A.S.K. - A.S.K. Review
Posted by Nathan Ganley on 09.21.2006
What do you get when you cross Johnny Cash with Divinyls?
A.S.K. is a solo project by Angel Sophia Krasnegor. I started talking her by simply saying that Les Claypool's book was in fact a rejected movie script(she said that the book should be turned into a movie) and through that I found out about her music site. So, after several more emails she sent me her CD and it's only fair of me to review it.
Angel Sophia Krasnegor was born in Glendale and raised in Huntington Beach, California. She currently lives in Arlington, Virginia. She had a love for music from an early age and in her quest to make songs and get noticed she's done a lot of gigs, and his been to a lot of places throughout the world including England, Ireland and of course, various parts of America. For a full bio click here.
The Karma to Burn Review: A.S.K. - A.S.K.
The Stats
Released: 2006
Record Label: n/a
Runtime: 00:24:52
Tracklisting:
1. Hello Cruel World
2. Black hole
3. DC Drivers
4. Haunted
5. Virginia
6. Heritage Lament
7. I Don't Know
8. Louis and Marie
9. The Hairdresser
10. Better Than Yesterday
So, is it any good?
I'll be honest and say I don't like a lot of female vocals, not for a bad reason, I'm all for female vocalists and female bands and such, my ears just don't take a liking to some female vocals. Lucky for A.S.K. I like Christina Amphlett, and A.S.K. just happens to sound a lot like her. It's really uncanny, I'm not sure if A.S.K. is inspired by Divinlys(and no, there's not meant to be a "the" in front) but her voice sure has some similarities to Miss Amphlett.
A.S.K. writes, performs and produces all her song, and you can really feel that there's a lot of effort put into every song. You can sense that she has a love for song making, every aspect of it, and it shines through on this album. This is something I can relate to, playing solo, and recording songs and editing them myself. The most prominent instrument used on the album is her acoustic guitar. She's a great guitarist, and the music itself has a nice solemn feel to it, and it really reminds me of the later works of Johnny Cash.
The songs have a great country experimental feel to them, especially with the use of a keyboard/organ and an echo harp, there really is a great atmospheric feel to the songs. The lyrics themselves are stripped down to very core, and are honest lyrics that reflect things that have happened in her life. There are funny moments on the album too, but most of the album is a serious look into bleak goings-on in A.S.K.'s past. The recording and production of the album is a good fit for the music, it's not cleanly polished and I like it that way because A.S.K. just lets her voice do the work.
My only complaint here would be the lack of songs. This seems to be a running trend with albums I'm reviewing lately, the album is really not long enough. It feels like half an album, and the final song doesn't fade out but ends abruptly. If this album was longer then it'd be near perfect, but sadly it isn't. I can understand the argument that quality is better than quantity, but I'm sure A.S.K. has enough songs in her head that she could have put on this album that would be equally good as the other songs.
Recommended Listening:Hello Cruel World, Haunted, I Don't Know, The Hairdresser
The 411: Short albums are one of my big peeves, and this one is really short. The music is great however, and if you can appreciate some good music that's familiar, but also throws some different things at you along the way, then get this album.
