail.com>

Thought I'd share a little late thoughts regarding Crystal Mass + its
artwork.

The music is okay, not paricularly inspired, very eighties synthy to me. I
need a few more listens, maybe it will grow on me.

The whole package is sloppy and badly produced. It looks to me like the
Nettwerk people really didn't give a shit about the project. They
probably
assumed that they'd sell x amount of units and no effort or money they
throw
at it will increase sales at all.

>It's just plain UGLY!

The cover is extremely ugly, I'd like to see the photo before the
production
artist and printer murdered it. Why is there no credit to the designer?

>I think we just expect a little more from Key & Kaspel than a toss-off
>cover.
>And where are the damn lyrics???? Argh.

Do Edward + co. care about packages at all?

It doesn't really look like it to me.

Jon Whitney

Like a few releases recently, I had to take my time with this one for it to make sense to me. I had to figure out what made me like and dislike the album all at the same time. The reason that makes the most sense to me is this: the members of both the LPD and Download camps have become excellent writers while the excecution of the recordings seem entirely too rushed and careless. The lyrics and instrument playing have both become more developed than ever while the choices of tempo and instrumentation leaves much to be desired. It seems as if there wasn't enough thought involved. I hear the songs on 'Crystal Mass' and imagine some of them slowed down, sound effects added in, color added or various other things. For the most part this disc sounds rather bland while the writing is great. It's heartbreaking as it seems like you're watching a gifted young child surrounded by negative reinforcement. Even more disturbing than this is the lack of care in quality control. Can't figure out who's to blame on this - the band, the engineer, the master or the record company. 9 songs appear on 8 tracks, there's two songs sharing track 3, but lyrics of each song suggest something completely out of order from the printed track list. The only song that I can positively identify is track 1, which is strangely the only track title written in ALL CAPS (possibly suggesting it's not of the 8 tracks all listed below it). Confused???! My favorite song, "Lament" opens the disc in a stunning piece which echoes "I Am the Way, the Truth, the Light" (from LPD's Asylum) in an almost retro-80s pop style, continuing on, songs almost pierce the ears with bland adult contemporary pop-rock feel. One even summoning up old memories of "Sultans of Swing" from Dire Straits. Another gem on the album I thought was originally "Her Majesty's Trusted Food Taster" seems like it's actually "Castaway" as the lyrics make more sense being part of that 2-song track earlier on the disc. I'm all screwed up, somebody please correct this. Can we start again? Leave track 1 in though... - Jon Whitney

Joemarciano1229@aol.com

Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 06:53:15 EST

OK i should first start by saying the thing that attracted me to Edward was his lyrics. I'm a writer so any music i listen to the lyrics seem to be
the most important to me. so mind you this review is totally from a
writers perspective. i admit i know nothing about instruments or how to make
sounds.

my friend came from Chicago bringing the "crystal mass" which i wasn't
able to get on my own because i spend all of my money on alcohol and other
things but anyways. she put it in and I'm sure (as most people that are
fans of Edward and key) expected the un-expectable well i gave it a few
listenings. i thought this is an album that could be played to people that
have no idea who these cats are and they would love it. the lyrics are
awful but something that someone would hear while junked up or balls blown by
LSD. and the music was very basic and they didn't seem to drift off into some
insane introspective landscape. and there was so surprisimg ending that
gave a twisted galvanization. so i didn't enjoy it as i did most of the
projects that Ed and cEvin have done but my friend from Chicago who's not so
familiar with them loved it. perhaps they would like to get someplace that we (the
fans the ones that loved them from day one) can not go to.

i loved Edward when he couldn't pronounce his "R's" =*( , dont ya
just miss our old twisted insane friend that put us in a haunting Zen at night?
well forget it its all over. if you love eddy then don't get this album only
get it if you'd like to turn on a friend. i read the reviews before i heard
and i thought "hey they are so wrong i bet its great" well guess what all the
cats that reviewed this before me are right its awful the art is like that of
which you'd create for an album cover if you were 11 icky icky and the lyrics
are not as they were when that was all that Ed had to rely on and the sound
isn't that of key when he was creating unheard of stuff that bent our minds
well enough is enough go and get it, just so you can have the whole collection but i bet the last man or an angel blind will out weigh this when your CD player is hungry for a teargarden album it is as useless as black orchids or what ever that "best of" album is called OK well enjoy and ill

see ya next.

the deviant jah-sephia

Premonition16@aol.com

Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 10:48:56 EST

I just wanted to say that I COMPLETELY disagree with the other reviewers
of this fantastic album, Having been a collector and admirer of all things
Pink Dots since 1991, I'd have to say that this album is right on par with
"Last Man To Fly", as the best Tear Garden album out. I think the other
"Critics" are looking for way to much, or were hoping for to much. "Desert Island
Disc", has some of the most wonderful music and lyrics ever committed to
tape by a band ever. "Hopeful" is short and brilliant...VERY visual lyrics for
that one. The merge into "Her Majesty's Trusted Food Taster", is
completely unexpected, yet welcome. I noticed that the ending of "To Mourn the Death of Colour" seems to have been re-done from the ending riff of "red Rock" from
Ka-Spel's "Red Letters" CD....I also hear some of Martijn's Solo CD "Flow" in
a lot of this release, though not in sound, but in spirit...A gorgeous album
that completely misses the point on people that are looking for something that they shouldn't be..Phil told me at a show that The Tear Garden WILL be touring soon, so I will sit, with tired eyes, and wait for the tour of a lifetime, at least for me.....

<xonxone@hotmail.com>

Date sent: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 14:44:36 -0000

i must say i am quite baffled by the some of the reviews so far. i've been
enjoying 'crystal mass' for almost 3 months now and as far as i'm
concerned, it was easily the best album of 2000, even better than 'a perfect
mystery'.

definitely a worthy successor to the masterpiece known as 'to be an angel
blind'. granted, the track problems and overall packaging were
disappointing, but the actual *music* on the disc is absolutely brilliant.
i don't understand how long-time fans are turned off by the limited chord
progression and two-note song structures, as a good deal of the pink dots'
catalogue and even an album like 'last man to fly' has a lot of this kind
of repetitive, droning, entrancing music that is by turns playful and truly
haunting. after many years and many releases i think that this kind of
music put out by the ka-spel/lpd camp is showing maturity and grace. overall
this disc is much richer and more satisfying to my ears than 'last man to fly'.
this music is simply intoxicating. on 'crystal mass' the genius of
ka-spel's songwriting is in top form. yes, he is pronouncing his r's a bit more *g*,
and his voice is much fuller and more powerful than on previous releases.
some may be disturbed by the 'adult contemporary pop-rock feel' (what!?)
of some of the disc's more pop-oriented tunes, but i like the way that this
music moves so deftly, subtley changing from easy-listening to truly
successful experimentation and psychedelia. one minute you're humming
along to the happy 'hopeful', and before you know it you're being held captive
by 'to mourn the death of colour'. beautiful. chilling. i am in love with
this cd!