Matt Bentley: personal profile.

I am not attending any upcoming Leeds gigs.

Posted in CD Review: Bootscraper - Bootscraper

Well good band. I was at the launch, which was the first time I'd heard them. Belting stuff.

Posted in CD Review: Various Artists - Three Peaks

Great review Jimmy - well thought out, positive and constructive, and with a clear understanding of what you're writing about. I really enjoyed the EP when I heard it too.

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Cheers for the namecheck as well ;-)

Posted in Band Profile: Tytania

Don't do it lads! There's a load of bad vibes all over this competition.
http://www.leedsmusicforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=25026

Posted in CD Review: Matt Bentley - Something to Find

I realise that the absolute worst thing you can ever do is comment on your own reviews, and I should probably stop here, but in relation to Jimmy's point, and Lem's response of:
"I'm quite blessed in the fact that I can listen to absolutely any genre and get along with it and to be honest I don't really see a problem with writers working on something different to what they normally would!"

I absolutely agree with that sentiment, but that only works if you CAN get on with any genre and be honest and unbiased about it. If you can't do that, then as Jimmy says, that's not really a review then.

The reason I bring that up is the following sections from the review:
- "it's not until track 5... that percussion is introduced." - there's precussion on track 1; it comes in about a minute into the track.
- "Dynamically this album is disappointing... the preceding songs sound flat and all seem to blend into one another." - that's absolutely fine, but it could have been at least counterbalanced by some mention of the huge string and brass sections on the album. There's no mention of the instrumental scores at all in the review, which is a bit odd considering they're all over the ablum.

Obviously I can't come at this from an unbiased standpoint, which is why I should probably delete all of this, but reading between the lines, this is the review you'd get if you listened to the first ten seconds of each track and then skipped to the next one... which is exactly what you'd do if you didn't like folk music... which he patently doesn't seeing as his two reference points are Metallica and Rush, and given that he mis-spelled my name as Matt Bellamy (from Muse) before Dave corrected it.

I certainly don't think the review needs changing. I utterly agree that he has the right to review whatever he likes, and if he wants to pan it, then that's absolutely fine. If you can't take the bad reviews then don't put your music out there, as it were. Indeed, my ego's so huge that in my head he's obviously utterly wong and clearly an idiot, but I wouldn't be so stupid or arrogant to suggest that that's a reasonable view or one that other people would share. Also, reviews are largely ego-food anyway and I doubt it'll affect sales in any real way.

However, it is a tad galling to have something I spent a-year-and-a-half and thousands of pounds of my own cash to produce, t*ssed off by someone who clearly doesn't like the genre and, I suspect, didn't actually listen to it in any real sense. Especially as Dave's excellent SEO means that this is the review which comes up top of organic search, hahaha!

But having said that: fuck it - not to worry. Carry on, nothing to see here ;-)

Posted in CD Review: Louise Distras - Spiders

I met Louise last night at a gig, and she was great live, so check her out.

Posted in Gig: Chris Helme @ Milo

Plus Gary C and Matt Bentley... word

Posted in CD Review: The Drums - Me And The Moon

Good read that. Most entertaining. i spent my teenage years so full of booze that I don't think I could punch anyone, even if I should, so I know how he feels.