Category: Album Reviews

Andrew Thomases’ Reminiscence of His Past In NY Inspires New Song “Suburban Void”

Andrew Thomases, reflects on his adolescence from the point of view of suburban life within the busy streets of New York. This past Friday, January 21, Thomases released a new single, “Suburban Void”, sharing his experiences.

Thomases discusses life as a teenager and all the boredom-driven antics he pursued during that time. “Suburban Void” is a catchy upbeat rock song listeners can dance to. He highlights some activities pursued that were “so pathetic”, which is a feeling people may share in remembrance of their immaturity as a teen. Thomases looks back into what was deemed important to adolescents, like getting drunk or preparing for a sweet sixteen. Ultimately, his views have changed since then, resulting from seeing the world differently as he grew up.

Looking back, it seems so pathetic. We were just living in a suburban void, we didn’t know all we could’ve enjoyed. We were just living in a suburban void, that explains why we were oh so annoyed.
Andrew Thomases

All within his first year of being an established artist, Thomases’ fan base spread across 35 countries, 388 streams, and 235 listeners through Spotify. Considering Thomases takes his audience on an emotional and thoughtful journey through his music, he presents himself as relatable to the masses.

For more information on Andrew Thomases’ music visit his website.

January 31, 2022
North Side Sound set to release Debut EP “Take My Time”

Are you a fan of rock, indie, reggae, or even funk? North Side Sound, a band out of Albany who formed a year and a half ago, does it all. The tandem create genre bending music and are set to release them on their EP Take My Time, on January 28th on all streaming platforms.

The four songs represent the concept of relationships in their own unique way, and how they can be inconsistent . They also represent all the good memories that are shared within relationships. Pauly Graves (lead vox, guitar) Kasey Hogan (guitar), AJ Farina (bass) and Todd “Toddy” Friedman (drums) recorded all four songs during the pandemic.

Tracks “Take My Time” and “Five” really put the project together well. “Take My Time” is up tempo and has a mix of reggae and rock melodies. The bridge and the hook are catchy with a guitar riff bringing energy to the track to where you’ll find yourself bobbing your head. “Five” has a more reggae feel from the drum patterns to the guitar melodies. The bridge in “I Let It Roll, Roll, Roll” is very catchy as well.

North Side Sound’s Take My Time EP is a debut project with great artistry, melodies and overall song composition. Go listen to “Take My Time” on all streaming services on Friday, January 28th.

January 28, 2022
Brooklynite Nathan Leigh’s Life Experiences Shape Genre Blending Album “All Myths Are Remixes”

An album full of alternative, rock, punk, indie and jazz vibes are what constitute Brooklyn musician, Nathan Leigh’s latest work of art. As of today, Leigh’s All Myths Are Remixes, is added to his never ending music portfolio. He released his lead single No Poetry (feat. Noie) [Timelapse Mix] [Timelapse Mix] – Single — Nathan Leigh, this past January 14th, providing listeners an idea of what to expect from his latest album.

Nathan Leigh portrays powerful messages throughout the duration of All Myths Are Remixes. It relays a creative vision on how to overcome the anxieties of our deepest thoughts, whereas other songs provide a more easy going and relaxing tone that listeners can vibe to.

“Pirkei Avot,” shares a message of perseverance, especially when all hope is lost. Meanwhile, “Thx::Spkr” opens with a woman discussing the protests taking place in today’s society, as well as the impact of revolutions that are necessary to establish change. Subsequently, “For When You Feel Like Giving Up” eases the mind with a slow jam without words, but is full of jazz melodies featuring saxophonist Anthony Cekay.

I started working on the album in the first days of the pandemic as a project to keep my mind off the existential dread. I thought of each song as a miniature world I could construct to escape into. The recording sessions for ‘Myths, Conspiracy Theories & Other Stuff I Made Up To Sound Interesting’ yielded so much great material that landed on the cutting room floor, and part of my goal with it was to highlight the contributions of my collaborators that didn’t make the album. So each song is constructed around showcasing one collaborator’s work. Working with their tracks has been my way of playing with them and existing in a room together at a time when it’s still not safe to gather such a large group to rehearse.
Nathan Leigh

As a composer, writer, animator, and activist , Leigh is well versed in the artistry of America’s society as we know it. His previous EP dropped on November 19, 2021, House On Stilts, which was accompanied by a stop-motion film.

Additionally, he has worked in the theater industry, sharing his talents for over 300 plays across the U.S. Specifically, he has designed sound and composed music for plays located at the American Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, New York Theatre Workshop and more. Leigh was presented with his most recent award “Broadway World Berkshires” in 2020 for Sound Design of the Decade for Godspell. Therefore, there is no doubt that All Myths Are Remixes will significantly impact his music career.

To discover more of Leigh’s work visit nathanleigh.net.

January 28, 2022
Laurel Canyon release debut EP “Victim”

Laurel Canyon released their debut EP, Victim, on January 14, featuring two brand new singles “Shove” and “Sade.” The album was produced by Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Hello Mary) at Trout Recording in Brooklyn. Along with this, the artist Savage Pencil, who has worked with Big Black and Sonic Youth, created the artwork for the EP.

Cover artwork by Savage Pencil (Big Black, Sonic Youth).

Laurel Canyon is a grunge band originally from Pennsylvania, however, they record their music and perform in Brooklyn. Nicholas Gillespie and Serg Cereja are the creators of this iconic band. To sum up, they met two years ago through a mutual friend in their hometown of Allentown. After that, through shared interests and collaboration, the two began writing and recording songs. Above all, creating the punk-rock band known today as Laurel Canyon.

Photo by @pielmelosa on Instagram

Victim embodies the sounds of original 90s grunge/pun music. Likewise, along with its melodic vocals, the album creates a unique tone. In songs like “Daddy’s Honey,” the two yell repeatedly “off her broken plates” together. Similarly, the song’s lyrics are said to be inspired by the band’s “real-life experiences in a troubled home” (Thomas Gallo).

Photo by Alex Hall

There’s no denying that this album has gained popularity online for its 90s-sound, with “Eczema” and “Daddy’s Honey” are featured in the Spotify playlists “All New Rock” and “Smells Like Stream Spirit.”

In October of 2020, Nick and Serg shared the song, “Two Times Emptiness,” released on May 1st, 2021. Both artists said they contributed equally to the music and the lyrics, thus creating a song neither could have written alone.

Photo by Nikola Burnett

The band quickly found themselves with a lot of material to work with and established a relationship with producer, Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Hello Mary). With the help of bassist Dylan Loccarini and Chip Williams, in July and November of 2021 the group recorded the 5-track EP Victim.

Victim can be found on Spotify and Bandcamp.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6ciEiH4RBAUYDRQkPS4GBR?si=f0048ac2d65f4345 https://linktr.ee/Laurel_Canyon

January 27, 2022
You and Us Announce First children’s Album ‘For Children of All Ages’

“You and Us” will release its first children’s album, For Children Of All Ages, on February 14, 2022. Nicole Porter, a clinical art therapist, musician and president of the New York Art Therapy Association, encourages children with pandemic trauma to listen to the album for healing.

Components of The Album

“You and Us” presents an album with the vibe of mostly upbeat rock, country and pop music. Consisting of numerous melodies, the album illustrates an enchanting adventure for listeners. For Children of All Ages, begins with a folksy opener, “Nowhere Now Here”, to the Nashville country vibe of “Safety and Security”. Furthermore, children will discover the evocative, mystical sounds in “Social Connection” and more variations throughout the album.

Inspiration For Art Therapy

Porter took a leap into child therapy, following the Sandy Hook School shooting in Newton, Connecticut in 2012. Evidently children across the U.S. had anxiety following the incident. However, psychologists and credited researchers developed ways to cope, such as CBT for Children.

For Children of All Ages provides a rare opportunity to enjoy tunes geared toward uplifting children and families who are experiencing difficult times. It focuses on fostering wellness and a sense of security, and it introduces therapeutic techniques that can be used in a playful way with all children. It’s also a gentle dip into the vast stream of possibility that art therapy holds for healing humans.”
Nicole Porter

People like Porter were inspired to cultivate change, hence why she established the Emerald Sketch, a mental health organization and art therapy trauma response team. Considering that Porter has a young child of her own, she wished to establish a sense of hope and relief in children. Therefore, her goal with this album is to provide wellness and security, in the midst of the challenges of parenting during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Colleagues

Javere Pinnock, longtime collaborator and art therapy trauma responder, produced the album cover art, which depicts a band of mid-pandemic children raising a flag of love and peace. His inspiration derives from the notorious 1945 Joseph Rosenthal photograph, “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima,” and Felix W. de Weldon’s Marine Corps War Memorial sculpture.

Additionally, Porter created this album along with musical colleague Wyndham Garnett, to combine their mutual love of vintage British rock and classic American puppetry. The album is infused with powerful messages of courage, love, support, enthusiasm, grace, and more.

January 21, 2022
Peter Stone’s Debut EP “Unlabeled” Delivers Eminently Listenable Artistic Vision

Peter Stone’s debut EP, “Unlabeled“, delivers an eminently listenable and creatively integral album. It’s a work whose influences are clear—R&B vocals, 80’s synthesizers, pop beats—but who’s originality and creative vision are even more evident.

Stone’s work features a knack for melodies that are sonically complex and rich with texture but that are, nonetheless, earworms that stick with you as you listen. Even though he recorded the album in 2020 during lockdown in his native Italy “when he couldn’t have any contact with anyone [which] was a really tough time” his ability to guarantee head-bobbing tunes belies the conditions under which the EP was recorded.

Although his ability to do so appears effortless the quality of the music suggests it likely wasn’t. Rather it was the product of a detailed process of intentional musical choices from his myriad influences. On “Cold,” the album’s likely hit, his mix of R&B crooning and 80’s synthesizers combine to make what is ultimately a pop song of the highest order.

Stone doesn’t have an aversion to pop music. Even if we admits that it’s not one of the guiding inspirations of his musical process.

“Pop is one of the genres I’m up to put myself in even though [I’m not] mainly inspired by it when it comes to the writing and the production of my songs,” acknowledged Stone.

Even if it isn’t his main inspiration there’s no denying that it’s the outcome. On “Lead Me”, the first song on Peter Stone’s debut EP, he sings “She’s dancing on the floor/She’s moving on the floor” over pulsating synths and basses.

His obvious talent for creating uniquely creative, yet accessible music is on delves into new spaces with “Save Me” and “Trust.” The first is an emotional piano ballad, with Stone playing the keys, that while still feeling slightly like a young artist’s imitation of what they think an emotional song should sound like; has lyrics that effectively portray a person that’s fractured and realizing that they have to put themselves back together.

On “Trust” Stone exhibits a mature understanding of song composition that is reflexive of a clear creative vision, executed with purpose. The song is a three-parter but to say more would spoil the mix of delight and intrigue one feels at its transitions. All of which are unlike both each other and the rest of the songs on Unlabeled offering a glimpse into Stone’s multidimensionality as an artist.

His multitude of influences might have created a genre blending debut but ultimately all that matters is that once you listen to Peter Stone’s debut EP…you’ll want to listen to it again.

January 15, 2022
Hearing Aide: Ari Joshua’s ‘RAAR’ Featuring Russ Lawton & Ray Paczkowski

Last winter, with the ongoing pandemic still raging, South African-born and American-raised guitarist Ari Joshua took a trip to the East Coast, specifically Burlington, VT, to work with Russ Lawton and Ray Paczkowski on a much-discussed organ trio collaboration. Now, this bicoastal musical endeavor has come to fruition in the form of the recently released, six-song EP RAAR, an acronym for the three musicians. With the assistance of Phish’s recording engineer Ben Collette, the trio churned out about 25 different tracks of Joshua-penned selections, mostly brand new compositions and concepts. The final product is a nifty little musical excursion that explores elements of jazz, rock, gospel, funk and everything in between.

The making of RAAR was both delayed and aided by Trey Anastasio Band’s eight-show residency at New York City’s Beacon Theatre the year before. While this would require the attention of bandmembers Lawton and Paczkowski, it also helped initiate the quarantine protocols that allowed Joshua to travel east and make this collaboration a reality. “I owe a great thank you to Trey Anastasio for opening the doors to a protocol to collaborate during his Beacon Theater run, and for sharing these great players with the world,” Joshua told Relix recently.

Russ Lawton, Ari Joshua, Ben Collette, Ray Paczkowski (l-r), photo courtesy of Ari Joshua

The EP is bookended with a couple of tributes to Joshua’s grandmothers. Fittingly, “Gramama” begins the musical journey. It’s a soul-fueled, uptempo number that has the feel of a Sunday celebration at church. Joshua mans the lead vocals with some heavenly female backup vocals added later while ebullient play on the Hammond organ from Paczkowski gives the opener a dash of zydeco flavor as well. “For Ray” sounds exactly how one would expect a Soule Monde “side project” to sound like. The steady, infectious shuffle drum beat from Lawton and aggressive organ and clav runs dominate this signature track while Joshua feathers in the occasional effect-laden guitar lick giving it a somewhat more psychedelic Medeski, Martin and Wood vibe. “Audio Bicycle Day” introduces some haunting background special effects behind motivated electric guitar play from Joshua whose Anastasio influences are omnipresent.

“The Bernie Meme” is a song named for exactly that, the viral meme of Bernie Sanders sitting cross-legged in the middle of winter. Joshua takes more of a lead with a beautifully simplistic guitar lick on another Soule Monde-ish number that hits on aspects of pop, soul and funk resulting in a delicious melting pot of sound. “Star Lord” is a fun romp from start to finish riddled with more psychedelic production and sees Paczkowski shifting nimbly back and forth between the clav and organ once more with Joshua delivering a slew of infectious jazz guitar fills. It’s one of the more cohesive and well-produced tracks on the EP. Lastly, “Rae of Life” serves as the other tribute for Joshua’s late grandmother and definitely evokes a celebration of life mantra, with its delicate guitar licks and soaring, inspirational organ fills atop choir-like backing vocals that gives the ending of RAAR a discernible feel-good quality to it.

From the first note of recording I could sense that Ray and Russ were a perfect musical fit, there was a shared respect and love for the music you don’t always find out there.
Ari Joshua

The band has no current tour plans but there is a vinyl release of RAAR expected later this year. For now, the album can be found at Ari Joshua’s website or on streaming platforms. Joshua is also the founder and owner of The Music Factory, an online music lessons portal which has been running for nearly 15 years, employing close to 100 musicians since its inception.

Key Tracks: For Ray, Star Lord

January 13, 2022
Hearing Aide: The Final Sleep “Vessels Of Grief”

New York State has some of the finest bands in the U.S. From Clouds Taste Satanic, to Diluted, Wasted Space to Caustic, and Less than Hate, NYS knows how to throw down a heavy riff or three. With that in mind, our focus today is on a band from Troy, the immensely talented The Final Sleep.

The Final Sleep is a five piece that features founding members of Arsis (drummer Mike Van Dyne), Burning Human (bassist Jason Van DerVoort and guitarist Mike Stack), and Withstand (guitarist Kevin Maloney) joined by Jeff Andrews (guitar and vocals). Together they utilize melody, heavy riffs, sizzling lead guitar work, expertly performed vocals, and a ton of power in order to get their message across; they also throw in some progressive elements to bring their music up to new levels. Their upcoming album, Vessels of Grief, is due out February 4th.

I was shocked as I listened to Vessels of Grief for the first time, mainly because The Final Sleep hits upon several different genres, and manages to keep the record cohesive despite that. I can hear influences from viking metal, dark melodic metal like Witherfall, death metal, hardcore, and a bit of black metal; the band specifically states that they take influence from Opeth, Edge of Sanity, Control Denied, Amorphis, and Mercyful Fate/King Diamond.

The first single is called Screaming in Silence, and it’s easy to see why they chose this one to lead off with; it’s heavy, the vocals are incredible, and it has a serious Witherfall vibe thanks to those excellent vocals. A huge selling point for me are the heavy vocals, which ride the line between death metal and your standard metal vocals.

Tracks four and five, Soul in Between and Funeral Seed respectively, are everything that I love about heavy metal. The band utilizes a diverse approach in both tracks by incorporating dark and light, heavy and melodic, and it all hits like a ten ton hammer of awesomeness. There also seems to be a splash of black metal, particularly in Funeral Seed, but only as coloring for an already amazing piece of art; this one also has that Witherfall feel in its slower, clean sections, and in how the vocals are performed during them.

I would highly recommend The Final Sleep to any metalhead out there, without even taking their genre of choice into consideration, because Vessels of Grief hits so many sweet spots, and uses influences that are far ranging. This album will be one of New York’s finest metal releases.
<a href="https://thefinalsleepny.bandcamp.com/album/vessels-of-grief">Vessels Of Grief by The Final Sleep</a>

January 10, 2022
Hearing Aide: Baked Shrimp ‘Pork Etiquette’

Long Island funk band, Baked Shrimp, makes an intriguing return with their third studio album, Pork Etiquette. The January 7 release coincides with the band’s fifth anniversary and it’s obvious just how much experience they’ve gained.

Album Cover

They recorded the album during the same sessions as their second studio album, Conscious, and it serves as an elevated part two. The Brothers Nylon assisted in the process from their studio in Patchogue, NY and Anthony Cimino at Mojo Music Studios mixed and mastered the final product.

The group utilizes a variety of sounds as they take listeners through the tales of each song, with jazz, alternative rock and early 2000’s pop rock being heard throughout. However, funk remains a mainstay.

Baked Shrimp performing at LonCon 2021

“Cannabis Bob” showcases just how well two different sonic themes can be meshed together. Fittingly named, the rhythm on this track makes you bob your head before it brings you up high. The song then crescendos in a mash of guitar, drums and bong rips before it brings you back down to the ground.

“The Gopher”’s introduction is one that you won’t forget as the horns come in to prove just why they’re included. The slick instrumental keeps your ears locked as smokey vocals feed you the tale of one bad gopher, ending with a snappy flourish. The drums never let up as they bind everything together. Don’t mess with the gopher.

“Tulu” does not waste its’ track length on fluff as Jared Cowen shows his composition prowess. The tropical beat brings you away from NY’s frigid winter and into an island paradise. The guitar and drums keep things cohesive as the band does their integral sound switching. The track provides a fitting end to the album.

As promotions for Pork Etiquette commence, it’s safe to say that Baked Shrimp has earned their spot in the East Coast music scene. Although the pandemic rages on, fans will have the chance to see their 2022 Winter Tour. They will perform in Ithaca on January 28.

Key Tracks: Cannabis Bob, The Gopher, Tulu

January 8, 2022