EZLA - Outcasts (2017)

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Written by Jason Hillenburg

Nashville has long since ceased being exclusively the realm of cowboy hat wearing would be hayseeds peddling a particular vision of life, love, and all that to the music buying public. It has continued, as cultural winds shift, to be a major hub for popular music in America and many young performers continue to flock to its environs with the hopes that talent will out and they’ll get their day in the sun. EZLA’s EP Outcasts is a five song release revealing this young female singer/songwriter to be one of her generation’s more formidable talents in the making. Her musical imagination has stoked enough of a sympathetic response from her target audience that she’s garnered over thirty five thousands streams of her material on the Spotify platform. Even a single turn through the tracks gives strong indication way. EZLA merges dark lyrical impulses with equally atmospheric musical structures and all of it defined by a well developed sense of melodic possibility.

There’s an initial cloud of shimmering synths coming with the opening song, “Outcasts”, but it shifts nearly immediately into much more looming, moodier fare. EZLA certainly has an excellent voice technically, but the sound is all her own. It has a cawing, slightly nasal quality possibly a little unsettling initially, but listeners will soon settle in with her style. The title cut takes a handful of relatively unexpected turns during its duration and the idiosyncratic tone of her voice commands a definite presence from the first. There’s more of a conventional use of melody with the song “Skeletons”, but EZLA’s musical imagination can’t help but skew our expectations some with this song as well. Her sharp, intelligent phrasing lighting up the lyrics of the opener is equally powerful here.

The heated longing at the center of “Satellites” exerts a definite amount of commercial appeal, but it likewise displays some of the same artier inclinations that distinguish the first two songs. It could have served as a strong first single for the EP as well, though the title song has a good case for that spot. The dark throb opening “Hangman” quickly dissipates into a mid-tempo pulse with enough nimbleness to switch gears as EZLA’s inventive vocal melody demands. The intense musical thrust of the song never relents despite any tempo shifts and the song concludes on a distinctly chaotic, yet controlled, note. There’s a theatrical air surrounding a lot of EZLA’s material and that reaches its apex with Outcasts’ finale “Psycho Killers”. This is another sleek electronic driven number with occasional spikes of electric guitar cutting its way out of the mix. Her hushed, understated vocal has some post production effects applied to it at various points, but those alterations never undercut the natural power of her voice. It makes for an effective ending to the EP providing it with another colorful moment nonetheless consistent with the release as a whole. Outcasts is an ear-catching debut from a vocalist, writer, and performer who truly stands apart.

Black Note Graffiti - Volume 2: Without Nothing I'm You

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Written by William Elgin, posted by blog admin

Black Note Graffiti’s second release Volume 2: Without Nothing I’m You illustrates the band’s natural evolution better than anyone could possibly explain it. The band, initially a four piece centering on the vocals of Ricardo Ortiz, has recently added female vocalist Gabrielle Bryant as a fifth member. Her talents, however, are not featured on Volume 2, although listening to the eleven songs on this release provides listeners with a unintentionally fun parlor game in imagining how her voice might further transform or elevate these tunes. Ortiz and the other three originals, however, turn in a barnstormer of a collection and the casual and hardcore music fan alike will be swept away by this Ann Arbor, Michigan based band’s unique confluence of meaty metal riffing and alt rock theatrics and emotion. They’ve discovered a viable vehicle for expressing themselves in a way that sounds fresh in 2017 and sparkles with deceptive originality.

The low-cut, guitar-centric attack of the album’s opener “No Love Lost” is a memorable way to begin the release, but this song sports a power-packed chorus as well that the band plays just right. Ortiz’s vocal balances itself exceptionally well between outright lung muscle and emotional, full-throated phrasing unusual for the genre. Bringing that added dose of technique to a singing style not particularly renowned for finesse makes this a much more invigorating listening experience. There’s a steady, bass-anchored plod bringing “Such is Art” to life and when the song launches in earnest, Black Note Graffiti unveils one of the album’s best numbers. Adam Nine’s bass playing is especially effective. “Castles” clocks in a little less than three minutes and has a grinding, stop start arrangement beginning the song that soon segues into some of the band’s customary staccato riffing. Kris Keller’s blistering lead work adds a fiery exclamation point to the performance. This is another outstanding vocal from Ortiz, as well, that relies much more on art than muscle.

The distorted melancholy beginning “Bars from the Cages” is much more in an alt rock band than the largely metal leanings of the album’s first quarter. Naturally, this means Black Note Graffiti makes more use of their melodic potential and the inclusion of backing vocals is another highlight of the song. “Shadows” is four and a half minutes of the band exploring textures in a particularly exciting way. The song’s first half is artful in a way nothing before it on the album is, but they soon unleash some of their best hard rock fireworks and the mix proves effective. The bass playing, once again, plays an important role with scene setting on the track “Relapse” and Ortiz’s vocals are uniquely tuned into the song’s unique requirements – moving from beguiling work in the first quarter of the track and into some of his best rock singing during the remainder. “Natural” is a much shorter tune than the previous two tracks and the mid-tempo guitar workout rocks with complete conviction and whips up a raucous sound that will likely be an infectiously enjoyable live number. The same guitar-laden moodiness we heard on the earlier “Bars from the Cages” returns on the song “Wicked Ways”. It’s a song with an unique lyrical perspective, a hard as nails yet inventive musical approach, and some surprisingly effective harmony vocals light up much of the song. Volume 2: Without Nothing I’m You charts Black Note Graffiti’s development with a forceful, urgent collection sparked with genuine inspiration.

YYY - A Tribute to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (2017)

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Written by William Elgin, posted by blog admin

Pet Sounds is one of those albums. There are classics and then there are albums occupying a place in the art’s pantheon akin to the Presidential faces chiseled out of rock on the side of America’s Mount Rushmore. Their positions are unassailable by fickle fluctuations in public taste or the vagaries of history. The Beach Boys’ seminal 1960’s release Pet Sounds remains the yardstick, in many respects, of pop songwriting and harmony vocals at its finest and still ambitious fifty years on since its recording. The clarion call to re-imagine this work for a young, confident musician and performer is undoubtedly alluring. Minneapolis’ Austin Carson’s loving and ambitious stab at recreating the album for a modern audience, A Tribute to The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, is a talent laden affair sporting a cast of characters culled from the Minneapolis music scene and Carson’s own enormous talents, working here under the moniker YYY, that comes together quite successfully.

It’s easy to take albums like Pet Sounds for granted because its such an ingrained part of our musical lexicon with its influence touching many styles and genres. YYY, clearly, has never taken the album for granted and its evident from his recording of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” alone. He peels away a lot of the production layers listeners will be familiar with in the original while matching much of the same vocal excellence. His leaner, more modern reshaping of the song won’t be a jarring experience for new and older fans alike. The rich vocals on “You Still Believe In Me”, featuring City Counselor, makes for one of the more satisfying musical experiences on this tribute coupled with YYY’s outstanding rethink of the arrangement. Electronic instruments are definitely dominant in his musical vision, but countless tracks on the album prove he’s far from exclusively reliant on them for a song’s success or failure. There’s a much more pronounced modern approach evident on the track “I’m Waiting for the Day” that’s likely the result of YYY using guest stars LOTT and Zinnia to maximum advantage. It’s a good judgment call to make.

“Sloop John B” cops much of the original’s sensitive edge while framing it in a different musical context and proves to be one of YYY’s best adaptations of the source stuff. Lydia Liza and Cool Moon are excellent additions to the passionate and sometimes chaotic performance of “Hang On to Your Ego” while Devata Daun and C.Kostra are welcome forces working to make the late album performance of “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times” all the more meaningful. The big closing number is certainly another mountain for YYY to scale – there’s arguably no song on Pet Sounds more popularized and highly regarded than “Good Vibrations” and there’s a certain amount of careful attentiveness in YYY’s performance that suggests he hears it the same way. Al Church’s guitar contributions are especially pivotal here. YYY has done much more than recorded a first class tribute album – he’s released something that could be referred to further illustrate the excellence of Pet Sounds while revealing him to be a mammoth talent of his own who is clearly destined for great things.

Argus - From Fields of Fire (2017)

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Written by Jason Hillenburg, posted by blog admin

The long wait for the fourth full length album from Pennsylvania’s Argus, From Fields of Fire, hasn’t diluted or lessened its eventual impact. From Fields of Fire’s nine songs bristle with life and inventiveness, never feeling too belabored or studied as if the band’s new lineup is straining to maintain any creative direction. Argus, instead, sounds confident and comfortable but, more importantly, hungry and ambitious to push their music into new areas while consolidating their traditional strengths. There isn’t a single disappointing release in the band’s discography and, if anything, the fourth album continues an upward tick in quality that’s defined their development from the first.

The album opens with a brief acoustic instrumental “Into the Fields of Fire”. There’s a hint of the gypsy in the almost flamenco-ish swish of the melody, but there’s an underlying minor key quality present as well. “Devils of Your Time” has a nicely exhortative chorus that makes the song seem ideally suited for live performance and tasteful lead fills pepper the guitars’ otherwise straight-forward staccato power chord charge. There’s a seemingly a little echo added to Brian “Butch” Balich’s vocal, but Balich never needs even a hint of bells or whistles as he still possesses the emotive edge and lights out, lung-busting vocal muscle that’s always been a key part of his presentation. Balich comes at listeners again with another bruising vocal on “As a Thousand Thieves” and fiery lead guitar punctuates his powerhouse singing. “You Are The Curse”, the album’s first single, has some of the strongest melodic elements on the album and a near ideal example of Balich’s talent for putting down a tight, intelligent lyric serving the music first and foremost.

“Infinite Lives, Infinite Doors”, clocking in at just over eleven minutes, definitely embodies the zenith of their ambition with this new release. The disparate sections of the song, often wildly varying in both mood and tempo, nonetheless blend seamlessly together and maintain coherence throughout. Bands often times sound out of their element when they trying stretching out like this, but this song comes across as a wholly organic affair rather than an unit attempting to will an epic into being. The blinding guitar attack of Jason Mucio and Dave Watson is set to stun throughout the release and few songs are loaded with more gut wrenching firepower than “Hour of Longing”. Balich serves up one of his stronger vocals to make this one of the album’s harder-hitting numbers. “No Right to Grieve” is cut from similar cloth as “Infinite Lives, Infinite Doors” in its insistence on invoking mood and atmosphere rather than simply bulldozing listeners with further guitar workouts. Balich’s imaginative touch as a lyricist remains an important component in the band’s songwriting, but the songs on From Fields of Fire are rife with an increased willingness to personalize the writing as never before. It pays off enormously in the hands of such a memorable vocalist. They bookend the album with a final acoustic track entitled “From the Fields of Fire” that comes off as a more muted, wearier take on the opening instrumental. Argus has emerged from a turbulent period in their history stronger than ever before and taking their craft to new heights.

Gregg Stewart - Twenty Sixteen (2017)

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Written by William Elgin, posted by blog admin

There’s a generosity in this album that’s difficult to ignore. The fourteen songs comprising Gregg Stewart’s Twenty Sixteen are an unexpected musical bounty in terms of the sheer quantity of first rate music he’s bringing to the listening public. The fact that these are covers doesn’t matter. He’s made his selections from artists who died during 2016 and the choices range from the well known to lesser known deep cuts from an artist’s career. Stewart, a talented singer/songwriter in his own right, sounds wholly comfortable tackling other artist’s material and puts as much of himself into the arrangements and lyrics alike he can muster. It’s unified by a guitar centered sound and an ease with melody unmatched by all but a few of his contemporaries. Despite its status as indie rock, Gregg Stewart projects immense confidence with this collection and the production never sounds anything less than top shelf from the beginning.

The mid eighties smash for Dead or Alive and singer Pete Burns, “You Spin Me Round”, opens Twenty Sixteen on a mildly idiosyncratic note. Anyone expecting Stewart to attempt an approximation of the band and Burns’ style is in for a fortuitous disappointment.  It’s fortuitous because Stewart’s cover of the famous song is far more interesting than any straight ahead regurgitation could have ever been. Rather than pursuing a relentless and nearly claustrophobic pop sound, Stewart takes an acoustic slant on this classic and gives it an understated mania that’s quite a contrast with the original. This isn’t the first cover of “Raspberry Beret” that I can recall, Warren Zevon and REM sans Michael Stipe had a minor hit with it in 1990 as the Hindu Love Gods, but Stewart brings his own carefree, joyful verve to the song that no one else can claim. The artists with staying power are those with a recognizable style and that shines through on this album despite him tackling other’s songs.

His cover of a later Merle Haggard song, “If I Could Only Fly”, comes off as a minor masterpiece of exquisite sensitivity and expertly arranged. He mines Jefferson Airplane’s embryonic days, pre Grace Slick, with the track “High Flying Bird” as an acknowledged of rhythm guitarist.songwriter/vocalist Paul Kantner’s death and the passing of original female vocalist for the same Singe Anderson. This performance does a memorable job of capturing the sense of discovery common to classic Airplane and the sheer exuberance of playing. He looks to Texan songsmith Guy Clark for a powerful rendition of his “Out in the Parking Lot”. Stewart’s phrasing is key here as its similarities and differences alike reveal how elastic this classic is and makes something new out of a song many serious music fans are intimately familiar with. He concludes, as one might expect, with a Bowie cover, but the song choice is a bit individualistic. Rather than opting for the obvious, Stewart chooses “Starman”. It isn’t an enviable task attempting to re-interpret a master stylist, but Stewart wisely doesn’t and merely uses Bowie’s original as a template for his own. Twenty Sixteen is far more than some reverential ode to fallen musical idols – it’s an argument successfully concluded that these performers, among some of the most talented in the past century, have amassed legacies worth posterity’s look and that we’ve taken more than a passing glance into the heart of Gregg Stewart’s musical DNA. It’s a rewarding view.  .