Leo Harmonay - The Blink of an Eye

Leo Harmonay - The Blink of an Eye   

URL: http://www.lharmonic.com/

The Blink of an Eye is one of 2016’s best albums in the folk/blues vein. Much of it is powered by acoustic instruments, but that shouldn’t confuse listeners that the collection is some elevator music approximation or soft-pedaled imitation. Each of its ten songs are marked by unquestionable authenticity and are never content simply aping the genre basics. Harmonay, instead, consistently attempts expanding the vocabulary of the form with unexpected instrumental moments and novel turns on tradition that never sounds out of place in this context. He has an unique vision for traditional music that reflects his personality and experiences in a way that few performers of this style manage in the modern era. There’s no self-indulgence here either and Harmonay’s voice is quite up to the task of retaining the listener’s attention over the course of The Blink of an Eye’s ten songs.  

“Up to You” starts The Blink of an Eye off with a blues song. It isn’t some clumsy or hamfisted attempt to summon the form’s expected turns but, instead, takes on the style with surprising ease. The personal desperation in the lyrical content never goes in for melodrama either and, instead, speaks with the same plain-spoken physicality that the drumming embodies in its bare bones approach. “River Dancer” has much more sophistication than the first song, but it isn’t radically different in tone and temperament from the other tracks. The same attention to detail that fuels the lyrics of songs like the opener is just as present in these more poetic-minded outings and the same unerring instinct for artistic taste stays just as steady here as elsewhere. The musicianship is quite high here, but naturally keeps its focus on remaining accessible to listeners. Backing vocals have a significantly positive effect on “Washing Myself Clean”, but it isn’t because Harmonay needs the singing help. Instead, the chorus of supporting voices gives the song a light suggestion of gospel that many will enjoy. He reins in his adventurous edge on the song “Wounds of Love” and gives listeners one of The Blink of an Eye’s most accomplished folk tunes. He backs it up with a sparkling vocal full of emotion and smarts.  

“Gone Are the Days” has a rough-hewn sound quite unlike many of the others songs and Harmonay’s vocals are more than up to the task of match its forcefulness. “Dirty River Town” is, like “Wounds of Love”, a pure and unadulterated folk song that doesn’t run very long but has an impressively complete feel and seems to encompass an entire world in less than three minutes. The album’s conclusion, “The Joy in Our Sadness”, is the most musically ambitious piece on this release and has a great lyric that speaks to the heart with clarity and just the right touch of poetic grace. It ends The Blink of an Eye on an elegiac note, but listeners won’t walk away disheartened. Despite its often rueful or sad demeanor, these are ultimately life affirming songs that Harmonay invests with gentleness, passion, and patient artistry.  

9 out of 10 stars

CD BABY: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/leoharmonay 

Aaron Ellis

Jamie Kent - All-American Mutt

Jamie Kent - All-American Mutt 

URL: http://jamiekent.com/home 

Making over two hundred live appearances a year, placing high on the bill of major music festivals, and touring with iconic musical units has prompted a blossoming in Jamie Kent’s talent that was always coming. It was just a matter of time. His promise has been evident since his 2009 recording debut and the ever increasing profile he’s enjoyed since then is a testament to talents that set him far apart from today’s average Nashville songwriter. His skills for exploring a variety of different musical styles in a convincing fashion isn’t common magic and his comfort singing in these different modes has no discernible differences. The ten songs are well balanced in their stylistic spectrum and never favor one approach over another. This gives the release an ultimately cohesive effect that few albums ever really achieve and the masterful track listing plays a significant part in that.  

The title song starts off the album with confidence and music that’s never ornamental. There’s flair in the bass line that listeners would have never associated with a Nashville based musical outfit even twenty years ago. The rock and country influences informing this performance match quite well and the populist feelings of Kent’s lyric get a fantastic vocal from him. There’s a bit of Jimmy Buffett creeping in on the good time vibes of “Last Call”, but Kent plays this song a little straighter and it creates a nice contrast. The layered musical arrangement powering “Home Again” has simplicity working for it as well, but Kent’s songwriting once again accomplishes surprising result through stark contrasts. The soft ache of the playing here dovetails nicely into Kent’s muted and sorrowful vocal. The inventively played and arranged “Be Your Man” ranks as one of the most jovial moments on the album and the upswing of Kent’s vocals reflect the same yearning.  

“Diamond” is the album’s breeziest number by far, but it never feels rushed. This is an outright love song filled with that first flush of commitment you feel when it feels like you’ve met the partner of your dreams. There are hints of other things going on lyrically here, but the dominant mood is quite upbeat. All-American Mutt’s greatest ballad comes with “Red Rover” and, in part, the reason for the song’s stature is thanks to Kent dueling with second vocalist Michaela Anne in a slowly developing and deeply emotional duet. The song’s musical arrangement has an almost painterly quality – the sparse elements gain added emphasis over time and, eventually, the incandescent individual parts of the song result in a much greater whole. The final blast of fun for listeners comes with the track “Sheila” thanks to guest Huey Lewis’ rollicking harmonica and the inspiration in Kent’s vocal. It’s his most playful performance by far. All-American Mutt is a powerful album from beginning to end and there are no real lulls in the journey. This is a well-presented musical affair that doesn’t cheat the listener and engages them on a physical and mental level alike.  

9 out of 10 stars 

SPOTIFY: https://play.spotify.com/album/675wERAY2drYjJp8dLeqjn?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open 

Montey Zike

Alessandro Coli - I Betcha'

Alessandro Coli - I Betcha' 

URL: http://www.alessandrocoliofficial.com/ 

Alessandro Coli’s journey to musical stardom began with his discovery of Queen’s music at the age of ten and reached its first peak with his appearance on the Italian television talent show Io Canto at the age of fifteen. He released his first Italian language single in 2011, “Sento Che”, rocketed to the top of the Italian radio charts in only ten days and lingered in the Top 30 for over a month. Sony Music subsequently released his first digital EP “Senza Paura”. His first American release in early 2016 “Flames” showed that his music has appeal that spreads far beyond the European continent with its strong showing in the Billboard Dance Club charts and the new release “I Betcha” shows all the elements of important growth that expanding his career requires and is a top shelf dance pop track that engages the mind as well as the body.  

The core of the song is Coli’s vocal. It takes a good and causally phrased lyric and vividly dramatizes it without ever milking the material for melodrama. Rueful breakup songs are quite common and, unfortunately, the approaches taken to these songs by a vast majority of their authors varies little, but Coli is extremely personal and knows how to put that across to listeners in an uncluttered and relatable way. The music strengthens everything further. The typical formula for this form is that the music takes precedence over the lyrics, but Coli overturns the formula by putting these qualities on equal footing and tailoring each to complement the other. The mounting air of the song is expertly handled, never rushing its climatic final effect, and Coli shows the same patience by carefully and rhythmically following it closely. 

Chris Rodriguez produced Coli’s first English language single and this second stab into America features the same solid musical judgment about presentation. It’s another complementary element in the musical mix that helps push this much further over the top than “Flames”. There’s a sense of momentum that’s undeniable in the song and mimics the same gathering steam that is pushing Coli harder and harder into the future. The song’s length is absolutely perfect and shows the kind of focus that the genre demands to hold the attention spans of dancers. Everything else after that is spectacularly tasty gravy. 

Passion always spurs the greatest artists, regardless of medium. Musical artists are often some of the most passionate in the arts and often, in our modern age, those artists are inspired by older musicians at a very young age. The turning point of Alessandro Coli’s nineteen years came with discovering his father’s Queen collection when he was only ten years old. Freddie Mercury’s iconic artistry fired the spirit to create and share his own voice with the world and that inspiration continues to push him into the future with strength and artistry.   

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/alessadrocoliofficial/ 

Charles Hatton

Phantom Phunk - Arboles Ossific

Phantom Phunk - Arboles Ossific

 

URL: http://www.phantomphunk.com 

Some bands can and want to do it all. Phantom Phunk from the South Florida doesn’t restrict themselves in anyway and anything that works to improve a song falls within their wheelhouse. The artistic bravery pushing this sort of confidence to the fore can be heard across the board in the band’s first release Arboles Ossific. It’s a ten song collection that leaves few stylistic stones unturned in the band’s search for the right mix of musical ingredients and their instincts for what works and what doesn’t couldn’t be better developed. The four piece eschew virtuoso and star trips, preferring to largely remain anonymous in the hopes that their work speaks for itself, but it is apparent that, despite their relatively young ages, they possess a combined talent that would be the envy of much older and established headliners.  

The combined talents are fully evident from the first song on. “Snowy in Florida” will leave you breathless just listening to it because the band literally never rests for even a nanosecond. They come at the audience with a wide variety of emotional tones ranging from full-on rock attack to knotty progressive influenced passages. They pull back on that in your face approach on the album’s second track “Sip of Wine” and show listeners the first example of their ability to create suggestive musical landscapes with precisely chosen notes and a sense of restraint that may not be so evident on other songs. They also distinguish themselves lyrically with by exploring the love song theme with a distinctly different and almost literary voice. Their engines rev again for the uptempo romp “The Unheard Spirit Symphony” which, if one wanted to, can be viewed as a natural “sequel” of sorts to the situation depicted in the song before. It has a strong commercial feel too which, thankfully, never panders for the listener’s attention.  

They turn in a more traditional direction with the track “Hey There” and the classic rock tropes that they throw towards their listeners find their mark. “Looping”, indeed, has a gentle looping sort of effect in its arrangement and its uptempo energy, while not quite as frantic as the earlier song “The Unheard Spirit Symphony”, easily carries listeners along to the song’s inevitable conclusion. The album’s sole instrumental track, “Distant Kaleidoscopes”, proves without any doubt that the band can succeed in delivering compelling performances sans lyrics and provides a brilliant segue into the penultimate track. “Tommy’s Cosmic Avocado” might be bizarrely titled, but the song is anything but. It’s the album’s longest track but never sacrifices accessibility to make some grand statement.

This is a band with a boundless future. As mentioned at the beginning, this is a band capable of doing anything and they cut a vivid swath across this ten song collection pursuing their musical ambition and scoring in a big way. Phantom Phunk’s Arboles Ossific is the first salvo of what will surely be a musical run full of fireworks and creativity. 

9 out of 10 stars. 

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Phantom-Phunk-812842432163858/timeline/

 

Montey Zike

Project-TO - The White Side, The Black Side

 

Project-TO - The White Side, The Black Side 

DISCOGS: https://www.discogs.com/Project-To-The-White-Side-The-Black-Side/master/1061342
 

Producer Riccardo Mazza, filmmaker Laura Pol, and keyboardist Carlo Bagini form the three piece collective Project TO. This Italian based collective must immediately rank as one of the most challenging techno/electronic units working today and certainly one of the most ambitious of our time. Anyone who consigns the genre to the dance floor alone and believes it incapable of making a sustained, substantive artistic statement is well advised to hear their first album The White Side, The Black Side. The dozen songs comprising their debut are electronica at its most challenging, yet satisfying, and tied in with an impressively ambitious multimedia concept that few outfits of any ilk or genre would dare attempt. Project TO not only attempts it, but they succeed beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. 
 

The album’s dozen cuts are portioned into two sets of six – the white side and black side. Traditional electronica rules the day on the white side. There are enormous beats set to rattle your speakers and wide-open rhythms that streak along from the first second and rarely pull back for long. There are even inklings of melody peeking out from the techno textures on the white side, though Project-TO rarely emphasizes them. The white side makes frequent use of the human voice – the opener “I Hope” features voice over samples and other tracks, like “Look Further”, make even more expansive use of the human voice’s possibilities within this musical context. The black side’s reinterpretations, or “photographic negatives” as Project-TO refers to them, are stripped back recastings of the white side originals, often darker and much more narrow in scope. Few combinations embody this more than “Rebirth” and its twin “Black Rebirth”. The former takes a number of surprising turns throughout and has a dramatic arch that’s impossible to ignore, while its counterpart is a full on auditory bludgeoning of sorts with much more density and a straighter approach. 
 

The final song for each side, “Roger” and “Black Roger”, are ideal parting examples of Project-TO’s methodology at work. The white version is a frantic, rousing finale that amps up all of the elements defining the earlier white songs with an extra dollop of intensity added for good measure. Its black side opposite is the thrilling climax to the album as a whole and turns its white side partner inside out – this is a true photographic negative of the earlier, dead-eyed and impossibly strong, and closing the set out under the cover of darkness. The White Side, The Black Side goes places where few release, especially debuts, dare travel. This is a collective intent on taking a popular art form never really renowned for longstanding artistic value and to fashion something from it capable of withstanding the slings and arrows of posterity. The twelve songs resulting from these ambitions are ample evidence that they have succeeded. Few albums this year will make the mental and physical impact on their intended audience that you hear here from Project-TO.  
 

9 out of 10 stars 
 

David Shouse

John Hickman – Remnants

URL: http://www.johnhickmanmusic.com/ 

When John Hickman said farewell to his longtime career as an aerospace engineer and began work on what would eventually become this album, he showed enough wisdom to recruit the best session musicians in the Seattle area. The twelve songs on Remnants benefits enormously from the highly polished and creative backing Hickman receives from these collaborators. The production stresses guitar work, vocals, and the rhythm section giving the songs a nice balance of the upper and lower register. His vocals aren’t quite mainstream pop owning to a bit of a nasal quality in his tone, but his range is quite surprising and he has intelligent phrasing and a talent for emotiveness that will surprise many.  

His voice gives a sharp melodic lift to the otherwise romping, synthesizer laced rock track “Cascade”. It opens on a resounding note and Hickman responds with a rousing, challenging vocal that commits itself to every word.  “Escape” has a similarly urgency balanced out against a compelling rock dynamic powering the song. Once again, the rhythm section sets a massive tone and has moments when the track sounds positively monolithic. The beaming pop rock energy of “Hello Hello” has some teeth as well, thanks to the electric guitar and the drumming, but he conclusively proves he can bring off a breezy pop gem with the best of them. Equally so, Hickman is quite adept with the acoustic guitar and his resplendent turn on the largely folky song “Passing Thru” is another sterling example of Hickman’s talent for touching on resonate musical themes without relying too heavily on formulaic elements. 

The Dystopian sci-fi lyrics and darkly lyrical piano opening “Remnants of the Human Race” create a mood quite different from anything preceding it. Though there are later songs that run longer, it’s difficult to escape the feeling that this is one of the album’s key pieces. Hickman invests an impressive amount of emotion into this elegiac number. “Soiled Dove” is some more top shelf pop with superb melodies courtesy of piano and discreet strings underpinning the song. The drumming, so brash and physical on earlier songs, tempers its touch on these later, much more considered efforts. The harmony vocals have quite an ethereal touch and the song has a steady glide many listeners will find very appealing. 

The brash exuberance that seems to have disappeared from the album returns with a vengeance on the song “Talk”. Enormous synth lines draw most of the listener’s attention and certainly serve as the lead instrument, but there’s subtle secondary things going on and the entire thing wouldn’t have a chance of holding together if it wasn’t for another volley of incredible drumming. He turns introspective again on the track “What They Told Me” and it makes for one of the most effective songs on Remnants. Hickman’s vocal and lyrics embody the best about this album – his personal bravery, the open-heartedness of his vocals, and the effortless way he connects with his audience. By any measure, Hickman’s debut is a resounding success. 

9 out of 10 stars 

SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/jcholmes99 

Joshua Stryde

Saint Blasphemer - Simon Templar

URL: http://www.saintblasphemer.com/ 

The four members of Southern California’s Saint Blasphemer aren’t musical babes in the woods. Thomas Hudson, John Castellon, Steve Shell, and Steve Ybarra have been kicking around the Santa Ana music community for a number of years and their union under this moniker is an unique marriage of complementary artistic aims and sheer, undeniable chemistry. Their five song EP Simon Templar is a powerful and often frightening examination of the ongoing heroin epidemic that has felled many of their friends and family while simultaneously sweeping across much of the community. They play a very distinctive brand of hard rock/heavy metal infused with an audible strain of punk rock attitude and the production captures them as a very live sounding unit who play with a great deal of fire and spontaneity. Saint Blasphemer has a message to deliver, but they are never too preachy and even the direst of their warnings isn’t without genuine compassion and warmth.  

Simon Templar opens with a blast of rugged riffing entitled “Nullify”. The song eloquently and, sometimes, explicitly describes the mindset of a sick addict better than perhaps any other song of this ilk. It’s instrumentally quite excellent, particularly John Castellon’s lead guitar. There are only a few scattered moments on this release where the instruments take any flashy turns so, when they do, Saint Blasphemer makes those moments count enormously. The typical use of guitar on the EP comes with the second and title song “Simon Templar”. It has a compositional approach that looks to mesh well with the bass and drums, but looks as well to tailor itself to the musical backing. Hudson’s lyrics speak with the authority of the survivor – there’s horror, anger, and grief in ample measure heavily weighing on this song. The mid way point of Simon Templar comes with the track “Scarecrow”. If the first two songs bowl listeners over with their wealth of detail, Hudson turns up the heat even more with this gruesomely specific vision of the long term soul-stripping effects of use. The musical backing practically bristles with tension, but they make excellent use of theatrics moving between darkness and light before ending the song as suddenly as it began and concluding it with a decidedly muted coda.  

“A Perfect Rose” has an exquisitely crafted and careful opening with Hudson’s vocal yowl taking on an appealing haunted, blue tone. His emotive range is a big part of Simon Templar’s success with “A Perfect Rose” because you can feel his pain for the song’s subject in every line and he never delivers those lyrics in a histrionic or heavy-handed way. Simon Templar ends with the song “Breaking Just to Bend”, a wonderful title considering an addict’s typical wont for demanding everything or nothing at all from nearly every situation. The band tackles the song’s uptempo pace with unmatched vigor that ends the EP on a definite high note. None of the EP’s five songs are very long, but taken as a whole, this release provides a fair window into the extent of this band’s talents and hints at future glories to come.  

9 out of 10 stars 

I-TUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/simon-templar-ep/id1160560917 

Aaron Ellis