Now that I've made that clear...

Personally, I like "Serpentine Gallery" and "The Three Calamities" more than BAJFF. Switchblade Symphony added trip-hop type beats and experimented with completely new sounds with this album. It is still good, and lyrically and vocally it isn't much different from SG. Actually, on tracks like "Fractal" and "Soldiers" Tina's voice soars high enough to make it seem as if the windows are going to break.

Musically, as I already said, SS experimented with new sounds on this album. Gone are the lush soundscapes and complex keyboarding from SG (which reappear on TTC) and instead, trip-hop beats are added with an actual drummer and it sounds as if a DJ is lurking behind the music. If you're looking for SG or TTC type soundscapes, the only tracks on this album that offer this are "Roller Coaster" and "Sheep." In addition, they have added heavier guitars, most notable on "Fractal," "Insect," and "Funnel," in which case it seems as if for a time, SS was experimenting with the possibility of writing metal music.

In my opinion, all of the tracks are about equal to one another in quality and originality. I don't really have any favorite songs on this release and usually simply listen to it from beginning to end, although "Soldiers" is good for a laugh if you play it in front of someone who has never heard of the band before.


Definately not as bad as a lot of people make it seem   August 8, 1999
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Well, I haven't been a fan of Switchblade Symphony that long. I bought Serpentine Gallery first and then read reviews of this CD. They mostly said that this one sucked. So I waited for their new CD which I bought immediately when it came out. It was great so I was:"O well let's buy Bread And Jam too to complete my collection" I wasn't expecting much from it but after listening to it I was amazed. This is really a very cool album. Okay it's very different than Serpentine Gallery and maybe that's why most people hate it but musically speaking it is a very cool CD. My favorite songs on the album are Sleep, Harpsichord(great guitar), Funnel and Fractal(great noise and opera-like vocals). Also I rather like the Situation #58 track. All other songs rule too ofcourse but these are my favorites.

What I do find odd tho is that the tracklisting on the CD is wrong. Maybe it's just my CD, but track 2 and 3 are switched around. On the listing it says that Rollercoaster is 2 and Dirty Dog is 3 but on the CD itself it's the other way around. I noticed this too on Three Calamities. (altho a bit different. They didn't list Track 9 on the listing there. It goes 7, 8, 10, 11) Maybe this is intentional.. I dunno.. O well.. I'm drifting.

In closing I'd like to say. Don't be put of by negative reviews of Bread And Jam. Listen to it first before you make your decission about this CD. It's really very good.


Splendid   March 9, 2003
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This album has it all really. Hard to locate items this good without the heady critisism that often escorts experimental artists. Switchblade Symphony's often revered "Serpentine Gallery" showed us a very "goth" band and for fans of "Goth" imparticular find themselves fleeing to thier 'Christian Death and 'London After Midnight albums after hearing this one. You wont find a genre that this album obeys and when you decide music is simply either good or bad you'll most likely truley enjoy it.

Excellent dark melodies, eerie and childlike vocals, grooves remniscent of trip hop and rock psychedelia meet at a circus... a few small filler tracks... Yea this album does not sleep at all and is so very complimentary of what these girls can do. This album and thier follow "Three Calamities" are just about perfect albums. Very very rare indeed. These ladies of experimental mind have created some entirely outstanding music.


...gothic hip-hop.. with a sense of humor?   January 5, 2000
 4 out of 6 found this review helpful

people miss what, to me, is one of the main draws of this album. it is funny. whether intended, in a tongue-in-cheek sense, or simply as a result of a lapse into unintended pretentiousness, this album is HILARIOUS. in fact it is difficult even for this pessimistic one to imagine that a sense of humor wasn't meant to accompany the spirit of experimentation evident in this album..

..which is what makes the album endearing. It isn't an album to spend your money on unless you are a diehard fan, but those interested in the evolution of the darkwave-gothic-electronica 'scene' should hear this album once or twice to understand what SS were trying to accomplish here. How many darkwave/gothic albums have you listened to whose secondary frame of reference is hip-hop?

'Serpentine Gallery' firmly references gothic rock. it is a confident, superb debut in that sense -- years afterwards, SS created an album that almost sounds like it could be a contemporary of Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus. but "Bread and Jam" clearly references hiphop with its funky, looped beats, occasional scratching sounds, and the cut-downs in the lyrics (forget the songs) .. likewise, the third album progresses further into trip-hop with its deep bass, the raspy, throaty croon of the vocals referencing old jazz divas..

this is not an album for the serious, pretentious gothique. but glittergoths, darkwave kids and anyone with a sense of humor can appreciate this album for the turn it takes... even if the results are not always ideal, i enjoy Switchblade Symphony as a band because on each of their releases they provide a coherent interpretation of their music in a certain genre, even if that territory has been mapped before..


Does this change how we view Switchblade Symphony?   June 14, 2000
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

This cd changed the way many people looked at one of the fore runners of the gothic/darkwave scene. Switchblade Symphony changed the way they did things on thier Serpentine Gallery release and calmed thier sound. The drums that were more electronic sounding previously became replaced with a live drummer and an attempt to bring the instruments out more like thier live shows. The result became the Bread & Jam for Francis release. The over all feel of the cd is often slow & melencholy while the vocals remain to be operatic & haunting. The songs Witches,Roller Coaster & Dirty Dog let the listener know that they have been taken further through the dreamscapes of the previous release only to be taken further into the spirals with songs like Insect, Harpsichord & Fractal. Go into this cd expecting nothing and open your mind up. This disc isnt as haunting as the previous release but a must if you are collecting thier cd collection. If just starting I Highly recomend buying Serpetine Gallery first to show the music progressions. Also I recomend The 3 Calmities release to show how the band continues to grow. This cd is definatly one to buy but because of it missing that dark feel the band first opened with I am giving it a slightly lower rating...