Sleutelbos - About a man who ended up rather badly...

Hear The Track Here

Considering Sleutelbos has a princely 115 tracks on his Soundclick page, it's surprising that I seem to have only reviewed a couple. Either that means this Dutch artist has been hoarding tracks and just now put them online or they have been online forever and I'm late to the party as usual. Still, it was always thus. Sleutelbos has been a bit of experience so far, veering from quasi-chamber music through musical jokes; and now - apparently - more alternative experimental. All of which makes this artist more than a tad difficult to pin down, but I suppose that's not really a bad thing eh?

Unless, of course, you really want to piss me off.... :D

Bearing that last statement in mind, now consider the fact that About a man... is somewhere in the vicinity of ten minutes long and you can maybe guess what my initial reaction was. Ten minutes of anything is a strain for most people, ten minutes of experimental music is a sure cure for insomnia in most parts of the world. Now before y'all start having conniptions and whatever, rest assured that Sleutelbos isn't really going to make it that difficult, About a man... is pretty familiar in all of its guises and - given it's length - quite listenable. Good grief, did I just write that out loud?

The secret, I think, is that the track is based in rock (despite its labelling) and is - in fact - very reminiscent of some of the eraly works by the Pink Floyd. Eh? Come again? Yep, Dark Side of the whatsname and all that and I have to say Sleutelbos has made a pretty good job of it. OK, so I wouldn't go around hawking monsters like this as a general rule, but if you like that era Floyd sound then you will find much to like about this track. Probably best to stay away from it though if you don't like obviously home produced stuff and/or have the attention span of Paris Hilton or her dog.

Not so badly after all. Recommended for the flashback.