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10:
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timeless/perfect
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9 to 9.9:
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significant past 10 years
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8 to 8.9:
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significant past 5 years
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7 to 7.9:
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memorable
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6 to 6.9:
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standard playlife
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5 to 5.9:
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good for now
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4 to 4.9:
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will get a few playthroughs
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3 to 3.9:
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won't intentionally listen to this
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2 to 2.9:
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strongly avoid it
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1 to 1.9:
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no reason to ever listen to this
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0.1 to 0.9:
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rage-inducing
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0:
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no merit whatsoever.
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 Two Ton Sloth
"Two Ton Sloth is Brad Hamers & PZ" (CD)
released in 2007
Label: Token Recluse
http://www.myspace.com/twotonsloth
It's always a challenge to straddle the line between concept and execution. When a record comes about that has a stunning foundation but doesn't quite pan out as well as it might, what is the best way to evaluate it? Two Ton Sloth, a collaborative project between lyricist/MC Brad Hamers and writer/producer PZ, is a prime example of this problem. At times, the songs on the self-titled record are stunning in production and execution. A song like "School Play from a Cloud's Left Lung", for example, is a surprising mix of distant production, lovely violin and Brad Hamers's vivid vocals, which are hard to classify as they aren't quite 'rapping' but they aren't quite spoken word, either. Similarly, the stunning, jazzy swoon of "Dawaallicht Parade" gives way to dense production and a brief, rhythmic tirade from Hamers. Surprisingly, even a straight up spoken word piece, void of any music at all, works exceptionally well on “Stretching a Spark Around a Pulley.” The cut gives Hamers's strong spoken poetry to shine outside of the confines of songs. Ironically, "Stretching a Spark", is followed by a gentle, lyric-less, piano and violin showpiece, “Etherial Mucous” that showcases PZ's compositional and production skills exquisitely.
The question that arises, then, is this: if PZ writes and arranges lovely music, and Brad Hamers is a solid poet with spoken word and rap competency, then what could possibly go wrong for Two Ton Sloth? As noted previously, PZ's soft and ruminative compositions - most of which feature Shannon Steele's violin, prominently - and Hamers is a good poet, how could this disc possibly not work?
While the answer to this question is sprinkled throughout the disc, the answer is most readily found in the album's third track, "Patch". The song's sonic composition builds off of a gentle acoustic guitar that could have been a Nick Drake outtake, and then Hamers spits his poem over it with an uncomfortable, syncopated rhythm. After a little over a minute, the guitar shifts to more lively melodies and with it, Hamers' rhymes speed up. The end result is a messy song where both parts work independently of one another, but are at odds when trying to work together. The acoustic guitar sets a calm atmosphere, but Hamers' delivery is breathlessly and accented. The two elements don’t gel and the result is difficult to listen to. “For” finds a similar problem. The song's arrangement is built on ambient keys, but Hamers is seemingly heaving each word against the music instead of finding a way to work with it. Elsewhere, as on "Satchel of Poets" and "Fog over a Bed in a Bottom Floor Apt" the backing track's messiness overwhelms Hamers' delivery, leaving listeners, once again, with a cold heap of sound that doesn’t quite fit together.
And that's the problem throughout Two Ton Sloth. Both PZ and Brad Hamers are incredibly talented, but their approaches only occasionally gel to become bigger than their own talents. Though the project is dubbed as a collaboration, it feels more like two separate performers working on their own, then trying to merge the separate ideas together.
Review written on 2008/01/10 by James Brubaker
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