Vixtrola - end:user
Note: Though the full song list at www.vixtrola.com names 11 songs, I have only been able to find the first nine.
Labeled as electronic and rock by some, Vixtrola actually gives their listeners a perfect blend of various styles; including rock, pop, electronic.
Chicago born Jamie Blake is a singer/songwriter and self taught musician who graduated from New York University. Her musical talents can be heard on Vixtrola’s debut album; next to her singing, she plays the guitar on end:user’s title track and the piano in several others.
Paul Andrews is an English musician, writer, and producer. His music career started at 13 when he joined his first band as a drummer. After the lead singer of his band the Stratacruisers tragically died, the band broke up and Paul switched to bass guitar and dedicated himself to learn other aspects of the production side of music.
He and Jamie met in 1998 while they were both in Boston promoting their records separately for the A&M label. After his group split and Paul got out of his deal at A&M, he returned to England to pursue studies in Hypnotherapy and creating music to use in his sessions. At that time Jamie and Paul started swapping ideas back and forth, which was the base for their debut album end:user.
“We get inspired by everything we listen to, and mush our ideas into a three minute pop song. We’ve always been a fan of a big chorus, and a big hook. It’s what makes you whistle when you walk down the street.”
According to some, Vixtrola reminds them of Evanescence, and comparisons have been made between Jaime and Amy Lee’s voices. While a comparison can indeed be made because some songs reside in the same genre, the groups are very different from each other.
Amy Lee heads Evanescence with a raw emotion in her voice, while Jaime sounds sweeter but has just the right edge to pull off the more harder songs on end:user, like Never Again, forming a perfect blend with strong electric guitars.
The band’s official site says the album end:user ”is a system of opposites; electronic beats punctuate dense, distorted guitars, which blare alongside Jamie’s pretty yet powerful voice. It is this unlikely combination that makes end:user at once unique and familiar.”
Centre of the Sun gives out more of a pop vibe with electronic beats, but as soon as Jamie’s voice and guitars start kicking in you know you’re in for something different.
Paul and Jaime’s differences in music translates into their music; Paul likes anything from black metal and Arabian folk to trance and Frank Sinatra, while Jaime was raised on early Van Halen, The Ramones, The Velvet Underground, and Fleetwood Mac.
And if this is not enough to make you listen the album is Co-produced by Vixtrola, The Cars’ Ric Ocasek (Weezer, No Doubt), Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie), and mixed by guru Mick Guzauski.
Unfortunately for the fans, Geffen Records shelved the album and any attempts to buy back the masters so they could distribute it themselves, have proven to be unsuccessful. As have been attempts to sell CD’s from their official site.
Recently the band disclosed that people would be able to buy the tracks via their MySpace account.
It is a shame that any record company would keep this album on a shelf and have it collect dust instead of hits.
Track List (according to their official site)
- Let It End
- You
- Walk Away
- Shadows
- Gunboat
- end:user
- Centre of the Sun
- Formica
- Never Again
- The One
- Bring On The Dancing Horses
