Your Audio 2 Riot - Outsider Musician (Mastered)

Hear The Track Here

Just in case you were preparing to flee for your lives, let me just confirm that this is indeed the very same Patrick Lew who - over the space of around ten tracks - has managed to baffle, annoy, anger and irritate me in equal measure. Not in a good way either, unfortunately. Now I am all for championing difference and, for certain things, stretching musical rules to make a point. I'm also well known for championing musicians who don't have a lot in the way of recording kit (hence everything is lo-fi) so long as the ideas and music make sense in some way. Do please note my use of italics there because it's important later on. Patrick professes to be a grunge musician which obviously means a certain level of noise but not, I would hope, a total lack of musical sense or reason. This, of course, is age old history between Patrick and I, we agree on disagreeing with each other about what this is all about. That's OK, Soundclick is a very big tent and there is room for everybody. So obviously I've raised a lot of anger from him in various ways, and obviously its not something I WANT to do, but truth is truth.

Some congratulations are in order though because Patrick upped and got married since we last saw him AND inducted the wife into the band. So say hello to Faith Tanner who appears on this track 'about deviant alienated musicians trying to get revenge' Revenge of the best kind would be making a track that would blow ALL of his critics away and I got to say, I live in hope. Anyway, in the meantime we have Outsider Musician and presumably the (mastered) appellation means that this is not some garage/bedroom/closet recording from hell - this musicians usual method. Well, sad to say that although it is somewhat cleaner than previous tracks, it's still as rough as a newly sawn plank mainly because you have instruments cutting across each other without so much as a thought. All of which many more reviewers than me will testify that this is indeed Patrick's 'trademark' sound and style.

'I am a very troubled guy so that's why I took your reviews personally in my past' he told me when he asked me to review this track, to which I have to reply that you CAN'T take reviews personally otherwise you'll go nuts. If I feel that someone is right in their criticism, I will do something about it, if I don't I will just ignore it. Ultimately that's what this is all about, self choice and self control. Just because I, and a great many others, say the same thing time after time after time, it doesn't make it right, which I believe is Patrick's stance on this. Well, yes to an extent. It doesn't detract from the fact that Patrick's music is still chaotic, rough, out of time/tune with a vocal that doesn't fit in where it should and does fit in where it shouldn't. All very Patrick Lew. So, ya pays your money, and you take your choices.

Me, I'll just keep a wary eye on him.