NYS Music 20​16

Tag: Album Review

  • Hearing Aide: Eric Clapton “I Still Do”

    Eric Clapton released his twenty-third studio album, I Still Do, on Friday, May 19, in what may be a farewell to a storied career as the blues and rock legend interprets his own musical heroes and peers across 12 well placed tracks. If this is goodbye to a 50+ year musical legacy, it is a fitting tribute to his career and those of friends who have passed in recent years and given him food for thought as he retired from the road in recent years.

    The songs selected by Slowhand on I Still Do read like a life reflection, opening with youthful, bluesy and upbeat numbers “Alabama Woman Blues” (Leroy Carr) and “Can’t Let You Do It” (JJ Cale), and wrapping up with songs that reference aging quite bluntly: “I Dreamed I saw St. Augustine” (Bob Dylan), “I’ll Be Alright” (traditional) “Somebody’s Knockin’” (JJ Cale) and “I’ll Be Seeing You” (best known by Billie Holiday). Overall, the album is about as good as studio Clapton gets, bringing together originals, songs from familiar influence Cale and Johnson, as well as deeper cuts from Skip James and Carr. With producer Glyn Johns, whom Clapton worked with on 1977’s Slowhand, this possibly final album is one of Clapton’s best.

    “I Will Be There” (Paul Brady) is the good vibes sing along of the album, with supportive lyrics “If you need someone to help you through, just call my name, and I will come running to your side. Don’t be afraid, I will be there,” one that gives casual fans a connection to the many sounds of Clapton, a combination of “Tears in Heaven” and “Change the World.” Of note is the credit to Angelo Mysterioso, denied by Clapton as being a posthumous George Harrison cameo but speculation that it may be the late Beatles’ son Dhani Harrison.

    Two originals, “Spiral” and “Catch the Blues,” are the meat of the album, the former grittier and the latter smoother with a shade of Bossa Nova mixed in. Skip James’ “Cypress Grove” is a fierce number, true Delta blues style. A lullabye, “Little Man, You’ve Had a Busy Day” changes the tempo of the album to a more calm, acoustic, before Robert Johnson’s “Stones in My Passway” reflects on losing power over body and soul. The cover art to I Still Do brings to mind Robert Johnson’s classic image, one legend paying tribute to another: a straightforward, no frills bluesman looking right at you.

    There is a lot of life left in Clapton, make no mistake, and a smattering of shows each year will be a staple of his as old bluesman are wont to do – they never seem to go out quietly, nor fade away slowly, but instead be ever present even as performances decrease in number.

    Key Tracks: Can’t Let You Do It, Cypress Grove, Stones in my Passway, Somebody’s Knockin’

  • Hearing Aide: The Hairs “While I Hated a Life Barbarian”

    The Hairs is the freak-pop project of Kevin Alvir. Inspired by underground comics, alternative comedy, DIY K-records pop, and Flying Nun records, the Hairs write songs about dying houseplants, barbarian life, prison stays, gay male bonding, mind-bending anxiety, and other fun things. The Hairs are rounded out by fellow collaborators Jacob Sloan & Steve Tarkington.

    From the start of this album this writer did not know what to expect by the album title, the first track “Barbarians” really sets the tone for the rest of the album. With a Beatles-esque feel with the driving rhythms of the guitar and percussion along with monotonic vocals is a very nice blend making this album a favorite for anyone that loves progressive rock. From start to finish this album allows the listener to really encapsulate themselves inside the album, with the use of powerful lyrics throughout. After a few listens through this album was when the appreciation for the mastery that is being put on display began to sink in. Finding drifting away as I sit at my local coffee shop as certain tracks on this album would be quite fitting to be played inside of one.

    This writer is normally not one to listen to this genre of music very much; but was truly reveled at how enjoyable this album was, definitely one that would be recommended to giving at least one full listen to. Finding a deep connection with certain tracks as listed below, this is definitely a band that would be intriguing to see live one day. “Barbarians” This song is the perfect way for this album to kick off. As stated above this is one of the tracks on the album that would be heard being played inside of a coffee shop. Very mellow but upbeat, this song is the perfect start to the road trip ahead of you with the following tracks. “That Witch” We’ve all wanted to write a song about a girl that has caused some kind of annoyance in our lives. This track is exactly that, uplifting as the track may sound the lyrics is exactly the opposite, “That Witch, that witch she took away my feelings that witch that witch I haven’t slept for weeks.” Just an example of the power behind the lyrics throughout this song definitely one to listen to either after a fight with your significant other or a breakup as it is most fitting for such reasons. “Homeboyz” Out of all the tracks on this album, this one sticks out to me the most. With the lyrics striking a chord about the mundane and depressive thought of no one coming to your funeral including your closest friends. As depressing as the lyrics are on this track, it allows you as the listener to reflect on what truly means the most in your life.

    Key Tracks: Barbarians, That Witch, Homeboyz

  • Hearing Aide: Future Rock ‘Long Ago’

    12967984_10154068406074250_61455032667498911_oFuture Rock’s music dances on elegantly etched lines of melody, while their sleek rock beat creates waves in the
    electronic tune; a favorable combination that
    won’t let listeners stand still.     Long Ago, their newly released album, stands out from the rest of their work, as the band continues to experiment with the boundaries between groovy melodies, skillful songwriting and what it means to be a modern dance-rock group. Coupled with the addition of DJ/producer/singer Tibaut Bowman and the exquisite voice of Anna Soltys, the Future Rock trio’s fifth full-length album shows growth in their pursuit of that fusion.

    “Take It Back” kicks off the seven-track album wearing their evolution proudly: we are instantly drawn into the music with Soltys’ voice opening the song, and then pulled up by the Chicago-based group’s fist-pumping beats. Bowman helps tie in what the group does best, plunging their beat to a depth that slows Future Rock’s usual brisk rhythm. “Long Ago” is a track that stays with you, like a bubble of dreamy haze that picks you up and floats you around. The three tracks without Soltys’ voice showcase the band’s synthesis of jumping meters and weaving in and out of progressive house through artful movement of the keys and pulse.

    The album title is an interesting alliance between the group name and their direction: Long Ago by Future Rock. The group has commented saying this union invokes their combination of reaching new heights, while returning to masterful songwriting. The trio includes Mickey Kellerman on keys, Darren Heitz on drums and Felix Moreno on bass guitar.  This is an album you won’t want to miss if you’re interested in the direction that Future Rock is going in. 

    Key tracks: “Take It Back,” “Long Ago,” “A Better Way”

  • Hearing Aide: Gramatik ‘Epigram’

    EpigramEpigram, a short saying representing a larger meaning or idea. The album art for Gramatik’s ninth album, Epigram, is the epigram. Being an outspoken advocate of free music sharing, Gramatik often engages in discussion on Twitter. The concise and lucid quips people send in 140 characters – epigrams – are often the initial inspiration for his music, which led to the album’s name.

    Epigram is a short, yet powerful, album featuring collaborations with many popular names in hip hop, such as Raekwon, ProbCause, and Adrian Lau. The album’s 10 tracks span the range of electronic music and includes bits of dubstep, downtempo, and straight up electronic hip hop. Gramatik strays from his usual sampling of music from the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s for his latest release. Instead, he chose to sample the music of his musician friends. The result is a concise album that flows from track to track and keeps the listener engaged and awaiting the next hook or beat to drop.

    “Tempus Illusio” kicks off Epigram with a short, intensifying tune. “Satoshi Nakamoto” is a rap, loosely based on Bitcoin, invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, sung over jazzy samples. It features both Adrian Lau and ProbCause trading up the vocal duties. “War of the Currents” is straight up dubstep. Gramatik remixes Laibach’s “Eat Liver!” into a more danceable track with elements of dubstep and house. The album closes out with the more downtempo “Anima Mundi,” featuring Russ Liquid, which nicely bookends the first track.

    Overall, Epigram is an excellent collection of beats displaying Gramatik’s skills. In staying true to his ideals, the album is available as a free download or through traditional paid download outlets, such as iTunes and Amazon.

    Key tracks: Satoshi Nakamoto, Native Son, Native Son Prequel, Back to the Future

  • Hearing Aide: The Heroic Enthusiasts “Memory Wheel”

    Rochester’s self-described “new wave influenced indie-pop” group The Heroic Enthusiasts have spun their new EP Memory Wheel and landed on a unique combination of musical genres.

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    Released in February 2016 on Jam Tom Music, the guitar-heavy tracks combined with lyrics delivered with a slight English accent put off a progressive rock vibe with a slight 1980’s tone. That’s no surprise as the group is led by James Tabbi and Tom Ferrara on vocals and guitar, both of whom are math majors and music lovers of Sicilian descent.

    Tabbi and Ferrara have weaved intricate guitar stylings and open-for-interpretation lyrics into a soundtrack reflective of the tangled melodies of track 2, Falling of the Drop, which runs the gamut of emotions from a sense of foreboding to a feeling of release, a reminder that through music we we truly are “all one.”

    “Suspended, connected, singularity of thought, the falling of the drop. In silent reflection, more powerful than fear, the falling of the drop.”

    The lyrics in track 4 Broken Liquid could be about anything from broken friendships, regrets, love or loss.

    “We say we’re friends but never can speak again. Leftover thoughts, discarded with broken plans. Isn’t this how it always ends”

    The Heroic Enthusiasts (3), photo credit Jason Wilder

    Professionals by day, Tabbi and Ferrara started playing together performing covers, but soon realized they wanted to write their own songs. They’ve since recorded eleven songs as The Heroic Enthusiasts since 2013, four of which are featured on their first EP Memory Wheel, also featuring Dexter Redic on bass and Mike James on drums. The album is worth taking a spin, especially for those who enjoy a methodical and progressive approach to music.

  • Hearing Aide: Danny Barnes “Got Myself Together (10 Years Later)”

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    He’s collaborated with the likes of Dave Matthews, Mike Gordon and the Butthole Surfers, been branded the world’s best banjoist by Texas roots-rocker Robert Earl Keen and honored by comedian-musician Steve Martin himself with a prize of excellence in the stringed instrument. And in true Danny Barnes fashion, the Pacific Northwest banjo virtuoso broke his six-year recording absence not with an offering of polished originals, but with a reworking of his 2005 album Get Myself Together. The new solo project, Got Myself Together (10 Years Later), released November 2015 on Eight 30 Records, is a collection of 12 tracks, plus a nostalgic bonus cover of “I’m Convicted” from his former punkgrass band the Bad Livers (see the official music video below).

    Re-recorded to give that unplugged in-your-living room aesthetic, the album is now a more stripped down compilation of the narratives that Barnes has performed onstage for the past decade. The result is a set of acoustic songs that no longer need supporting instruments, because Barnes has developed each tune’s character and lets his picking, plucking, thrumming and bashing steal the show; and his aged vocals add honeyed warmth like the smooth, spicy finish of mature bourbon.

    Barnes takes listeners on a 42-minute sepia-toned adventure of offbeat tales featuring jail cells, plowing fields and mashing moonshine told in his genre-bending style of noise rock with Grand Ole Opry roots and computerized elements he’s coined as “barnyard electronics.” A vagrant when it comes to tradition, the gypsy banjo player roams as he pleases from light-hearted jalopies like “Get Myself Together” to strumming the breezy, satirical “Get Me Out of Jail” and preaching the Delta blues in “Let Your Light Shine On Me” to high-lonesome hillbilly proclamations in “Corn Kingdom Come.” The lauded singer-songwriter arranges parched visions of old-time Appalachia in the instrumental “Cumberland Gap,” where the original evoked more of an Old World Irish flair, and songsmiths the constant sorrow of modern man in “Wasted Mind” and “Get It On Down the Line.”

    While at the core the sounds on this record are an acquired taste, this anniversary release is worth the listen—or multiple revisits—to solely marvel at the documented growth of this master artist as he continues to reinterpret himself after 40 years of making music.

    Key Tracks: Cumberland Gap, Wasted Mind, Get It On Down the Line, Big Shoe

  • Hearing Aide: Record New Highs Debut EP

    RNH EP Front CoverIn the years 1998 and 2003 a collaboration of musicians assembled to record 3 songs.  Lead by David “Solid” Gould, formerly of John Brown’s Body, Record New Highs features artists such as Brian Wilson (Anna Koogan, Johnny Dowd), Nate “Silas” Richardson (10 Ft Ganja Plant, Black Castle, Sim Redmond Band), Mark Berney (Itzhak Perlman, formerly of the Skatalites), Jhakeem Haltom (Thousands of One), and Craig Akira Fujita (Pressure Cooker, 10 Ft. Ganja Plant).

    The EP’s 3 songs, “Unity,” “Duva Duva,” and “Rebirth” are explored inside and out; they are first displayed in their original form and then represented with slight variation with either a dub style or with a DJ to give a subtly different tone.  When these songs were created and recorded Gould didn’t feel that it was the right time to bring them to bear.  Instead, he waited 13 years to finally give the public a taste of his and Record New Highs’ eclectic and jazzy ambient tones.  According to the collaborative’s website, Gould had “been patiently waiting for the right time to release this debut EP.”  He decided that in January the time had finally come. Keep an ear out for more innovative sounds from Record New Highs, as there are plans of fresh releases in the near future featuring the melodic and percussive sounds of the West African inspired tongue drum.

    This EP is available on Bandcamp to listen to and purchase, and is available for streaming on Spotify.  To get a taste of these “new” eclectic recordings check out both “Unity” and “Unity DJ Style” below.

    [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2k7gJi7VM[/embedyt]

    [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzSDOxxjTqI[/embedyt]

  • Hearing Aide: LYON “Trinity”

    LYON TrinityWhat does a music-monger love more than great weather on Shakedown Street? The answer is a solo project from a member of a favorite band.

    SOLARiS drummer Dan Lyons has released Trinity, the third studio album from the New York City producer, recording as LYON. As a member of Ithaca’s electro-rock band SOLARiS and touring for years at smaller venues around the Northeast and at festivals such as Catskill Chill, LYON brought together numerous contemporaries for this compilation, including guitarist Wiley Griffin and producers Binary Bits and Digital Davy. Members from Horizon Wireless and SOLARiS also guest starred. Trinity was mastered by Disco Biscuits‘ archivist and sound engineer Rich Steele.

    Each of the 11 songs on this album is seamlessly put together and downright smooth; and each tune features unique euphoric sounds with steady drum beats that seduce a perpetual head bob. The first key track on the record,”When I Was Young,” is a bouncy collaboration between Lyons and Horizon Wireless, while “Hydrocuff” flows as an alluring trance with touches of Caribbean steel drums mid-song.

    “Midnite Society” offers listeners a surprising and fun mixture of disco and pile-driving guitar jams, and it lead my mind to start jamming into LOTUS shortly after. The title of “Clock Strikes 12’” nicely closes out the collection, as Trinity is the perfect soundtrack for those impromptu after-hour dance parties. Or for listening to as the western sun floated down through the window and left me bouncing and grooving in my chair, feeling completely relaxed and at home in myself.

    LYON’s beautiful new release, Trinity, can be streamed in full via the artist’s Bandcamp page, and if you find yourself impressed, there is no shortage of live SOLARiS documentation to check out.

    Key Tracks: “When I Was Young,” “Hydrocuff,” “Midnite Society,” “Clock Strikes 12′”

  • Hearing Aide: Subsoil ‘On the Bus’

    Stealing a page from the late great Ken Kesey, Rochester’s Subsoil opens their new album proclaiming, “You’re either on the bus, or you’re off the bus.” This bus, number 585 (Rochester’s area code), is bound for “trans-dimensional hyperspace.” With a destination like that, how could you resist at least one trip On the Bus with Subsoil?

    The album consists of reggae, soul, R&B, jazz, funk and rock, sometimes fused, sometimes fairly straight. Ted Ladwig has a knack for catchy keyboard nuggets, whether they come to the fore (“High Noon”) or hide just under the surface (“Zombies”). He sets up Wil McKenna for an array of surprising and diverse guitar solos which can echo Santana’s tone (“Surrender”), wail like an Allman Brother (“Meditation”), or crunch out some funky rhythms atop Ladwig’s whirling B3. Sprinkle in some well-placed saxophone blasts by Bill Smith and lay it all over some steady work by the rhythm section and you have yourself an enjoyable and bouncy ride.

    Oh wait, did I forget to mention that front-men Moon-Roc and Laz Green are rapping over the whole thing? It’s a combination that can be reminiscent of the trip-hop of the 90’s and bands like Buckshot Lefonque and Us3. Steve Gutenberg, Tetris, Muhammed Ali, Walter White, Eazy-E, Scooby Doo and obviously the aforementioned Ken Kesey all get referenced, and that’s just in the album-opening title track. Later on Captain Trips gets a call out, though likely in reference to the Stephen King character from The Stand, and not Jerry Garcia. Plenty more pop-culture references, both historical and current, and clever word play make their way into this tight 30-minute set.

    Released early in 2016, On the Bus was recorded and mixed by Josh Russell at Spring House Recordings in Oswego and mastered by Jason “Jocko” Randall at More Sound Recording in Syracuse. It is available at many area record stores, as well as online retailers including Subsoil’s website, and streaming on Spotify and YouTube. So get on the bus.

    Key tracks: High Noon, Surrender

  • Hearing Aide: tai free ‘Journals’ EP

    tai freeIf you’re on a searching for some smooth and soulful hip hop music, you might consider listening to tai free’s new EP Journals. Each track has a calm, relaxed feel that puts listeners at ease and provides the opportunity to assess the musicality.  The selections aren’t aggressive or fueled by overwhelming rage like some hip hop tracks. This EP wouldn’t be what most would consider dance music, but rather music you can vibe along to.

    The Brooklyn artist has been making music for a while, but only started getting serious about two years ago. tai free writes and performs his own songs, and the EP is appropriately titled as it provides snapshot of his thoughts and experiences. He describes the collection as “a sketchbook of colors, moods, and self-actualizations.”

    In “I’m Not Here,” it’s clear he’s talking to someone close to him saying that he doesn’t want to be lied to any longer and that he is “not here for games.” Whoever he’s addressing was making him wait and reveals that he’s not going to wait around because he’s too focused on bettering his personal situation to be involved.  At the end of “Bite Your Tongue,” he repeats the lines “Baby don’t bite your tongue, baby don’t lie…” seemingly trying to reinforce the idea that he desires honesty. Rap artists frequently draw on personal experiences for lyrical substance and he does so too by subtly depicting his thoughts and goals.

    The syncopated percussion part in “Complications” is slightly unpredictable and bolsters the title and uncertainty of the situation with the girl expressed throughout. “Drive” incorporates female vocals by Francesca in the beginning which lay down the poignant foundation for the track.

    tai free seems to have a lot of raw talent and knows how to write lyrics that can easily fit into a song structure. The dynamic range of his vocal delivery however, could be broader throughout to show more expression and emotion behind the words. The mixes of each track are relatively simple, and more production elements could be added to his music to enhance the texture.  As a newer artist, more consideration for creative direction and collaboration with other songwriters can only benefit his music moving forward. Overall, tai free has taken the right steps and could have a reputable future in music.

    Key Tracks: I’m Not Here, Drive, Bite Your Tongue