The Operacycle - Warmer
(Hush)
Jordan Hudson is a lot like that kid in elementary school who you didn't really
like that much but every Saturday you begged and pleaded with your parents for
permission to go to his house just so you could take advantage of his huge
collection of toys. Hudson, on his debut album Warmer under the moniker The
Operacycle, uses a wide collection of instruments and soundmakers (28 are
listed on the liner notes), and the redeeming quality of the album is how
well he is able to use and mix these elements from his audio palette.
As a songwriter, however, Hudson is less skilled. The music he creates is
much like an algamation of the earthy live-instrument techno of IQU, the
junior post-rock experimentation of Pelé, and the basement groove of
Euphone (who also started as a one man band). Hudson's shortcomings as a
songwriter are he often relies much too much on repetition, and the short,
simple phrases he repeats are sometimes not very pretty or exciting. The
quality of this releases drops and drops as it progresses through its 63
minutes. The first four songs would make a decent debut EP, but as with a lot
of overly excited new acts on their first release, Hudson cannot resist the
urge to fill up as much space as possible. While I would not call much of
this filler, a lot of Warmer feels like ideas that were never fully realized,
missing an almost obvious extra layer (not to play armchair composer) that
would more fully round out the sound.
The first four songs, though, are pretty good. The opener, "Western," sounds
like its name, the acoustic guitar and drums sounding much like a Country and
Western song. The song has many other elements though, from bells and strings
that linger in the background to John Cougar-esque pop handclaps that carry
the second half of the song. The next song, "How to Walk Classically," also
sounds like its name, standard indie rock chamber orchestra fare, but well
conceived and well performed. "Malahat" centers on a repetitive electric
guitar part that is surrounded by an atmosphere of flute and keyboard notes.
While a lot of the album uses repetition poorly, sounding simple and paper thin,
here it is used well, the guitar part sounding meditative instead of
techno/dub-influenced. "Funerals" ends the worthwhile section of the album
with an organic techno song using rapidly played keyboards and the
kneeslapping punchline "I go to funerals."
After this point, it is hard to keep interest in the record. Some parts are
definitely better than others, but it is a struggle to make it through to
the end. The Operacycle definitely shows promise on this release with
Hudson's command of his instruments and the better parts of the album, but
overall he needs to either work more on developing his songs before he
records or just filter better what is good and what is plain. Like that kid
in elementary school, time could make Hudson more of a friend as he shows
more and more what he is capable of, but right now, if his parents do not buy
him the new video game system when it comes out, we will not be seeing very
much of each other.
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