Interesting at first. Not a bad sound if it were only done sporadically. It's catchy pop metal. But all the songs have the same formula. The basic limitation here is that the presentation is not only pop, it's nu-metal. Granted it's not gangsta crap. He's not trying to sound hard. He doesn't come off like a Pimp Daddy angry at life. "Ya know, pimpin ain't easy. " But his emotional expressiveness is limited by the predictable rap cadence.
Since he raps/yaps on every song, all the songs share the same limited melodic line. Fortunately the girls add passion and actual vocal chops while what sounds like uncredited keyboards decorate gothic touches around the edges. That's a most welcome bit of orchestration to the pop puree. That and the fashion sensibility kept my interest longer than the songwriting warranted. Since I don't understand Russian I may be selling his lyrics short. Perhaps he's saying something clever and worthwhile. Unfortunately I find the vocal style to be juvenile!
I agree with ebear and well, you too. There's a lot of formulaic here, but the mixing in of trancey/techno shit really works, and her voice is definitely exceptional. I used to play bass in a sort-of-metal band and my fellow bandmates used to listen to this kind of metal, especially the Scandinavian stuff with the operatic female vocals so I know where this kind of stuff is coming from. I never really liked that kind of stuff but I can appreciate it from a musical point of view. I guess one of the reasons I left the band (apart from it being not my thing) was this pseudo-pretentious desire to gratuitously add 'harmonies' all the time. I prefer my music raw - that doesn't mean I don't like electronica, far from it, I just think it should be done with a little finesse...
So a lot of this band is, yeah, a bit overdone, but at the same time they are clearly very good musicians, and I appreciate the helping out the scene stuff. It's not the kind of stuff I would go out of my way to listen to, but this or that song now and again in a club or pub or whatever would be very welcome.
Mind you - I have just listened to the Life on Venus set, so anything after that is going to sound inferior lol!
But still - thank you very much ebear for this set - I really appreciate being able to absorb something new and different...
Hey Billy! Slot is actually the only metal (or whatever it's called these days) band I really follow. I agree, they're a bit formulaic, but after 21 years of grinding out tunes that's probably inevitable. The main attraction for me is Nookie's vocals. I'll be featuring her a bit later as she's done solo work plus guest appearances in a number of other bands.
I think the keyboards are done by someone in the group. The reason they're not credited (I believe) is that they don't have keyboards on stage when they're live - just as a backing track. That means the drummer has to follow a beat track, which is difficult because drummers tend to set the beat not follow it. We used to frown on that in my day (80's/90's) but nearly everyone does it now and I understand why. Adding a keyboard player ups the number of band members which complicates an already complicated undertaking, so why bother if they're not central to the music? Most Russian musicians have formal training and can play keyboards, so it's logical to do it that way I guess. You'd have to ask them about it though, that's just my opinion.
Nookie really makes the band IMO, but since Kash was a founding member and writes a lot of the material, you can't really do without him. Nookie's been called the 'Queen of Rock' or something like that, and has won a bunch of awards. To her credit, some of the bands she appears in are 2nd tier, and I'm sure she does that to give them a lift since fans will show up for her alone. That's supporting the craft and is part of the reason I described Slot as non-pretentious. It's a small community in Russia, so helping each other out is a big part of the scene.
I'm going to shift gears and feature some Tajik and Uzbek artists next. The idea is to feature as wide a range of artists as possible over different genres. Hopefully that will attract some new listeners as I realize not everyone wants to hear rock, pop or metal.
In Russia, Rock rolls you.
Lady has pipes and appeal on par with Shirley Manson / Garbage. I like the male accompaniment vocals too.
Interesting at first. Not a bad sound if it were only done sporadically. It's catchy pop metal. But all the songs have the same formula. The basic limitation here is that the presentation is not only pop, it's nu-metal. Granted it's not gangsta crap. He's not trying to sound hard. He doesn't come off like a Pimp Daddy angry at life. "Ya know, pimpin ain't easy. " But his emotional expressiveness is limited by the predictable rap cadence.
Since he raps/yaps on every song, all the songs share the same limited melodic line. Fortunately the girls add passion and actual vocal chops while what sounds like uncredited keyboards decorate gothic touches around the edges. That's a most welcome bit of orchestration to the pop puree. That and the fashion sensibility kept my interest longer than the songwriting warranted. Since I don't understand Russian I may be selling his lyrics short. Perhaps he's saying something clever and worthwhile. Unfortunately I find the vocal style to be juvenile!
I agree with ebear and well, you too. There's a lot of formulaic here, but the mixing in of trancey/techno shit really works, and her voice is definitely exceptional. I used to play bass in a sort-of-metal band and my fellow bandmates used to listen to this kind of metal, especially the Scandinavian stuff with the operatic female vocals so I know where this kind of stuff is coming from. I never really liked that kind of stuff but I can appreciate it from a musical point of view. I guess one of the reasons I left the band (apart from it being not my thing) was this pseudo-pretentious desire to gratuitously add 'harmonies' all the time. I prefer my music raw - that doesn't mean I don't like electronica, far from it, I just think it should be done with a little finesse...
So a lot of this band is, yeah, a bit overdone, but at the same time they are clearly very good musicians, and I appreciate the helping out the scene stuff. It's not the kind of stuff I would go out of my way to listen to, but this or that song now and again in a club or pub or whatever would be very welcome.
Mind you - I have just listened to the Life on Venus set, so anything after that is going to sound inferior lol!
But still - thank you very much ebear for this set - I really appreciate being able to absorb something new and different...
Hey Billy! Slot is actually the only metal (or whatever it's called these days) band I really follow. I agree, they're a bit formulaic, but after 21 years of grinding out tunes that's probably inevitable. The main attraction for me is Nookie's vocals. I'll be featuring her a bit later as she's done solo work plus guest appearances in a number of other bands.
I think the keyboards are done by someone in the group. The reason they're not credited (I believe) is that they don't have keyboards on stage when they're live - just as a backing track. That means the drummer has to follow a beat track, which is difficult because drummers tend to set the beat not follow it. We used to frown on that in my day (80's/90's) but nearly everyone does it now and I understand why. Adding a keyboard player ups the number of band members which complicates an already complicated undertaking, so why bother if they're not central to the music? Most Russian musicians have formal training and can play keyboards, so it's logical to do it that way I guess. You'd have to ask them about it though, that's just my opinion.
Nookie really makes the band IMO, but since Kash was a founding member and writes a lot of the material, you can't really do without him. Nookie's been called the 'Queen of Rock' or something like that, and has won a bunch of awards. To her credit, some of the bands she appears in are 2nd tier, and I'm sure she does that to give them a lift since fans will show up for her alone. That's supporting the craft and is part of the reason I described Slot as non-pretentious. It's a small community in Russia, so helping each other out is a big part of the scene.
I'm going to shift gears and feature some Tajik and Uzbek artists next. The idea is to feature as wide a range of artists as possible over different genres. Hopefully that will attract some new listeners as I realize not everyone wants to hear rock, pop or metal.