Cheap Frankie Pett Presents...The Happy Submarines (Music) (Dead Voices on Air) Price

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Customer Reviews of Frankie Pett Presents...The Happy Submarines

Ambient Dark Trip Hop Gem!
This was the first DVOA record I purchased. This band has been around for about ten years. This record is an abstract, inventive selection of long electronic fabrications. I find myself spacing to different mind-sets with every listen. Similar to Priss Fond, this record is an extention of the innovated conseptualizations explored there. There are very few tunes with beats though, so you are buying an instrumental album that moves you without beats. Overall, about half of Priss Fond was more clearly cut drone experiments- where as this record is less dronish overall. It explores more melodic domains. I believe it to be a trip hop non-commercial gem. You be the judge. Great spin!

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Bored of DVOA?
"Frankie Pett Presents..." is the sixth album from Mark Spybey, the man behind Dead Voices On Air. This album, much like his other releases, relies heavily on found sounds and soundscapes to create eerie, "anti-ambient" (his words, not mine) moods. Most of these albums, "Frankie Pett" included, share a certain sonic vocabulary -- sounds, patterns and effects that reoccur in each DVOA album.

This disc builds upon the usual Dead Voices On Air sound by adding several collaborators to the mix -- multi-instrumentalist and previous DVOA collaborator Darryl Neudorf and Legendary Pink Dots saxophonist Neils Van Hoorn, amongst others. The result is more structured song-like tracks, as compared to DVOA's earlier, more atmospheric works. 1998's "Piss Frond" also featured structured, collaborative pieces, but it lacked the mood of classics like "Hafted Maul" and "How Hollow Heart" and was perhaps too collaborative.

Where this disc really shines is in pieces like "Zeehond" and "Bored of Canada" (which wins my prize for track title of the year, especially given Spybey's recent departure from Canada for Europe) that successfully blend Spybey's sounds and textures with Neudorf's beats and rhythms. Another standout is "Dolfijn", an interesting foray into the genre of noise. The combination of electronic noise with the usual DVOA-style swirls of atmosphere and feedback makes this track both mesmerizing and unsettling.

My only complaints with this disc stem from two tracks that seem somewhat out-of-place within the context of the rest of the album. "Wet Fire Cotton" features guitars, bass and drums and a rock song-like structure. While the track itself is enjoyable (in fact, I wouldn't mind a whole album of material like this), it interrupts the atmosphere of the disc. As does "The Brothers Casio", a track dominated by an overprocessed 808-style drum loop. These diversions, while interesting, almost spoil the unsettling moods that the rest of the album is so successful in creating.

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polished and structured
i was very much looking forward to the release of this album after hearing and falling in love with PISS FROND. but i must say that i was somewhat disappointed. it is certainly different...and i admire MARK SPYBEY for not allowing D.V.O.A.'s releases to become repetitious and predictable. there are a few fine ambient noise pieces, and some elements reminiscent of PISS FROND; but for the most part the album sounds very relaxed and accessible...which isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially for newcomers who might be working their way backwards through D.V.O.A.'s discography.