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Monday, March 2, 2009

Review: Dave Halverson - Apothecary Charms


Dave Halverson – Apothecary Charms
2008, Lucid Moon Child Music


Dave Halverson’s third album, Apothecary Charms, delves deeper into the electronic/rock hybrid “genre” while simultaneously becoming more guitar oriented than his previous work. Avante Garde in presentation, Apothecary Charms attempts to walk the line between rock and an almost ambient organic electro sound scheme.

Halverson opens with the dark and stormy A Quick Dance On A Shallow Grace and moves quickly into Scary Night, which sounds like the theme to a low budget horror movie. My favorite track on the disc is Song For The Chickens. It’s wonderfully well constructed and original, dancing on the edges of Progressive Rock. Addition By Refraction is an enjoyable bit of noodling that serves as a respite at midway point of the album while leading into big Texas guitar rocker Postulus. Shells In The Clocktower sounds like it was heavily influenced by early Pink Floyd, mixing sparse guitar, rhythms, noises and peripheral voiceovers.

Dave Halverson vacillates between structured instrumentals and disjointed musical composites on Apothecary Charms. There are a couple of gems here (Song For The Chickens, Postulus), but in general the album is a pleasant listen without being remarkable.

Rating: 2.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Dave Halverson at www.myspace.com/davehalverson or http://www.davehalverson.com/. You can purchase a copy of Apothecary Charms at www.cdbaby.com/cd/halverson3.

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