Toothfairy - Does not work well with reality

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Toothfairy - Does Not Work Well With Reality

Artist:	Toothfairy
Title:	Does Not Work Well With Reality
Label:	Noiseville #56
Length(s):	70 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2006
Month of review:	[07/2008]

Line up

Jim Gibson - pretty much anything, but..
Alana Felton - voice on 1

Tracks

1)	Omni-Present Grip Of Reality	1.30
2)	Great Trains That Crashed	4.23
3)	Clarabell's Redundant Nature Pt 1	1.39
4)	West Mountain	4.08
5)	Clarabell's Redundant Nature Pt 2	0.49
6)	An Angel Cometh	2.55
7)	Clarabell's Redundant Nature Pt 3	2.01
8)	McMansion On The Hill	4.16
9)	The Gates Have Closed	4.38
10)	Nothing To Recognize	4.40
11)	Clarabell's Redundant Nature Pt 4	1.16
12)	Funny Thing Is I'm Grey	6.10
13)	Vauxhall Infusion	7.34
14)	Clarabell's Redundant Nature Pt 5	1.03
15)	Praises Be To The Bog	6.36
16)	The Dancing Bones	4.23
17)	Clarabell's Redundant Nature Pt 6	0.28
18)	Bad Choices	4.46
19)	Clarabel'ls Redundant Nature Pt 7	0.59
20)	The Last Station	5.57

Summary

The music

I don't expect anybody to be surprised at the fact that a release on Noiseville sounds sort of noisy. A number of the tracks on this album have both a loopy and noisy quality, even. Whereas some of these tracks sound experimental mostly, a number sound downright trippy, what some might describe as heroin music.

Even though the trippy and noisy tracks might be something of an acquired taste, they do have merit. Sort of. Apart from this, however, we get a number of songs that are mostly psychedelic singer songwriter tracks. Apart from the occasional keyboard to set the atmosphere, these are mostly acoustic guitar with significantly lackluster vocals, and some of those ever-feared drummachines thrown in for good measure. These tracks remind me a bit of the independent releases of guitarist Rick Ray, including the lo-fi aspects. RHCP's John Frusciante has done some solo material which has the same tendencies, too, excluding the lo-fi aspects. It should be said, though, that Gibson at least manages to steer his gravelly voice through the intended melodies without too much damage, which cannot be said for Ray

Then there's the odd tracks, where we hear the use of vocoders, funny lyrics and sounds and other doodling. Which once again brings up the old question: does humor belong in music? As the album's end draws the near, the band go off the edge completely, leaving me with nothing but surprise. We are left with trippy experiment.

Conclusion

Toothfairy are a bit weird and make no attempt at hiding it. This in itself is not a problem. The way this weirdness is applied to the music, however, makes it that. It has resulted in yet another release of which I don't really doubt the makers having had fun in the process of recording, but feel left out of it as a listener. Sort of like when you're watching a group of people who have the laughs: they think everything is funny, you only feel surprise. From this approach stems an album the majority of tracks just goes by without hitting home. Or anything at all, really. So to answer the question asked at the start of the album: no, I do not believe in the toothfairy.