David Murdoch - The Sum

David Murdoch is a freelance artist and writer, as well as musician; his history includes putting out a graphic novel titled Lucas released through Arcana Studio in 2012. However, that's not what we're here for. We're here for his debut album that released back in February, The Sum. Sort of using the cliche personal demons as well as dark themes as influences, The Sum is an industrial and ambient album containing sixteen tracks altogether.

And, well, all tracks combined, you have an hour and seven minutes worth of play time. Though, I'm not quite sure all seven hours are worth your time. A lot of it sounds nice, however, the sound isn't the greatest in the quality department, and sounds a bit unmastered at certain points. I felt that immediately when The Waste first played. Little drums tattering in, a drop of bass here and there, piano work, and a slight bit of ambience all contributed to a nice atmosphere. It just felt unpolished.

A bit more of a rhythm is formed over the textures of The Morning, though, depending on what's going on in the song, the drum work is either muffled or brought to the light. A little more electronically charged, Ideas, Drones actually stayed away from drones entirely. Nice little number, though, and the bit of distorting beats found within weren't bad.

A somber tone was formed from the ambience in Forgetting Everything, and later use of acoustic instruments made for a bit of a sacred, or even tribal sound. Stillness brought forth an odd little number with string instruments, with what sounded like a frog croaking in the background. I wasn't all too huge a fan of this track.

Trolls brought forth another little electronic number, a few horn-like sounds playing through. It was a bit messy with all the other little effects playing around here and there, but, other than that, it was good. Through Me brought another oddity; scratchy like drums and eerie electronic effects made this one unique. Still muddy sounding.

Darker In Here actually had quite good clarity to it, and, with that said, I was able to sit back and enjoy the sounds coming off the song a lot more. Perhaps not the most innovative, but definitely something I could get into. A quiet track, I'm Nothing If Anything At All showcased a high self esteem, if anything at all, and was a bit boring. Though I did like the parts with heavy ambience.

Ten tracks in, and I began to lose interest. In The Stomach showcased little to no sounds; minimalism done wrong, I would say. Nothing really catchy, nothing to keep me hooked in, and the low, gutteral cries of some sewer monster did not do me in well. Watching You All Die sounded like that of what an emo teenager would say in the middle of class, but was a hard song and had a pretty good ring to it.

Fuck It All continued on with the amazing track titles, and provided a sound in similar nature to the previous song. Aggressive, some guitar work that screeches out here and there, but nothing too impressive. The title track of the album, The Sum, offered another ambient piece that was nothing all too great. Although, the acoustics used within it weren't all that bad.

It Slips went back into demo track quality territory, so it's worth skipping over. Truth had some more minimalism, with hardly a beat or a noise to really listen to. This wasn't even music. Or noise. It was like background noise you'd hear as you walked through a cafeteria. The last song, The Death, was simply titled, and put the album to sleep. It followed in vein of tracks such as Watching You All Die and Fuck It All.

And, that's where I come to an end from this album. I don't often say this...Well, often, but I was sort of happy to be done listening to this album. This man's strengths lie within his ambient works, no doubt about that. He has that down, he just needs to add more pizzazz to it in order for it to actually become more enjoyable. I didn't understand the minimal tracks, as they just were background noise and I could of walked outside my house to get the same effect, and the quality of the tracks did suffer quite a bit here and there. With fixing up, new mastering, and possibly even new sounds, this guy could become better at what he does. But, if not, well, I'm afraid he won't be getting very far. If anything, I am gonna check out that graphic novel he released. It seems interesting. Sep 11 2014