Decompose EP Review – a collaborative project

Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack and A Problem Like Maria get together

Music always played a major role in my life and most of the time, it was even more important than anyone else around me. Good? Bad? Who knows what’s good or not, all I know is that I still made it. Being so much into music for most of my life, I frequently get asked which is my favourite genre, favourite artist or band, album or song. It’s quite difficult to tell. Even though I’ve been following a very wide variety of music genres all this time, it’s impossible to say which my favourite is. I mean what defines a music genre? Some songs and albums are easy to determine under which genre to shelve them, but some not.

Music comes around in different noises, colours and sounds. While browsing through my endless list of unread emails, a macabre cover attracted my attention. An innocent looking girl with an axe in her hands, human remains underneath her, a hand from a death body holding her leg and the title, DECOMPOSE. So I clicked to expand the rest of the email and read more. Wonder of wonders! Contrary to what many believe, marketing still works in the music industry. Lady Gaga definitely answered that question a couple of times; she excels more in marketing than in music in my opinion. Decompose is a musical project between two solo artists:

Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack; a post-ambient, new wave, electrofunk, IDM-core solo artist from Denton, Texas. Thought Texas is more about Cowboys and cows, well that’s what the media portrays at least.

A Problem like Maria; a twee, pop, folk, R&B, hip hop, trip hop, experimental, electronic and dark solo artist from Metro Manila, Philippines. Phew, that was a list of genres!

A good mix of all of the above genres seems to produce an eight track EP called Decompose, which was released on the thirty first of October 2011. The EP is the soundtrack of a love story set during the zombie apocalypse, which is fashionably timed, considering we are in 2012, the apocalypse year. During this EP, we follow a heroine called Panic, as she fights and finds her way through the undead-infested city and back into the arms of the love of her life. Sounds kind of stereo type, doesn’t it? Not the music though; a very good mix of electronica, trip hop, gorgeous female vocals and amazing artwork.

The EP starts with a very dark and heavy ambient / industrial Roman Empire style sound, with quick bassy flat beat which is swiftly pushed into the background and a fast trip hop like beat and female vocals takes over. In th first track ‘Her Name Was Panic’ I also really like the short beat breaks with distorted and rotting piano melodies. An engaged telephone tone is the start of ‘Light A Fire’, the EP’s second track. A less fast beat, but more sophisticated accompanies a less panicked vocals; sublime, especially the bass beats. ‘Regret’ is like a quicky; industrial and distorted, yet still with a good end result. With computer like sounds, and anxious vocals, this track is a perfect introduction to the following instrumental track ‘Standstill’. Imagine a kind of transformation song, with sounds almost coming from underground, ready to develop into something more but they never do develop; stuck in the middle of an abyss. A simple sad melody is the perfect match for these sounds. And as the EP’s story is that of a love story, after the panic comes the dream and sense of achievement. And that’s what ‘Starting Tonight’ is all about; a dreamy like song you would want to listen when you’re finally relaxed and achieved the unachievable; time to reflect. The EP’s last track, which is also the title track feels like decomposing. Very dark, dreary but with lots of hope. It’s a good mixture of everything, if you know what I mean. The last two tracks are remixes of ‘Standstill’, the instrumental track; worth checking them out as well. So in this case, back to the first original question, what music genre should this album be shelved under?

Apart from the excellent music, one must also note that this album is the result of three months of online work. It is a very short time to create and produce something of this calibre. Also, online; people who do not meet face to face and sit down to discuss music and their ideas. Isn’t that fascinating!?!?!? The concept, melodies and lyrics of the album are all ‘A Problem Like Maria’ work while instrumentation, arrangements and perfect production were all done by ‘Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack’. My one and only let down from this collaborative project? Choose shorter stage names please…

Download the EP including artwork for FREE from http://decompose.bandcamp.com/

For more information about about the artists, please visit Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack Soundcloud page or A Problem Like Maria Soundcloud page.