Name With No Sound: Sweet Heartache

[Benjamin A. Vazquez U.E.]

Sweet Heartache

Artist: Name With No Sound
Album: Sweet Heartache
Year: 2009
CD#: 49071
Best Tracks: #1, #2, #3, #6, #7, #9, #10, #12
Comments Overall: Very mellow and calming. Long Tracks with melodic patterns repeated over and over.

1. Past Wanderings, 3:06 - Extraordinarily calming.
2. True Hard Feelings, 5:24 - Full bodied, rhythmic, you could dance to this one.
3. Receive & Perceive, 4:22 - Mystical, hints of an oriental feeling, lyrics start about halfway through: rhythmic.
4. Preserved Entropy, 2:25 - Very calming, swells and drops slowly, somewhat majestic.
5. Cryptid, 6:56 - Slow, persistant, unrelenting in its particulaur paradigm.
6. In the Clearing, 7:01 - Calming. It just keeps going and going without changing much. Very beautiful.
7. Tulpa, 3:14 - Much more energetic, pulsing, a few twangs here and there (in a good way, I swear)
8. Corn & Construction, 11:19 - Begins very energetically and almost rockish: changes a few minuites in to become much thiner, more longing, and serene.
9. Stigmatized, 9:23 - Much more energetic, regulaur beat, danceable, lively, slows down a bit towards the end.
10. Sweet Heartache, 3:06 - Energetic, active beat, the word "open" keeps running through my mind, although I can't quite say why.
11. Platforms, 8:42 - Slightly oriental in feel, regulaur beat.
12. Balance & Perspective, 6:09 - Lively and energetic, possibly the most "electronic" track on the C.D.
13. Bristow Crows, 1:56 - Humming throughout, very mellow, short track.

MySpace: www.myspace.com/namewithnosound
Mark Favro's Website: markfavro.com/markfavro.com/Mark_Favro.html

[Benjamin A. Vazquez U.E.]

"Sweet Heartache" is a thousand-and-one things. It's the perfect album to put on when you're chatting with friends about everything and nothing. It's the perfect album to put on when you're drifting off to sleep. It's the perfect album to put on when the world has you riled up and you need nothing more than something deeply calming. It's the perfect album to put on when you've got a six-hour drive ahead of you. But it's also the perfect album to put on when you want something sophisticated that can assume all your attention.

Best of all, it's a local product.

Warren Pratten and Mark Favro are both sons of members of the Nihilist Spasm Band, and they grew up in an environment infused with music. But the contrast between their father's band and their own couldn't possibly be greater. Their album is calming, mellow, and melodic.

The changes from track to track are just subtle enough to keep you on your feet while still giving the entire album the feel of a unified whole. Some of them are mellow enough to put you to sleep. Others are dancable. Others have a kind of mystical feel. All of them are long, repeating certain musical patterns over and over again until they work their way into your consciousness.

After five minuites the rest of the world disappears and nothing exists but that pattern.

You don't mind, though. The pattern is always good.

- Reviewed by Benjamin A. Vazquez, U.E.