This first time I listened to this album, I was making pancakes. I burned them.
I think a lot of us tend to have music as part of our lives, not as a focus in our lives. What I mean by that is so many of us love music and love what it does for us, but I think we tend to take it a little for granted. A lot of the time our musical experiences tend to be less of a just sit down and enjoy and more of an ambiance we tote around. Music is the soundtrack to our lives, but it isn’t our lives.
Sometimes when I review albums, I like to listen the first time while doing something else. I do this with the knowledge that this is how a lot of other people listen to music, so this is how they’ll hear it (and to be fair, I am as guilty of this as anyone). I also do it because sometimes there are moments in the album, songs or lyrics or beats and what have you, that stick out to me and kind of force me to pay attention, so I make note of them. Sometimes this strategy is an abject failure, I’ll admit, but most of the time it is sound.
Found Things forces you to pay attention. It controls your brain without you even knowing it. The sounds are made in a way to act as if you are no longer in control of your own body or thoughts. The beats and the sounds are done at such a precise and intellectually stimulating way that you’ll find yourself with a spatula drumming on your sink until your smoke alarms go off and your Hungry Jack pancakes with blueberries are essentially ruined.
The alarm clock-esque beat of “window and wall” were the first thing I noticed. We have conditioned ourselves to pay attention when our alarm clock goes off, so it immediately caught me, maybe even slightly unfavorably (We have also conditioned ourselves that our alarm clock is evil and can go straight to hell. Okay, I have conditioned myself to that). I recovered once the body of the song and the build to the final beats finally kicked in. It was an interesting opening salvo in an album full of them.
But the point to this album isn’t the openings necessarily. It is how they open and what they become. The build in each song is such that it always starts a little ambient and slight, and then finishes in a flurry. All the while that opening tends to stick in your head the most. I think “2+2” and “how am i supposed to follow that” are the best examples, but that is how each song on the album builds. Each song takes you on a journey through noise and beats, then lets you catch your breath before it starts over.
I will close by saying that an album like this very likely won’t be for everyone. I hope that people come in and experience the album at least once, or I guess, let the album experience you. Given the opportunity, there is a good chance it will take control of you very quickly.
Click the banner to stream the album free, then buy it from Forged Artifacts Website
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