Thanks to those of you who have followed, commented, and tried out my music recommendations here... I've just been wanting to unify my various web pages under one.
I will still be reviewing music and writing about lots of other things.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Gungor - Ghosts Upon The Earth
What a show of confidence in their identity and journey for Gungor to use their growing popularity as a lever to open doors of access to musical and lyrical styles that have been left untouched by Christian establishment for decades! With the release of Ghosts Upon The Earth, which received more pre-orders than their distributor could expedite on schedule, Gungor delivers another phenomenal album replete with kingdom creativity.
Despite early albums the band was not completely satisfied with, their acclaim and the clarification of their identity since Beautiful Things seems to be removing any fear of rejection for experimenting. They manage to segue all the way from bluegrass into flamenco into jazz in “You Are The Beauty” and keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Michael Gungor (lead singer, guitarist) fortuitously hopes that the album will find its audience, rather than simply cater to an existing market.
The album is called Ghosts Upon The Earth, a concept Michael explains in videos you can find all over the internet. The opening track metaphorically paints a fitting soundscape to celebrate the original creative action that brought forth the universe, ambling along minimally before bursting forth with explosions of syncopated sound and countermelody. The second track, "Brother Moon" seems flavoured by Jonsi's (of Sigur Ros) 2010 album Go; perhaps a nod to a fellow experimenter and serendipitous musical visionary.
With this album, Gungor continue on a mission to embrace their heritage of diverse and eclectic influences and redeem it just like they articulated in Beautiful Things. Their increased use of natural metaphor, akin to John Mark McMillan or Aaron Weiss, weaves parables like “when death dies, all things live” that explicate their “liturgical post-rock”.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Love Is Patient - Brianna Gaither
Brianna Gaither is a singer-songwriter from Oklahoma City with a knack for creating music that's more than pop, yet contains all the elements that make it so listenable.
Love Is Patient is her new release. Available on iTunes and noisetrade, I'd recommend this album for its masterful lyrics and exquisite music - the whole album is very rich in texture, depth, and style. Brianna and her band team capture the art of a song that’s listenable and innovative. They appear not to settle for the redundancies of mainstream pop, and yet learn from it, allowing it to inform the music. Tracks “Stepping Stones” and “Let It Go” are great examples here, as Brianna’s thoughtful lyrics reflect upon coming home or freeing oneself from anxieties or negativity, but are offered in a musical package that is highly accessible and even radio-friendly.
Other things an audiophile will enjoy on this album are the fantastic harmonies (for example, on "Let It Go", "Harvest Moon", and "Find You"), and the use of piano as well as orchestral tones to enrich the soundscape, as well as the the spotlight placed on the lyrics, purposefully elevated sonically above the music to really stand out.
Opening track “Find You” is a song about waiting for someone special - but it’s not one of “those” saccharine songs about the perfect person. She asks, “Will you be true when I find you? Will you still be you?” When we meet that person, they’re going to be real! Will we allow and encourage them to be themselves, or will we try to turn them into our own selves? Listen to this track at Spirit, Ocean, Dust, Life and enjoy its lush textures and its surprises; this song is incredibly catchy and yet so distinct from the typical indie-pop hook.
Continuing with a spotlight on "Find You", Brianna’s impressive range really shines on this opening track as she follows chromatic scales up and down in the verses before hitting some notes at the top of her range in the choruses, doubled with some gorgeous harmonies. The track then segues into a pretty crazy stylistic adventure in what my drummer roommate and I are calling “polka-dot-funk” (catch it at 3:44) and slips back into driving 4-beat rock paired with conviction by Brianna’s simple yet powerful, “I’ll…find…you…”.
That's just one track. As the album opens up, Brianna shows us she's not a one-style composer. “Harvest Moon” and “Home” are powerful ballads that can’t prevent me from thinking of Michael Buble or Josh Groban. And although I’ve personally not been a big fan of either of them, the fact that I hear them in those ballads is not a bad thing, because I’m making a connection to their talent and eminence in their genres, and the power that lies behind the contemporary ballad. "Home" could easily find itself on a wedding playlist.
The last two songs on the album also surprised me very pleasantly. Rich in metaphor and reflective upon the most important things in life, you’re really going to have to listen to tracks for yourself, because the message here is a tad ineffable.
Download the album on iTunes or at https://www.noisetrade.com/briannagaither
And visit
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Organic Family Hymnal - Rend Collective Experiment
Organic Family Hymnal
Rend Collective Experiment
Liturgical Post-Rock, Northern Ireland
http://www.rendcollectiveexperiment.com/
The Rend Collective Experiment began with about six spiritually searching 20-somethings curious about how to live out Christian faith and has now surpassed sixteen such members. Forming an intentional community based around biblical concepts, the Rend Collective is passionate about social justice, family, and worship. The Organic Family Hymnal is the sonic expression of this community.
Organic Family Hymnal is about resolve and intention, faithfully reflecting the very core of the Collective. Upbeat, chiming track “Movements” resolves to run towards God and continue making movements towards Him no matter what happens. Likewise, “Broken Bread” states “I will not fight you; take me past the line that my heart draws.” The album contains some beautiful meditations upon the closeness of God: “No one really knows what it is to be alone, since you’ve never left our side”, as well as confessions such as “in suffering or joy, we will confide in your perfect love”. Organic Family Hymnal forms a beautiful musical liturgy.
The music is part rock, part folk, and part post-rock, reminiscent of The Rock N’ Roll Worship Circus, David Crowder (who sings on track “Faithful”), Phil Wickham, and at times Future of Forestry and Gungor. If you like what you hear, Organic Family Hymnal Parts 2 and 3 are also available.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Wooden Heart - Listener
Wooden Heart
Listener
Talk Music/Rock/Punk
Atlanta, GA
Profound writing simultaneously triggers a response with its power and escapes full comprehension, since its layered meanings can’t be grasped so trivially. Poetry, folk tale, and scripture possess this kind of force. It’s a loss to gloss over them. Dan Smith captures paradoxes with lines like, “Whispering poems to themselves about nonsense and existence...I don’t wanna die” and, “We all sing songs about life, we just sing them different. You sing the words, but you don’t know the song”.
If you desire something deep, spare some time to explore Listener’s album Wooden Heart. Subtitled “Poems”, there is an album full of heart-wrenching and resonant spoken word pieces set against fitting sonic backdrops. Dan Smith (of The Chariot) speaks and shouts pleadingly and searchingly in his southern drawl while Chris Nelson creates soundscapes with all kinds of stringed, percussive, and wind instruments. Listener sets itself apart from other music with its uncommon lyric/music blend. The spoken word isn’t rap; it’s free verse performance poetry, and will be familiar to fans of mewithoutYou.
Making no understatements, this album’s lyrics and music are powerful. Dan’s lyrics contains many witticisms such as, “we are all born broken people on our most honest day of living”. In the acerbic track “Seatbelt Hands”, Dan describes a broken woman by saying “she always starts with a smile, small and butter yellow, but easier than a handshake – she doesn’t like her hands touched. She tans a lot and gets burned a lot . . . she was born on the fourth of July, loves America and being patronized”.
Wooden Heart is different, refreshing, thoughtful, and brilliant. The image speaks to our tendency to become hard-hearted or even splinter, and yet reflects our vitality and potential for new growth. Listener points out our brokenness, describing us all as “shipwrecks” and yet reminds us to “wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief . . . If we hold on tight, we’ll hold each other together, and wash up on the shore”.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Yearbook - Sleeping At Last
Yearbook EP
Sleeping At Last
Folk-Rock, Wheaton, IL
Ryan O’Neil (vocalist and multi-instrumentalist) is one month away from completing his incredibly ambitious Yearbook EP project – a 3-song EP for every month of the year. The September EP will conclude the year long project, which began in October 2010.
Special guest musicians each month, including Jon Foreman (Switchfoot), Jacob Marshall (drummer of Mae), Brooke Waggoner and Laura Musten (toured with Owl City this year), made the project possible for Ryan to complement his ukulele/guitar/piano-driven singer-songwriter core.
Imaginably, this project contains a year of diversity in textures, topics, themes, and moods. The lyrics of December EP bridge thematically into January. July brought on a tense week for Ryan as he got over a flu virus which threatened to delay the release.
The year has been a great adventure as Ryan has learned the joys and challenges of creating a steady flow of music fitted to months and seasons. With plenty of decisions made on the fly, he has called people to help out who have literally created accompaniment parts within hours.
Each EP comes with a beautiful watercolour digital booklet. Listeners can purchase EPs from a particular month or get the whole set at a discounted price via the website.
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