The Death Set: Michel Poiccard
When I first looked at The Death Set‘s album, Michel Poiccard, I was dreading reviewing it. The cover art intrigued me but committing to reviewing a 17 track album is a big deal. Once I inserted the CD into iTunes and saw that it clocked in at just 35 minutes, I got remarkably more excited to review it.
For those non-math majors, that means that the average track length on the album is two minutes and about three seconds but what is intriguing is how the band fills those average 2:03. “Is That A French Dog?” clocks in at just over a minute and is a spoken word track about waking up in France. It is an odd surrealist piece that borders between art and humor. That track is followed by the album’s longest track, the four-and-a-half minute, “I Miss You Beau Velasco”. Despite being the longest song on the album it is probably also the best track on the album. The track is an energetic fuzzed out jam with some nice keyboards and dream-pop vocals.
But those two songs just represent a small portion of the styles of songs found on Michel Poiccard. “I Been Searching For This Song Called Fashion” sounds like Death From Above 1979 remixing The Dead Milkmen. The track has an electronic base but has the vocals of a snotty punk song. On the other hand, “Slap Slap Slap Pound Up Down Snap” is an electronic-tinged punk song that feels much closer to industrial groups like Gravity Kills.
I have to admit I prefer the Death Set’s more fuzzed-out punk stuff than their industrial or hardcore influenced music. Unfortunately the album is fairly split between the two styles; it gives the album as a whole a kind of disjointed feel with little consistency from one track to another. Which is too bad because the good songs on the album are very good but there is just not enough of them to pull it out of mediocrity.
Rating: 5.6/10
MP3: The Death Set “I Miss You Beau Velasco”
Buy: iTunes or Amazon
The Death Set: Michel Poiccard
