Send "Ethan Gold " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 The opening sequence to Ethan Gold's Songs From a Toxic Apartment is almost too fitting: a once-empty hallway punctured by a series of sharp footsteps, the rattling of house keys, and the opening and shutting of a creaky door. By the time the song, "Why Don't You Sleep?", gets to its soaring chorus, it paints a perfect picture of the insomnia and desire for escape that color the album. While immersed in recording demos for another project, Ethan Gold's physical health quickly deteriorated. He later learned his residence had been besieged by a variety of poisons before the health department considered the apartment unlivable. The titular "toxic apartment" was frighteningly literal, forcing Gold to move his recording setup-- and the rest of his belongings.As the title suggests, the album was recorded in full in his apartment (though thankfully not in the one littered with flakes of asbestos). You wouldn't know it from listening, however. Gold's production prowess first came to the fore on Elvis Perkins' debut album, Ash Wednesday-- a close companion of this record in terms of emotional and existential distress. So Songs is not so much lo-fi as it is low-budget. Nothing on the record bears the mild sterility of a professional studio, while snatches of white noise and sounds from outside of Gold's living room window are subtly filtered into the songs. Naturally, most of the tracks that make up Songs From a Toxic Apartment deal with toxicity in the emotional sense. On "Poison", Gold's emotions are sent into a whirlwind as he asks for salvation and tries to stay motivated as the devil stares him down and his relationships are damaged by sex. The album has a childlike emotional purity to it, but that's not to say that it's immature or naïve. Instead, it's rooted in the fact that children don't obscure their hurt by anger or bravado or even mock diffidence, as adults often do. Occasionally, the songs are bogged down by grating lyrics or unnecessary bridges (such as on the breakdown in "I.C.U. (Toxic)"), but for the most part, the emotions on Songs From a Toxic Apartment are delivered with an unfiltered, glaring legibility....full text |
| Glidemagazine |
| Ethan Gold’s debut, Songs from a Toxic Apartment, began as a 75-song epic recorded in a dilapidated apartment that was literally toxic. Though he vacated the unit when it was condemned by the health department, all of the grime, restlessness and despair remained intact in the 12 songs that made the final cut. Songs from a Toxic Apartment is an eclectic mix of musical styles, themes and emotions that combine to form a jumbled narrative contrived while hallucinating from exposure to mold and asbestos. Gold sings of the loneliness and depression of being an outsider. “I want to slurk where I won’t be spurned,” he sings over the 80’s-style dance music of “Nonstop.” Gold paints a portrait of a man who suffers from self-doubt brought upon by unrequited love. “Will you remember if I kiss your face?” he asks on “Are We Recording?” On “Tonight,” Gold shows the self-handicapping of a diffident lover. “It’s okay if you don’t want to,” he concedes, “it’s getting late, anyway.” Gold’s tales of isolation and angst are woven into acoustic ballads, industrial rock, punk and dance music, sometimes within the same song. The weakest aspect of the album is Gold’s voice. Gold is not blessed with a lot of vocal range, though his scratchy monotone usually fits the melody....full text |
| Survivingthegoldenage |
| San Francisco-born, L.A.-based singer/songwriter, Ethan Gold recorded Songs From A Toxic Apartment in his one bedroom flat. On the album, he provides all the instruments heard including vocals, piano, guitar, and drums amongst others. Just to round out the DIY ethics, Gold self-releases the album on his own label, Gold Records. I greatly respect Ethan Gold’s DIY ethics but I did not want that to impact my opinion of the album; after all, I have been known to dislike most singer/songwriters not named Dan Bejar or Bob Dylan. But Gold does an excellent job of not being a “singer/songwriter” so to speak. There are plenty of tracks on the album that if told it was recorded by a four piece band, I would have believed it. Take for instance my favorite track “Royal Flush.” First off, I know what you are thinking and no, it is not a Big Boi cover. Secondly, the song features a great piano line and electronic drum; the combination reminds me of Muse. Gold’s voice isn’t exactly Matthew Bellamy’s, unfortunately. Ethan Gold’s vocals are perhaps the most dynamic part of the album. His vocals have a certain trademark sound to them yet from song to song I could easily compare them to different singers. On “Come On Beat It Down”, Gold sounds like the fragiler moments from Rivers Cuomo‘s early days. On “Tonight…”, Gold’s falsetto reminds me of Davey von Bohlen‘s work in Maritime. On “I.C.U. (Toxic)”, Gold’s vocals sound like Walter Schreifels‘s vocals in Rival Schools but trying for a little more of a dark, 90s alt-rock feel. That dark, 90s alt-rock feel is one that is pervasive throughout the album and I must admit it feels a little passe. Occasionally it work like on “Royal Flush” but for the most part it feels like Gold is aping bands like Days of the New and such. In the end, I enjoy Gold’s ethics and perserverence but the album rubs me as mediocre at best....full text |
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