ulrich schnauss - goodbye

[Future Proof]

Woot, resurrecting dead threads ftw!

So yeah, I've been listening to this album alot. On the whole it's very good but there are some problematic spots in it. I think the most bothersome aspect is that the best song on the album imo (Stars) also suffers some production bloat. Especially when the song kicks into the chorus, it blurs out something terrible for a split second and at that moment you lose the timing of the track and the song's power gets bogged down when it should otherwise be hitting high gear. The obvious fix would've been to just mix the percussion higher, but more unforgiveable is that he let the delay, reverb and distorted pad hang out way too long.

And yes, US's Shoegazer love and influence has got to a point to where there's nothing really new here. That's been my biggest problem with US -- he has these brilliant moments where time and space seem to stand still, but then he has these moments where his songs so heavily invoke something done years ago that it ages the whole work entirely. It must suck being Halstead and Goswell, for half of his tracks are an honorable tribute to Slowdive and the other half always end up being a cheap imitation of them and Cocteau Twins, circa 1990.

[Lx_Nen]

Surprised to see so many people not enjoying this one, it's right up there with OWB for album of the year in my book. 'Stars' is simply amazing, as is 'Medusa'.

The 'promo' that was floating around the net had what Ulrich described as 'mastering issues', (I.E. he hadn't realised that he'd overcooked the reverbs quite so much) the finished product is quite a bit clearer, especially noticeable with 'stars' - maybe Future Proof and others had the rough version?

[taoyoyo]

i haven't heard the new album yet at all... i did hear a track on his myspace page a while back that wasn't that great.

i do have the first two albums though and if the slowdive ripoff comments are derived from those then i can see some influences but not nearly as severe and negative as suggested... i don't remember shoegaze bands being quite so into the electronics? (as in synth-based)

some of the first album reminds me more of early omd to be honest, especially in the use of melody.

[pw32]

really good album, not listened to it as many times as i would have wanted to yet though (need to put it on the old mp3 player pronto).

still not a patch on far away trains passing by though imo, definately my favourite of his 3 albums.