Morsel
Artist: Sonic Kollage
Label: Self Released
URL: http://www.chalice.gen.nz/sonickollage/
Time: 8 Tracks/36:01 min.
Sonic Kollage is a band of three young (17, 19 and 21) Christian men from New Zealand creating what could be classified as modern rock. The songs range from a slight rap/hip-hop style vocal delivery over distorted guitar to ballads. Although it says on their home-page that the songs were recorded with a Soundblaster®, the production is clear, albeit very "indie" sounding.
Morsels's strong points are good bass lines and guitar soloing, and some nice musical interludes interspersed throughout the disc. The main weakness is an awkwardness in both song- writing and playing that affects most of the songs at some point. The exceptions are "You've Changed", which is a slower song with a heavier musical interlude in the middle, and the last song, "No. 8", which is a peaceful, almost atmospheric bass instrumental with a touch of keyboards. A word of warning; the nice mood "No. 8" leaves you with is soon spoiled by an annoying high pitch whine which attacks the listener after a few seconds of silence.
Judging by the lyrics, the bands main audience seems to be Christians. Most songs deal with believers' day to day struggles to live for Christ. Straying from this, the song "You've Changed" focuses on the author's desire for a certain individual to see the love God has for them, and the sorrow experienced as he sees this person living a life of pain.
They haven't arrived to the big time yet, but Sonic Kollage have some good ideas, and could go places with time and maturity.
Chris King (10/26/98)
If you visit Sonic Kollage's website you'll see that the guys claim influences by the likes of Dream Theater, Galactic Cowboys, and Tourniquet, among others. Frankly, I don't hear it, aside from some recent Tourniquet sounds (especially the Carry the Wounded EP) in the technical rock/metal guitars. Once you get past any expectations, however, there is some very interesting and unique, if very indie, prog-metal/rapcore to be found on Morsel.
The unfortunate thing about the album is the production, which is weird in a bad way. It appears they recorded the album on a computer with a Soundblaster card, which makes it sound strangely digitalized and flimsy, with an annoying spacy echo, like an old unmastered Frank's Enemy tape. Of course finances are often a big problem, but next time they should try to do it the old-fashioned way and use a real studio.
The music is pretty cool, though, when you get used to the production. The guys are into noodling on their instruments for sure, implementing techniques from prog, technical metal, classical, funk, and so on. Some of this could be really heavy if the production allowed it, although the mathematical riffs and leads take precedence most of the time. Vocals switch from a not-so-hot singing voice to a not-so-hot rapcore style, which takes some getting used to (maybe New Zealand is just plagued by bad vocals in general, since other bands from there seem to have the same problem). Most of the lyrics are straight Christian stuff directed at God, spoken from first person, or directed to unbelievers, but some of the choruses are catchy in an awkward prog/rap sort of way.
With more experience, vocal lessons, and real production, Sonic Kollage would be a hot import. Right now, they're just an intriguing, definitely original band for those used to very limited recording budgets.
By Josh Spencer (12/6/98)
