Rupesh Cartel - Mainland Limited 2 CD Edition

Disc One

Contract
Death With Soft Names
Any Kind Of Love
Retainer
Devastation
If I Ever Grow
Me Out Of Myself

For Ill And Not For Good
To Climb
Yours To Command
Pleased So Easily
One From Here To Hell
A Switch

Disc Two

Days Like This
If I Ever Grow (Shattuck Plaza)
Nowhere Fast
Retainer (Quarks)
Your New World
To Climb (Porta Negra)

This is the debut album for Rupesh Cartel, released in the US on A Different Drum Records in 2005. This follows the single "Contract", which is also the lead-in track for the album. Viktor and Daniel have combined to give us 19 tracks this time, which will certainly help me in making a judgment when compared to the single. Now, this band has been somewhat controversial, and it seems that there are those who hate the band with a passion, and those that love the band with equal passion. Mostly, those feelings seem to be focused around Viktor's vocal performance, and the song writing style of the band. Viktor has a mid-range tenor with a slight nasal quality to it, which can either be endearing or annoying, depending on your perspective.

Other than the first track, "Death With Soft Names" has also been released as a single. While in the verses, the vocalist seems to be almost sing-speaking, his vocal work in the choruses is more dynamic, rescuing the track from the skip button and actually turning it into a quite enjoyable track. However, when I compare "Retainer" and "Death With Soft Names", I'm left wondering why the latter was chosen as a single. Now, the remix on the second disc is the best version of this song, but the melody of the song is much catchier than DWSN, I thought. From here, the album takes a downward turn. Both "Devastation" and "If I Ever Grow" are songs that rely far too much on simple repetition, and rather than being catchy quickly becomes annoying.

"Me Out Of Myself" improves on this condition some, but the overall song still isn't that captivating. The melody is stronger, and the chorus, while somewhat repetitive, doesn't overdo it like the previous two tracks did. Still, it's not quite perfect. So it is for the next few tracks as well, up until "On From Here To Hell". This is another track that delivers both in the chorus and music, just a solid song all around. The first disc of the album closes with "A Stitch", a song I cited as fairly weak in my review of the "Synthpop For A Darkened Room Vol. 3". The only difference between the version on the compilation and this is the addition of a 10+ minute outro to the song, which wore out my patience at the 6 minute mark. Just a really poor decision, as it ends the album on a sour note.

The bonus disc includes 3 remixes/alternate versions of tracks from the album, and three exclusive b-sides. Of the b-side tracks, "Days Like This" is a outstanding track, showing a bit more daring in the music and more polish in the songwriting. This is very much a album-worthy track, and I'm left mystified as to why it was slated for only the limited edition disc. "Nowhere Fast" starts off well, but just doesn't quite come together like "Days Like This" does. "Your New World" also is a fairly impressive track, but not outstanding. Of the remixes, "If I Ever Grow" has a 70's funk organ sound added to the track that sent me lunging for the skip button. I'm not sure what it is about this 7 minute mix of "Retainer", but I simply love the track. Something about it has me coming back to it again and again, without ever tiring of it. The bonus disc closes out with a 6 minute version of "To Climb", that has some neat bassline and percussion work to it, but runs for about 2 minutes too long.

Overall, this is a album that I'm still divided over. Rupesh Cartel shows some real promise in spots, but still has a lot of room for growth in songwriting depth. Give the band another year or so, and maybe the comparisons to Echo Image might be a little more justified. They're not there yet, but the band could get there, with some maturation in the songwriting and vocals.

Added:  Sunday, September 11, 2005
Reviewer:  Jason Baker
Score:
Related web link:  Official Website
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