TISHINA POSLE VSPLESKA

'Tishina Posle Vspleska' - Senmuth (3/10)

Russian for 'Silence After A Splash', 'Tishina Posle Vspleska' shows Senmuth revisiting some of his older material, and letting other artists and fellow musicians add their contributions to it. All vocalists here, there are some voices here that a Senmuth listener will find familiar, and a few that are fresh. Keeping in mind that a fair portion of the songs here are revisions on existing Senmuth songs, the validity of 'Tishina Posle Vspleska' should be mostly based on how well the vocal renditions have been executed. Unfortunately, the actual effectiveness of each vocal performance varies from good, to pretty terrible.

Anyone who has kept up with Senmuth for a while should see that Senmuth generally works quite well when collaborating with other musicians. This makes an album that is solely comprised of collaborations quite a promising prospect. However, the album generally fails to deliver the goods, instead taking previously instrumental tracks ('Morning Depth', most notably) and adding singing that-more often than not- offers little to the enjoyment of the music. In terms of the singing itself, there is a great variety of singing here, which also means that there is a large range in how successful the singers are. While none of the singers are particularly impressive, some manage to take the poetic sibilance of the Russian language and give a pleasant addition to the music. This is more of an exception than a rule however.

Most disappointing here is the actual addition of 'rapping' vocals, which are- quite frankly- bad to the point of being laughable. While I am a casual fan of some of the better Hip-Hop out there, the rapping here sounds ridiculous and childish, and takes the cake of being the worst vocal delivery here, although some of the more pop-oriented vocals also really fail.

That being said, this is an interesting idea for Senmuth to add some vocals (read: human touch) to some of his songs, and some of the songs (particularly the rendition of 'Morning Depth' and the cleanly-sung parts of the album's closer) do benefit from this fresh perspective. As it is however, the album has too many laughably bad vocal contributions to be worth recommending.

This is an unfortunately failed attempt by Senmuth to release a collaboration album and make something different. I have to say that I have struggled more than usually to reach the end of the album at the first listen, and the second wasn't easier.

I'm relistening to it for the third time while I'm writing. In general three listens may be too few for a review, but my impressions are not changing.

The first track sounds like a Russian version of Linkin Park, the second is a little better. If you like growl I think this "BlackWorm" is a good growler, but on a so slow and melodic theme it appears outplaced. Track 3 is another "Russian Park" skippable song. Track 4 is not bad, instead. It's close to NeNasty, a Senmuth's side project that was rejected by the prog-metal team with the motivation that they sound like Lacuna Coil. I like Lacuna Coil and I'm not ashamed, also Evanescence, so I don't dislike this. "Majestic Leaving" is a classic Senmuth's track even if not one of the best. Let's save this one ....and let's skip the following. I think I don't like "Novocaine"'s singing. Track 7 features a good female voice, but the song is nothing special. Just dark electropop. Track 8 wouldn't be so bad if instrumental only. Track 9 is unusual for Senmuth. The acoustic guitar is good but the electronic drumming sounds like pop/dance stuff. An error of production, maybe.

Track 9 is the alternative version of Track 6. Not so bad as the Novocaine version is. This version is listenable. Track 10 (alternative version of track 1) doesn't acquire more taste respect to the other version, but at least it doesn't sound like Linkin Park. Let me clarify that it's not that I think that Linkin Park are absolutely bad. It's that if I want to hear them I don't put on Senmuth and vice.versa. I've been unable to understtand what the girl says in Spanish at the end apart of few words, too fast for me.

There's no sense in skipping an album that's offered for download for free, but if you have disk space issues this is something you can give up to. The less interesting Senmuth's work that I've listened to until now.