Good Amount - "Swimmer" and I've Been Franklin - "Potato Sonatas" (Holy Page Records)

(Hyperbole and handwritten notes transcribed for this review conducted after much coffee entered my system...)

My mind is split to splinters...bouncing from genre to genre, popping tape after tape into the stereo...no rest for the analog freak! My clothes are piling up into a mini-mountain of stank - I haven't eaten or a had a drink for days...this is a desperate situation - a desperate time to be alive.  

I've heard electronically manipulated throat singing over banjo licks and I've nodded off to sampled Yoko Ono beatboxing, but now I have to pull my shit together long enough to decide between some know it all garage scum rock band or this pile of keyboard computer music. Guess it's getting close to the witching hour...I need to find some nocturnal tones that will soothe the fire of the day...

Good Amount hail from the peyote deserts of Tempe, AZ and the cassette sent to me is titled Swimmer. Is there a lot of water in the crispy dirt and rock of southern Arizona? Salt River? Does it flow? No time to bother with land survey questions. Five tunes make up this album, all titled with single words: "Health," "Given," "Bare," "Taken," and "Tide." What does this signify? Well, as far as I can tell they hint at purpose. The pieces of music feature rolling waves of static and hiss, minimal midnight electric piano keys (& other synth sounds), vague vocalizing from some downtown warehouse nightmare, which all factor into what is an ambient and highly listenable cassette.

The second tape on my playlist is by the cheekily named I've Been Franklin and the album Potato Sonatas. This isn't quiet as good as Good Amount, but it isn't terrible. Maybe the fun name and potato artwork have me in the state of mind where I can't give this serious attention. It's a Garageband production through and through. The drums sound nice however. Some of the tunes seem like demos to me or maybe these compositions soundtrack a potato themed video game. Overall pleasant stuff without being amazing.  

Buy and Listen HERE.