Album Review – THE KISS THAT TOOK A TRIP – How The Mighty Have Fallen

Cheap And Pretentious ( Release date – Out now)

Music comes in many forms and I like to think I have an open mind when listening to something new for the first time, hence the reason I got involved with reviewing in the first place. Most music has some merit to it, hell even One Direction can set your toe tapping, but occasionally you find something like this disc which disproves the rule.

The Kiss That Took A Trip is a one man project, the brainchild of Spaniard M.D.Trello, who has written, recorded and produced the whole album. What he has produced is minimalist, ambient pap that has little musical merit whatsoever.

The opening track ‘Xenia, Ohio’ is low-fi, ambient noise. If you placed a digital recorder between your fridge and central heating boiler you would achieve much the same effect. Things don’t get much better on track two either, it is basically the same as track one but with what sounds like a free form jazz band playing in the next room.

There are ten tracks on the album and not one of them has a tune or melody between them. It is quite a feat to produce so much that contains so little. There are jazzy interludes with random piano runs and the odd guitar flurry ( or guitar ambiances as M.D prefers to call them) mixed in with electronic bleeps and burps that make no sense. I do like a musical challenge, but a bit of form is a must.

Another surprising fact is that this is the third album by The Kiss…, I assume that the previous releases were also solo efforts as I find it hard to believe that anyone else would get involved in this project. This is the work of a man who produces and releases ‘music’ for himself, I could see him entering this album for the Turner Prize as I see it as more of an art project from someone with pretentions of grandeur.

To return to my opening paragraph, music takes many forms and you can’t please all the people all the time. With this however I can’t see anyone taking pleasure from giving ‘How The Mighty Have Fallen’ a spin.

No matter how bad an album is I always try to find a positive when reviewing and I did eventually with this one. The way the light caught the disc as it arced through the air and into the bin was quite stunning!

Star Rating – are you joking ?

David Wilson

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)