review by overplay.com, uk."Dirty Martini rock" is how New Yorks Elliott Carlson Botero describes his sound. And with a background in Colombia and Brazil as well as the US; a stint on guitar in Grammy winners Los Bacilos and a masterful command of his G4 Mac, these tracks certainly make for a heady cocktail of blues, rock, latin rhythms and electronic bite. Politics, romance, spaghetti western theatricals: theyre all approached with energy, ingenuity and charm.
The opening track is short, sharp and bristling with clanging beats and Dubya samples. Highly original, but you quickly learn to expect the unexpected here as the next three tunes deliver, in turn, ramshackle mechanised sleaze; ambient dreaminess jostling for room against an Oasis-style wall-of-sound; and sinister, low-slung funk that manages to simultaneously evoke Pink Floyd and Kid Creole to dazzling effect.
Following this, were into a sidewinding techno blues groove akin to Alabama 3; then a very fine example of what can only be described as Sergio Leone ska. With a great pop hook and swaggering menace, it deserves to be a huge hit single. After all, its about time there was an international chart-topper with pummelling flamenco solo.
Theres a fine line in spacey, unsentimental power ballads here, too. Casually strewn around the latter half of the album, these tracks take what would potentially be schmaltz in the hands of Bon Jovi and turn it into nuggets of sloping funk, high-tech jazz and classy experimentation complete with sampled childrens voices, heartbeats and frazzled rhymes. But in the end, the final two tracks bring back the invigorating weirdness of the albums openers. One marries demented vocals with swaggering wah wah; while the other takes a spaced-out, bleepy ride into a skyscraping metal finale. But for all his diversity, everything is tied together beautifully with the kind of passion that lies at the heart of ecbs latin music background. Hes working in a bar right now, but by the sound of this, it wont be for very much longer.
by overplay
|
review by the hours, uk.Elliott Carlson
Demo/EP
Okay, so this guy really wanted us to review this and has gone to loads of
effort to present it well and get it shipped over at great expense. I like it
for the DIY element- recorded in his house and self-released, but not
really my
kinda style. He describes it as dirty martini rock, guitar driven indie with
electronica, so thats probably a better guide than me trying to describe it.
Although I will say there are some really strange bits of audio, mainly clips
from news broadcasts and the like. Very surreal. Anyway, he seems to be
popular and a nice guy, so buy this if it sounds like your kind of
thing. (12oh5)
ECB Productions - www.broadjam.com/ecb
Its going to be appearing in issue 13 of the zine, which is out May 15th.
http://www.lasthours.org.uk/
thanks alot,
edd
|
review by debunk zine, uk.Elliott Carlson Botero - ECB
I've had real problems reviewing this CD. Some CDs you put on, and the words
flows staright away, others such as this take play after play before
even a few
words enter your head.
This is Indie music with a twist. For a start it doesn't bored the
fuck out of
me. It has enough twists and turns to keep me entertained the whole way
through this CD. From your jangly muffeled distorted guitars, to your lightly
strummed acoustic guitar. Your pearl export drum kit to your "Sit
infront of a
computer and program your own drum tracks". And your widdly solos to bottle
neck country slides. Elliott's voice is nice on the ears, he prenounces his
words properly, but I feel over uses samples in some songs. To put it bluntly
its music you mother, and even you grandmother could appreciate, and by the
look of his photo he's a mighty good looking bloke too.
Im sure i've heard track 6 (So right) somewhere before too, maybe the radio?
Mafro
www.debunkzine.co.uk
|