• SONGSfromTHEoceanFLOOR Album Reviews
• Georg Lögler • MedazzaRock • USATODAY.COM • Gods 2000 • BallBusterHard • KNAC • Steen Peitersen • Carol Anne • Daily Vault • Mayfair Mall • MusicBox • Music Morsels • The Pure Rock Shop • RockRevival.net • Patrick Anthony • Interview by Michael Schübeler • • Burnn Magazine
Kip Winger's creative music may not have a place on today's musical map. Rather, his music, borne as if a hatching butterfly opens up its beautiful wings, floats elegantly over that map, to gently seep into the listener's skin until it eventually reaches the bottom of one's heart. That is when the listener realized once again the power of music ---- how it can be the vehicle to express the richness and the sincerity of human emotions. |
| -- Naomi Ohno, Burnn Magazine |
| | T O P O F P A G E | |
Kip Winger is back with his long awaited follow up to 1997's This Conversation Seems Like A Dream. That record was one album that took an enormous amount of listening to, to absorb, contemplate and generally familiarize oneself with. I said of the album when I reviewed in late in '97: A slick AOR pop/rock record, extremely moody and even dark in places, mellow in tone, without being ballad driven. A highly intelligent record which risks deviating from the norm, and a great showcase for Kip's writing talents, some of which were untapped until this record. What Kip winger has delivered in 2000 has built on the reputation of that album, taking it even further into a world seldom tapped by a rock artist. Kip lost his wife in a car accident soon after the release of Thisconversation. I was prepared for this new album to be introspective and it certainly is. SONGSfromTHEoceanFLOOR is less commercial, more personal, more musically intricate, involved and moodier and even more intense than it's predecessor:
Crash The Wall | MP3 | Real | is immediately harder hitting with a heavy chorus and a softly spoken verse. More acoustic and electric guitars entwine around a groove heavy rhythm section.
The most experimental Kip Winger track to date is Sure Was A Wild Flower | MP3 | Real |. Beginning with loops and effects, Kip's vocals are raspy and emotional through the verse, then backed by effects and several intense layers of vocals in various pitches during the verse, which is also more musically intense.
Two Lovers Stand is a wonderful hard hitting major ballad. The track features soft acoustic guitars and orchestral strings beneath a vocal that is brought forward in the mix to allow the passion and emotions show. One of the highlights of the album once you get to know it.
Landslide is another intense pop song, filled with layers of acoustic guitars and particularly some great percussion and effects and a very moody chorus.
Upping the tempo somewhat is the equally intense Faster | MP3 | Real |, which as the song title says - is faster in temp - and features more effects and a layout that requires several listens, to get to know.
A laid back new age intro is overtaken by a dark and brooding vocal on Song Of Midnight | MP3 | Real |. Once again the chorus only presents itself after several listens. Dark and very un-commercial.
The song has an extended instrumental lead out that runs straight into the very musically complex instrumental track Free | MP3 | Real |. This track feature a full orchestra, acoustic guitars and several bursts of intense musical output that quite obviously couldn't fit a vocal around.
Only One Word leads in straight on the heels of that track with a haunting piano and vocal that is sparse to start with but is added to by various instruments through the song. A song that takes a lot of listening to, but is one of the best of the album with it's personal approach.
Broken Open is a more uptempo track just when one was needed. A simpler pop rock number, it contains but hides a little, more the darkness of the rest of the album.
And now for my favorite track of the album! Resurrection | MP3 | Real | is one of the most intelligent and complex pop songs I have heard. It is a slow ultra moody rock ballad that features more raw emotion and vocals that are backed by some fantastic backing vocals and effects and features a chorus that is subtle but effective and then leads out to an extended outro featuring backing vocal effects and an occasional lead.
Then there's the last 10 seconds of the track. Spine tingling stuff. Everything You Need | MP3 | Real | ends the album with a song that has a simpler structure and in comparison to the rest of the tracks is almost a straight forward mid tempo pop song. A wonderful chorus that ends the album on a high note, both musically and spiritually.
BOTTOM LINE: This is not your average AOR album. In fact, it's not your average anything. It's a way above average example of an artist at his creative best - both lyrically and musically. The album is once again a highly intelligent example of this art form and deserves as much attention as it can get. Like Kip's last album, this takes a lot of listening to, to get to know, but if the listener prevails then the album opens it's a rich tapestry of intense personal and reflective music.
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| -- Andrew McNeice, MelodicRock.com |
| | T O P O F P A G E | |
After the brilliant "ThisConversationLooksLikeADream" release out of '96 on the Domo label, Kip Winger strikes back with another album in the same source. Maybe this album will take a little more time to get used to it because it's rather harder to get into these tracks then on his previous album. But once you get to know songs like "Crash The Wall", "Landslide", "Faster", "Broken Open", "Free", "Resurrection" (with -now- Dokken guitarplayer Reb Beach) and especially "Sure Was A Wildflower" (with Moon Zappa) you'll be amazed about his stunning performance on this "SONGSfromTHEoceanFLOOR" album. Maybe it's me because I prefer the later work of this nice guy instead of his 1st two Winger releases, I always thought this guy deserved way more attention than the far underrated poor credits he got so far. With this release, Kip Winger proved to gain more power in his voice throughout the years, the songs make way more sense in compare to his Winger years (except for the brilliant "Pull" release) and I mean lyrically & musically! I agree it might sound a little more acoustically orientated then before but the entire album sure (still) Rocks the hell out of you ! |
| -- Rick Huisseune |
| | T O P O F P A G E | |
Kip Winger
Eine Vorab-Kopie dieses Albums bekam ich bereits vor gut einem Jahr. Man kann sich also nur vorstellen, welch weite Wege die neuen Songs des ehemaligen (?!) Stadion-Rockers Kip Winger gegangen sind, bevor sie bei den italinischen "Melodic-Mafiosi" gelandet sind. Verständlich ist diese Odysee dennoch, denn wie bereits auf seinem ersten eigenen, von manchen Kollegen fast schon sträflich unterbewerteten Album "This Conversation Seems Like A Dream" bietet Kip kaum Bezüge zu seinem früheren musikalischen Werk und konzentriert sich auf ausgefeilte Arrangements, verträumte Melodien, ein unglaubliches Maß an Musikalität sowie zum Teil höchstpersönliche Texte. Auch konnte Kip in seinem eigenen Studio wieder eine exquisite Auslese an hochbegabten Musikern versammeln, neben ehemaligen Winger-Mitspielern Rod Morgenstein, Reb Beach und John Roth schaute auch Wahnsinnsschlagzeuger Ken Mary in Santa Fe vorbei sowie Andy Timmons und Robbie Rothchild. Kenner schnalzen bei solchen Namen und schwermütigen Perlen der Marke "Sure Was A Wildflower", "Landslide" oder "Broken Open" mit der Zunge oder bekommen feuchte Augen bei "Only One Word", Kips Ode an seine tragisch verstorbene Ehefrau Beatrice. Dennoch: ein schwungsvolles Stück wie "Faster" gibt durchaus der Hoffnung Nahrung, daß Meister Winger irgendwann in der Zukunft auch wieder seine alten Kumpels zusammentrommelt, den Vornamen wegläßt und wieder richtig losrockt ohne seine jetzige, anspruchsvollere und innigere Ader zu vernachlässigen. Lobenswert, daß die Mafiosi-Connection im Zuge dieses Albums auch die beiden vorigen Alben Kips auf den Markt bringt: das mitreißende Akustik-Werk "Down Incognito" (auch unter den Titeln "Made By Hand" und "Another Way" bekannt) sowie "This Conversation Seems Like A Dream". Die waren in letzter Zeit nur noch schwer zu bekommen.
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| -- Nikolas Krofta |
| | T O P O F P A G E | |
Artist : Kip Winger
Trauer, Verzweiflung, Überlebenswille, Glauben, Vertrauen, Willensstärke - was Kip Winger durchgemacht hat nach dem schweren Schicksalsschlag (dem Tod seiner Frau) ist für uns Aussenstehende nicht nachzuvollziehen. Dass Kip sich entschlossen hat, hier seine tiefsten Gefühle darzulegen, verdient den höchsten Respekt. NEIN, es ist eben kein deprimierendes Album - es ist die musikalische Umsetzung einer Homage an das Leben ! Unterstützt durch Top Musiker wie Andy Timmons und Ken Mary hat Kip hier ein Meisterwerk abgeliefert. Wer jedoch die Fortsetzung zu "Seventeen" oder "Can't Get Enuff" erwartet hat, liegt verkehrt. Sicher überwiegt oft die Melancholie - so hat mich seit GYPSY KYSS's "Where do you go" kein Song so berührt wie "Two Lovers Stand".
Aber es ist kein Zufall, dass sich das Trio Reb Beach, Rod Morgenstein und Kip zum unmissverständlichen betitelten "Resurrection" zusammenfinden. Ja, ein wenig sensitiv sollte man schon sein, um zwischen den Zeilen zu lesen braucht man jedoch kein Booklet.... Man spürt förmlich die Intensität der Emotionen und "sieht" Kip ziellos durch Kairo irren auf der Suche nach neuer Kraft. Das Instrumental "Free" gehört mit zur besten Musik überhaupt, die ich kenne - und da braucht man keine Schubladen zu.
Für mich die Platte des Jahres!
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| -- Georg Lögler |
| | T O P O F P A G E | |
Album: "Songs from the Ocean Floor"
"Songs From The Ocean Floor" is the third album from Kip Winger as a solo artist - and it's the best
one he did so far. "This Conversation Seems Like A Dream", his first solo record, was of course a good
one, but also it was an album with no surprises and it sounded like Kip wasn't that self-confident at the
time. (Well, I don't talk about his second album "Made By Hand" 'cause this was kind of an acoustic
compilation). But that was then and "Songs From The Ocean Floor" is now! Now Kip sounds very
self-confident, he put a lot of musical surprises on this record and with "Faster" he wrote the most
powerful song since years. This album is an interesting journey through foreign countries and emotions.
With this album you've got it all. Emotional Songs, Uptempo tracks, also an instrumental ("Free")
including an oriental touch. You listen to this album again and again - and there's still something new
and interesting to find.
This one is not a rock record - it's an emotional box of surprises for those who
really LISTEN to music! 8.5/10
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| -- MedazzaRock |
Album: "Songs from the Ocean Floor"
Review Article=Having been a Winger fan since album one, I was devastated when they
broke up. But when I heard 'Conversation' I was blown away and didn't miss them quite
so much. After waiting for an eternity for the follow up (not including 'Down
Incognito')and fearing there might not be another album after the tragedy, I cant
believe how fantastic the album is. It is the most personal album I think anyone has
ever written and needless to say anyone reading this doesn't need a rundown of the
songs. For the first half dozen times I played it I'm not ashamed to say I cried my
eyes out and even now months later I still do.
My fiancee also loved Winger but wasn't
quite so keen on the first solo album thinking it too different, but after seeing him
live at The Gods in Wigan she changed her mind completely and driving home in the car
next morning playing the CD she also cried. The strange thing is she used to laugh at
me, saying "how can you cry at a song". The song that made her cry was 'just one word'
which I feel is the most personal song on the album. Oh I nearly forgot, I met Kip
after the show and had my photo taken with him and it is a moment I will always
treasure, it's not very often anyone gets to meet their heroes.
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| -- Duncan Nicol |
| | T O P O F P A G E | |
I bought THISCONVERSATIONSEEMSLIKEADREAM the day it was released. The disc
took me on a journey that I have never come back from. Never had a WHOLE
disc reached my deepest inner as TCSLAD did. It is still my most favorite
disc of ALL time.
Come now with SONGSfromTHEoceanFLOOR. I knew Kip could do just as well,
if not better, than the first solo effort. This disc is just as moody,
dark, emotional and satisfying as TCSLAD. The first disc I absorbed right
away. This one was the same way. I highly suggest you add it to your
collection as you will not be disappointed. Resurrection, indeed.
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| -- Patrick Anthony |
| | T O P O F P A G E | |
KIP WINGER ... spreads his wings!
At his second solo cut "SONGSfromTHEoceanFLOOR", I did the following interview with Kip Winger:
I´ve found your first CD "THISCONVERSATIONSEEMSLIKEADREAM" just a few days ago. There´s a sticker on it: "All new songs - all new vibe". How would you describe this vibe? And in how far is it different on "SONGSfromTHEoceanFLOOR"?
Well, that´s something the record company did. "New songs - new vibe" - my solo stuff has a new vibe primarily to the fact that I´m doing it with new musicians. I mean, I was always a solo writer in WINGER. Reb (Beach, guitar; now with DOKKEN) contributed, but I was always the one finishing everything. So the solo stuff, if you listen to the arrangements, it is very similar to the WINGER stuff, except there´s no heavy guitars, and there´s a lot more experimentation.
So the songwriting itself hasn´t changed?
No, certainly not my process of songwriting.
But maybe the perspective?
The perspective has changed because it´s much more experimental. I don´t have to stick to a formula. I mean, the whole idea of my solo records is that I don´t want to be confined to any particular style. And if I do another WINGER record, that will be more of a formula, with a certain sound. But with my solo stuff, I never really wanna make the same record twice.
Some minutes ago, I was drowning in "Landslide" again ...
I appreciate that! I mean, it´s very difficult with doing ... sticking to the emotional commitment, that you gonna not try to just have a hit song because so much of the music business is driven by money that it makes it very difficult to make something with a lot of depth. You have to realize that not many people are going to get it. Not many people are gonna understand it - and I personally don´t think that´s so true! But that´s the way that popular media it sends out ...
Do you think that people don´t understand it because they are not sensitive enough? Or do they just not take the time?
I think they just don´t take the time. Everybody I know IS sensitive enough. I mean, everybody has emotions. I just think that for one thing to get it to the masses you have to go through popular media, and what I´m doing isn´t so easy to get through popular media for one thing, so people basically just don´t know about it.
But what is a "hit"? I mean, the quality of the song is the least important point about a "hit"!
It´s strange. I´ve been asking myself that for 20 years. I really don´t know!
A song like "Naked Son", for example, that´s a masterpiece in every aspect!
You rule, haha! Thanks, man! That´s one of my favorites!
"Landslide" has a strong PETER GABRIEL feel to it. Does that mean that you listen to other music today?
No, it actually means that I´m back more to what I was. I was listening to PETER GABRIEL way before I even joined ALICE COOPER! I mean, those were all my early influences: TEARS FOR FEARS, PETER GABRIEL, DEPECHE MODE and all that kind of stuff.
This "ocean" in the album title, is it your soul?
Yeah. The basic title should be "Songs From The Bottom Of Your Soul", you know.
And the wheel on the cover?
That´s the oldest calender. In Northern Egypt, I picked up a hieroglyph of that. It´s the oldest calender to date. It had the right elements of what I wanted to put on the cover. I didn´t want to put an ocean on the cover. You can buy one of those in any Egyptian store.
It could be a window to the soul as well!
That´s the feeling that I had about it and that´s why I used it. ´cause there´s something really ominous about that, the way they calendervized that calender in the center of it. You can just fall into it!
What is the most important thing that you learned throughout your career as a musician?
Never leave yourself at the mercy of anybody in the studio other than yourself! When you´re a songwriter and you´re trying to get something accomplished in the studio and you don´t know how to do it yourself, that can really go wrong if you´re using the wrong people in the studio. So my feeling was always to learn as much as I possibly could about how it all gets put together.
On both albums you played many instruments. Does that mean that you´ve got the whole song in your head when you get the idea? Or dous it come step by step?
It depends. I´ve had both happened. I´ve done it step by step and I´ve had the whole song just happen. I think the main point with popular music is that you´ve got ideas happen by accident, so you have to experiment alot. You may have a song idea that you think is great, but all of a sudden you have an "accident" that takes the song in another direction. That can be great.
Do you think that the listener must be very, well, not intelligent but experienced to really enjoy your music?
Michael, I really don´t know the answer to that! I mean, I study with two composition teachers at the university of New Mexico. Right now I´m studying post-tonal music, and the further I get into it the more I think that it´s not necessary to make music where people can´t understand it. Even if you´re doing something incredibly technically difficult. I´m listening to this one composer right now who has just completely transformed my whole artwork on music, a guy by the name of Arthur Hornegger. He´s a Swiss you lived in France. He died in 1955, so it´s not that new. But for the first time I´ve found a composer that´s actually done one kind of thing that I´ve been hearing all along which has driven me to learn classical music. I´m listening to it and I´m thinking: "It´s so technically difficult to understand what he´s actually doing. But when you listen to it it´s beautiful!" So it´s like: I don´t necessarily think that there needs to be a gap between people that don´t know anything about music and enjoying something that´s incredibly technical, you know. I just think that it depends on how well you can master the artform where you can devise a composition that´s so technically difficult, but people can still just hear it for the face value, just the a-b-c´s of it. The best version of anything that I have ever done like that is "Only One Word". Musically and modally and the chord-progressions are so hardcore, so out there and dissonant and weird for a pop song ... But itá a beautiful song! I´m talking about crafted musical notes. "Landslide" on the other hand is more experimental where I´m using keyboard imaging. It´s more of like a impressionistic painting. "Only One Word" is a very definite arrangement of musical ideas. I wasn´t experimenting with that song.
One of the best songs on your new album is the instrumental "Free".
Yeah, same goes for that.
At instrumental tunes the title is always important. So why did you call it "Free"? What kind of freedom do you mean?
That´s a good question! Well, I was originally writing lyrics for that song. And the lyrics were about a woman who is freeing herself from the chains and bondage that women often times find themselves in, especially the Middle Eastern women, being all wrapped up in Islam, being oppressed, you know, at the degree that they are oppressed. And so I was writing that whole lyric scheme about being free. And so I decided that the lyric thing really wasn´t working for it, but I did like the title. I played the song for a few people around town that I knew and they told me that it made them FEEL very free. So it was kind of a double-meaning there, you know. When I listen to "Free", you know, like "the composer listens to his own thing", I´m hearing so many other things that I could have done in it, you know, ´cause thematically, that could go so many places. But I don´t like to work anything like a dead horse, beat it to death. I just try to finish it for where I´m at at the time at put it out, you know.
But this "mistake" is something that you can learn from! When everything works out perfectly, you´ve done everything right, you stay at the same level. When it´s too perfect, it can even get boring after a time!
I know. I´ve met so many people in this life where it´s totally ... They´re not even home, man! That´s why I think the stuff that I´m working on doesn´t reach everybody, man, ´cause they´re too busy listening to Britney Spears.
But the music that you write today must be a wonderful experience, not only for the listener, but also for you. Does it make you grow? Do you learn alot about yourself?
The whole point of my musical experience is that I ... You know, I work out a lot of my own psyche and emotional bondage by writing these songs. It´s a personal journey for me. It´s not that I don´t care what people think, but I don´t do it for people´s like. I try to express myself to the best of my ability and hope that people can relate basically. The experience can be excrutiating actually. I mean, sometimes it´s intensely painful to write some of these songs - and other times it´s a great high! But there´s kind of no other way for me because it´s been my motive expression for my whole life.
How do you know what instrumentation a song needs? I mean, in one song you have a flute, normally you don´t. Do you experiment alot?
Yeah I do. A lot of times I just hear it, you know. A lot of times I´m knowing the feeling of the instruments that I want. And I think I have a fairly good sense of knowing what kind of instrumentation is good for a particular song. I think that´s one of my strong points although I don´t feel like I´d be a very good producer for other people because I´m so consumed with the music that´s going on in my mind, you know.
Like Devin Townsend maybe?
Well, I don´t know his music. (I give Kip some details.) But I think my experiences are pretty similar to that, although it doesn´t all come at once for me. But the kind of things that I´m hearing are so more in the classical mode that I´ve had to take up studying orchestral music, just to try to learn how to manifest some of those ideas. So it´s not so much songs with me, a lot of heavy, orchestral-type sounding music.
Do you think a song like "Rainbow In The Rose" from WINGER went into the direction that you play now? Or can´t that be compared?
Well, I wrote the music to that first and then came up with the melody, but as it turned out I do an acoustic version of that in my acoustic set that is so simple and one of the best ones. So I don´t really know the answer to that.
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| -- Michael Schübeler |
| | T O P O F P A G E | |
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