Leo Harmonay - The Blink of an Eye

Leo Harmonay - The Blink of an Eye 

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

Few albums come as sincere and straight-forward as this. It is certainly common in the folk music genre to find a spartan approach to both songwriting and production; in some ways, brevity is one of the form’s pre-requisites. However, simplicity alone is not artful. The simplicity must be shaped, given form, and above all else, imbued with more than a touch of the self whose hands are molding it into a statement of some sort. Leo Harmonay has the technical chops to pull off anything he wants to do in the genre; his first album, Somewhere Over the Hudson, conclusively and quickly established that. His second album, The Blink of an Eye, does something very different. It shows him to be a recording artist and writer in full command of his powers and, for whom, simplicity is a by-product of knowing exactly what he wants to say and how to put it for his listeners. This sort of certainty is a pleasure to hear from anyone. Conviction plays well. 

The conviction doesn’t gradually emerge. It’s apparent in even the introduction to his opening song, “Up to You”. Stormy guitar and accompanying drums come in and briefly swell before dispersing. The song begins in earnest with a boot stomp charged tempo while acoustic and electric guitar trade complementary melody lines. It varies little from this course and Harmonay delivers an impassioned vocal with the arrangement that plays to its musical strengths. “River Dancer” is a much more obviously structured song with a bit of idiosyncratic character, but it’s also much more of a straight down the middle folk song than the opener ever intends to be. Another idiosyncratic side of the songwriting emerges on the song “Washing Myself Clean”, but it also draws from a deep well of spiritually-inspired imagery that connects well with personal reflection. 

Harmonay dives into the blues once again on “Gone Are the Days” and its layered instrumental attack shows a great deal more obvious sophistication than on the earlier “Up to You”. Harmonay’s vocals are among his best here, particularly on the chorus. “In the Morning Light” is about as far from his rootsy influences that Harmonay goes on this album thanks to the rock and roll attitude heard in its use of electric guitar, but he doesn’t continue in that vein from here. Instead, the next song “Dirty River Town” is the clearest folk song in the collection and resists any temptation to expand its musical aims. Harmonay’s vocal here is excellent as well and his phrasing deserves most of the praise. His final two full songs are the title number and “The Joy in Our Sadness”. Both are lovely and deeply wise creations with as much musical merit as lyrical excellence.  They are also the album’s longest tracks, but there’s never a second when Harmonay sounds like he’s bitten off more than he can chew. Instead, The Blink of an Eye has a wide-reaching steadiness derived from the confident performances he gives of each song. He clearly spent a lot of time readying this material for recording and eventual release. The result is a second album that far exceeds his fine debut and hints at even greater glories to come. 

9 out of 10 stars 

I-TUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/leo-harmonay/id975870585 

David Shouse

 

Jamie Kent - All-American Mutt

Jamie Kent - All-American Mutt 

URL: http://jamiekent.com/home 

It is unfair to slap any sort of label on Jamie Kent’s third full length album All-American Mutt. This isn’t simply Americana, but there’s parts of that. Kent, instead, just deserves the moniker of “musician”. His influences clearly cut across a variety of borders, both compositional and purely stylistic and he’s able to vocally inhabit a number of different skins. Kent has been playing with the same musical partners for a number of years and two hundred plus live shows every year for the last few years has bolstered an already extant chemistry between the players. The name on the release might be one man, but they never play like they are merely a vehicle for Kent’s songwriting. Instead, this sounds like a band, live on the floor, and making even more of these ten songs thanks to their knowing interplay. 

The title song drives that point home fast. It sounds so effortless, like it flows out of Kent in a continuous wave, and there’s a confidence working here that has all of the rough edges smoothed out and comforts the listener instead of confronting them with their differences. Kent’s memorable chorus drives home the song’s ultimate point. “Look Up” is handled with deft, understated sophistication and builds its success from a restrained arrangement and lyrical content most adults will have no trouble connecting with even if they haven’t personally experienced a moment like this. “Home Again” could have sank under the weight of melodrama but, instead, it achieves a remarkable cinematic quality thanks to the specificity of the song’s details and Kent’s vocal creating a true flesh and blood character for listeners to care about. 

The sculpted acoustic guitar lines and lyrical vocal from Kent on the track “Safe” distinguish it as one of All-American Mutt’s standout songs. It has a perfect length and achieves just the right emotional pitch without ever seeming too purple or overwrought. The final two ballads on the album, however, are the highlights of how sensitive Kent can be as a songwriter and performer. The first of the two, “Red Rover”, teams Kent with the vocal talents of  Michaela Anne and the pairing provides a perfect accompaniment to carefully rendered backing track that the band provides in support. The last song “Embrace the Disaster” is, arguably, the apogee of Kent’s songwriting on this album. It feels like a track when Kent has found his largest scar and feels determined to rip away the scab so a different kind of healing can begin. Despite the delicate reading he gives the track, it is full of pain balanced by the soft and yielding voice of second singer Alyssa Bonagura. These two final moments on an album filled with memorable outings put a certain flair on the conclusion that its beginning didn’t hint at. All-American Mutt is a third album of entertaining depth and sets Kent’s stage for an even brighter future.  

YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx6a-CxfCh4

9 out of 10 stars 

Pamela Bellmore

John Hickman – Remnants

John Hickman – Remnants

 

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

 

Hailing from the Northwest, John Hickman put his dreams of full-time musical glory on hold for many years while enjoying a lucrative career as an aerospace engineer. Shortly after 2010, Hickman bowed out of his profession and took an early retirement so he might have a chance to chase after his long delayed dreams. Hickman, since his 2011 debut, has released a number of singles to considerable acclaim and attention in the indie music community, but the release of his first full length album Remnants takes things a notch higher. This is a work of enormous pop sensibilities and artistic ambition. The best thing about Hickman, in the final respect, is that he’s never pretentious about his presentation. Despite the ground he covers on Remnants, the songwriting never meanders or succumbs to overkill.  

There’s plenty of chances for Hickman to overindulge himself, but he uniformly resists. One example of his taste and restraint is the song “Cascade”. For such a gentle title, one might expect a moderate toned or mid-tempo piece, but Hickman overturns expectations from the outset. The drum and synth introduction is ripped straight from the eighties/early nineties progressive rock handbook, but the song’s unique lyric turns and Hickman’s distinctive presence on vocals make it far from imitative. Hickman hits listeners with a blast of pure rock dynamics on the track “Escape”. His inventiveness as a songwriter and willingness to confound even the shakiest of expectations is on display here. Some listeners, with a song title like this, might expect the band to serve up something frantic, uptempo, but Hickman’s “Escape” sounds like it’s composed under pressure and full of fire.

“Paris Is Burning” is one of the album’s first half-turns, at least, into the ballad form and introduces listeners to that side of his musical talent with its solid writing and unshakable performance. Hickman’s confidence remains high and unflappable throughout the album, but instead of prompting him to toss these songs off like asides, the confidence focuses his efforts and makes the performances often quite transcendent.  “Remnants of the Human Race” finds Hickman engaging a little social commentary, but his gifts as a lyricist make the experience much lighter than it might have otherwise played. One of the album’s real sleepers, in terms of quality, is “Soiled Dove”. The song does a superb job of capturing the essence of a character with only a few well chosen broad strokes and the music complements the lyric perfectly.

 

“Talk” is, perhaps, the album’s most direct nod to the eighties’ progressive rock and sounds like Hickman listened to ample amount of prime Asia. His voice doesn’t quite have the lower register gravitas of John Wetton, but he isn’t merely a musician with an ear for good melodies, but understands how to sing them as well. The ballads compromising the album’s final lap have a strongly cinematic atmosphere and a gradually escalating grandeur that Hickman’s voice matches well. Among them, “What Have You Done?” scales the highest peak among a group of other exemplary tracks.  

9 out of 10 stars 

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/johnhickmanmusic/ 

Shannon Cowden

Alessandro Coli - I Betcha

Alessandro Coli - I Betcha 

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

The power and intelligence of Alessandro Coli’s latest single “I Betcha” is a testament to a young artist’s commitment to continued growth, but it is so much more. It’s also a strongly personal statement about the hurt a human heart can feel when they invested their emotions into caring about someone who, in the end, casts them off and reveals themselves as unfeeling towards their caring. It’s a memorable dance track that has great artfulness rather than a basic thud and crash so often associated with the genre’s crasser and more obvious acts. Coli’s artfulness is an enormous reason for his past success and the quality of this latest release. He’s attached himself to top notch and recognized production talent that clearly knows how to present his voice and songwriting in the best possible light, but he’s not an inflated talent benefitting from some behind the scenes fader pushing champion. Instead, Alessandro Coli gives listeners conclusive proof that the genre’s future endurance lies with performers like himself rather than the fly by night performers who aim for the lowest common denominator each time and keep their eyes exclusively on the money.  

It has a perfect length. No dance song should really ever run longer than four minutes and “I Betcha” barely clears three minutes. The amount of time keeps things properly focused and reduces any chance for self-indulgence which, ultimately, is a killer for dance music. Coli and his collaborators bring a focus to dance songwriting that’s unusual for its balance of intensity and practically kaleidoscopic entertainment value. It is a very colorful and completely electronic track, but forget any preconceived notions you may have about the sterility of electronic music. It’s a cliché dating back the initial popularization of keyboards and synthesizers in modern music and technology has progressed by leaps and bounds since that era. The music powering “I Betcha” has warmth and moves with all the naturalness of stringed instruments and the structure of the song has that same organic quality.  

It’s the vocals that truly bring everything to life. Coli has a strong connection with the music and never fails to take advantage of the music’s rhythm. His attentiveness to the music pays off by bringing amping up the song’s physicality considerably. He really carries off the lyrics with an offhanded charm that short circuit the negative sentiment he harbors towards the lady who hurt him. Part of what makes this song such a delicious listening experience is the smirking glee he takes in telling off his ex, but he’s never heavy handed enough to make the hearing of such emotions uncomfortable or dull.  

This is a powerful follow up to his debut that shows Alessandro Coli isn’t a performer interested in revisiting the same song in an assortment of different forms. He means business in his search for a wider audience and that requires raising the bar with each successive release. “I Betcha” fits the bill and more.  

I-TUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/alessandro-coli/id399230712

 

Aaron Ellis 

Phantom Phunk - Arboles Ossific

Phantom Phunk - Arboles Ossific 

URL: http://www.phantomphunk.com 

You haven’t heard anything like this in 2016 and likely won’t again until the band decides to release another album. Phantom Phunk are inhabiting a corner of the musical universe that is all their own, boasting obvious influences, but never sounding imitative and transmuting those influences into music and lyrical content that turns longstanding formulas on their head through the creative use of music and fresh imagery. The assortment of tropes, clichés, and misguided attempts for radio play that mark albums from similarly minded peers pale in comparison to the freewheeling creativity on this release. Phantom Phunk come out of the gates roaring on Arboles Ossific and never look back as they sweep the listeners through different sides of a wide-spanning musical imagination that irrepressibly takes flight.  

It is impossible to deny the energy packed inside “Snowy in Florida”. The song doesn’t overstay its welcome, but in the relatively brief time it is playing, Phantom Phunk throws everything but the kitchen sink at listeners with structure, attitude, and a head-down determination to perform their music in the most idiosyncratic way possible. Many of the changes come when the band seemingly stops on a dime and moves in a completely different direction without missing a beat and, while the lyrical content might be a little brief, the combination of its few words and the media clips embedded into the arrangement firmly place it in the progressive category. “The Unheard Spirit Symphony” has much of the same commitment to challenging the listener, but the band’s musical attack is always geared towards entertaining the listener whilst still satisfying the artists’ creative needs. “Gateways” strips the band’s rock attack down to its kinetic and spartan best with a simple, insistent tempo and sparking guitar lines that never overreach.

“Hey There” has a similar slant to “Gateways” but is much more solidly traditional than its earlier counterpart. The band is clearly grasping for a classic rock vibe here and achieves it without ever sounding too studied or self-conscious. The muted and gray beauty of “brother’s Keeper” musically embodies the lyrical mood and, while the words aren’t that long, they show the same taste and sophistication to put every line on trial and eliminate any unneeded verbiage. Arboles Ossific’s only instrumental “Distant Kaleidoscopes” has a soft peddled psychedelic edge and melodic virtues that are more obvious here than in some of the album’s more progressively slanted songs. It is paired wonderfully with its follow-up “Tommy’s Cosmic Avocado”, an extended musical piece that has obvious progressive inclinations while still making excellent use of dynamics and the fundamentals of song construction. The album concludes with “Jungle Crunch”, a wildly improbable musical ride that even goes so far as to find room for rap music under its tent.  

Phantom Phunk’s Arboles Ossific goes places you wouldn’t expect and does so with a ease that surely belies the considerable work that went into making this project a reality. This talented four piece band presents its audience with a large variety of moods and never fails to bring them both intellectual stimulation and a true sense of entertainment that is, ultimately, the hallmark of any great release.  

9 out of 10 stars. 

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

Charles Hatton

Project TO - The White Side The Black Side

 

Project TO - The White Side The Black Side 

MI2N: http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=193642

Few techno or electronica outfits, past or present, have the audacity emboldening Project TO on their first release. The White Side, The Black Side is a conceptually driven multimedia effort with twelve songs accompanying its presentation. The dozen tracks on their debut release are sectioned off into the two groups alluded to by the album’s title. The white side songs concentrate on the traditional techno experience – persistent rhythms, enormous driving beats, and a glossy thrust that is sure to engage as well as entertain countless listeners. Their counterparts on the black side, in comparison, are much more elemental and lean affairs – the percussion is much more askew, generally, and the line of attack that the music takes is much more narrowly defined and compact. The general atmosphere of the second side is, generally, darker, but not in a cheesy way. The second side’s songs are intended as re-imaginings, or in the band’s parlance “photographic negatives”, and share the same running time as the white side tracks down to the last second. This is a highly unified work that never loses its way or over-indulges despite its high flown conception.  

The first song, “I Hope”, is probably the “lightest” and most across the board accessible track on the album. It includes a great deal of spoken word laid over top that its “black” opposite does not share. “Black I Hope” embodies the aforementioned approach quite well – everything is pared back and boiled to its essential elements. “Sign of the Earth” is quite chaotic, in some respects, for a white side track, but the brash chaos it conjures is more raucous than disoriented – the song never loses a tight grip on its strong musicality. The black side version is much different. “Black Sign of the Earth” sounds like it means harm and looms from the speakers with leering power. The tempo remains as upbeat as ever, but Project TO prove themselves masters of shading with this one. 

“Rebirth” brings the outfit perilously close to the territory of outright rock, but it never ventures too far afield from its techno base. The rock and roll poses figure in most prominently with the changing dynamics of the track that look to build tension. There is no such move on its twin “Black Rebirth”. The black side song comes pummeling from the speakers like a piston-driven fist and hits listeners with the same impact time after time. There are some variations in the track, but like on other black side takes, Project-TO steps back from their white side approach and create distinctive alternatives to the first six songs. 

You are excused if you think the concept driving the album defies reason or sense. It certainly doesn’t fall in line with the typical concept album or musical work structured along thematic lines, but it has a larger scheme that becomes increasingly clear with each subsequent listen. The White Side, The Black Side will not readily surrender its secrets and listeners are urged to give it multiple plays before decided they have a handle on what Project-TO is attempting here. Highly recommended.  

9 out of 10 stars 

Montey Zike

Saint Blasphemer - Simon Templar

URL: http://www.saintblasphemer.com/ 

Saint Blasphemer is a great metal and hard rock band from the sunny climes of Southern California without a hint of sunshine I their music and songwriting. Instead, this four piece treats their art with the utmost seriousness and attempts to make a substantive musical and lyrical statement on the perils of drug addiction and what it has personally cost them. The guitar is the album’s prime mover instrumentally, but bassist Steve Shell and drummer Steve Ybarra distinguish themselves numerous times over the course of Simon Templar’s five songs. Everything grand about this band musically flows from the rhythm section’s work and they show remarkable flexibility that prevents the hard rock posturing from ever sounding too leaden or overwrought. Monroe's singing encompasses a number of vocal moves and he sounds credible throughout each track.  

The excellent opener “Nullify” keeps listeners close and seldom allows them to breathe. There’s power a plenty here in the music, but even a cursory listen reveals the smaller elements that go into making this music work. Steve Ybarra’s talents on the drum kit are hard-hitting but naturally favor a wide swing that keeps a lively pulse going on amidst all of the Sturm and Drang generated from guitarist John Castellon. The title song comes together a little more slowly and deliberately than the first track and this theatrical choice offers a dramatic contrast to the opener. “Simon Templar” pays more attention to narrative virtues in its lyric and Thomas Monroe's vocal takes on that attitude as well. He carefully enunciates everything and shows how important it is to capture the imagery in the lyrics and convey its meaning with his voice.  

More Sturm and Drang returns with the ferocious “Scarecrow”. This is end stage drug addict, the body ravaged by the vicious cycle of getting high and coming down, and Monroe's lyrics stare the reality of this in the face without ever blinking. The drumming is particularly inventive here and bassist Steve Shell gives Ybarra a fat bass line to build his patterns with and around. “A Perfect Rose” has a much more pensive side wholly appropriate for a track about the pain of watching someone you love murdering themselves slowly before your very eyes. Atmospherics are more the order of the day with this song and, much like they do with briefer and earlier opportunities, Saint Blasphemer succeeds wildly. The final song “Breaking Just to Bend” has unimpeachable credentials from the first note onward and some excellent songwriting, particularly a witty title, but there’s darkness forever gnawing at the edge of the songwriting. It never quite succumbs to it completely and the mix of despair and hope, along with the past pace, makes it an ideal closer. Simon Templar has the impressive completeness of a full length album boiled down its essence and packing an enormous punch both lyrically and instrumentally. It will impress anyone who loves great rock and roll music.  

9 out of 10 stars

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

Charles Hatton