4th July 2007: Tempered Mental‘s album launch at Laundry Bar. The album, titled The View From Here, features 10 solid songs of the progressive metal/rock variety. As a fan of them since the very first gig I had been to in the original No Black Tie, where I first saw them, this was a long-awaited album.
However, none of the songs overlap with the previous Honestly single (which had, well… 7 songs) so we got mostly fresh works with the great Greg Henderson on production. Then, there’s Trust which I downloaded from their official site a looong looong time ago.
Why no local independent band has an album out with more than 10 proper songs, I don’t know. However, Tempered Mental could have added those 7 songs from the single in to beat complete the record. However, it might sound disconnected because the album has funky effects applied to the vocals (which I took a while to get used to) while the single doesn’t.
From left: Jack on guitar, Melina William on bass and vocals, Jimmy on drums, Greg the producer.
The album I got at the launch had a misprinted cover and a missing third page. However, I’d like to think of these as rare editions. 😀
Oh, and my name is there in the thank yous! Go look.
Guess who I bumped into? Grace and my little Transformers Movie Barricade.
Melina, always looking effortless when singing and playing complex basslines. Jimmy drums in the back.
Jack the ripper shredder.
Funky graphics played on the screens behind.
For once, Laundry Bar looked extremely well-lit.
Jimmy the master of groove. He is one of the few rock drummers who know how not to hit too hard, so the rest of the band does not have to pump up the volume and make it difficult for everyone.
Slyde looks lost.
Vig shows us how it’s done with just a Nikon D200 and Nikkor AF-D 35mm F2.0.
They performed Superstar, Undone, Nothingness, Open, Cross and Design. Unfortunately, they did not have a second set. Price and where to get the album will be available once their uh… manager gets back to me.
Woah! Very cool! I missed this gig lar. Was back in my hometown.
BTW, I’ve just linked you in my blog. Keep posting! =D
sigh……
i missed it….
stupid coll HAD to have rehearsals la..
basket
Jack is one insanely awesome guitarist. He was my lecturer at ICOM.
within the first week my CD started skipping… sedih.
SilverIsle: Thanks!
the interesting specimen: Ah well. 🙁
brian: Yeah man. Pity you had to go.
figured out dave hill photo. No way to get such detail with normal sharpening and stuff. His HDR is slick and subtle, not overdone but cretaing the extreme resolution look that looks a tad oversharpened. From a glance it didn’t look like it but yeah, guess you’d have to HDR them not in PS..
I love the album. every single track. and greg of course lived up to his name as an awesome producer. I saw u at the gig, but u as usual busy with the camera. hehe.
That picture of Slyde is fabulous.
Sorry to OT but..
xj: Dave Hill doesn’t use HDR btw, and if you are interested in his style you should check out LucisArt plugin..and of course low pass filter at edges, and USM at high radius. Most of his effect is to do with awesome control of lighting, some say he uses focus stacking too, he’s never admitted and he won’t but he has stated he does not use HDR nor LucisArt.
ST: Oo..ok thanks man! heh..
udjinn: Sorry to hear that. I usually rip them to MP3, though the first listen was in its full Audio CD glory.
Vinder: Yeah man. Back to back with the Honestly single it is awesome.
ShaolinTiger: Thanks! I was telling XJ how I attempted to incorporate the look in this blog post. I think the closest was the picture of Grace. I suspect burnt mids. A key to the comic look is the compression of shadows and highlights, quite likely with careful lighting.