Steve Gilmore Reviews: To Whom It May Concern

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Artist: To Whom It May Concern
Title: Like Killing Two Birds With One WMD

Given that I've known of this particular Soundclick artist for over a couple of years, I was quite surprised to discover that I'd only reviewed three of his tracks in all that time. I reviewed A Breath Of Fresh Water in October 2004 and immediately indentified him as one of Soundclicks 'experimental' artists although I did actually like that track, which given the genre is unusual in and of itself. A whole year later I reviewed V (October 2005) and liked that even more, despite its peculiarities (I described it as a cross of Pilesar and Big Ship if you can imagine such a car crash) but it took me some considerable plays to get to the point where I could actually pin it down. Not - however - as difficult to nail down as Rays Of Autumn Light (December 2005) which is a classically scored peice Brandon MacNeil (aka TWIMC) wrote and recorded with his local High School band...

Not one for standing still then, this artist....

Like Killing Two Birds... takes off on an entirely different route again to any of the tracks I have already spoken of. It's billed as being Electronic Industrial and that's pretty much an accurate description so if the genre doesn't interest you, best to stop reading right now. It isn't, as it happens, my favourite way of relaxing either but - to my ears - it's a bit more electronica than industrial so on that score it doesn't shred my hearing the way that most industrial tracks do and for that I say a hearty thanks to Brandon. Actually, its surprisingly musical considering the genre but still with its share of biscuit tin drums, I beam crashes, and all the speed and dash of a runaway locomotive. Because of my past experience with this artist I have learned to exercise a little caution when coming to a fresh track. I've found that it's always best to give this artist a much longer time to work its magic on you, and I suggest you do the same - this is not a one listen and you are hooked kind of track.

The real pull of this track - at least for me - comes from something it took me a considerable amount of plays to ferret out. Underneath all the sturm and drang of the genre, there is a really subtle musical process going on which comes from some sort of plucked keyboard line that isn't immediately apparent from a single play. That keyboard line informs the rest of the track and - for my money anyway - raises this slightly above other tracks in the genre. It's also yet another indication that TWIMC is not an artist to be taken at face value as I've discovered over the course of the last couple of years; there is a lot more going on under the bonnet than is immediately apparent. I am still waiting for the track from this artist that is going to be a crossover track for him but - on this showing - I get the feeling that it isn't all that far off.