Review: Connor Desai - Connor Desai

Connor Desai – Connor Desai
2007, Connor Desai

Seattle’s Connor Desai has been warming up Northwest winters for music fans for several seasons now. In 2007, she broke onto the scene with her self-titled EP, Connor Desai. Desai has one of those sultry jazz voices you expect to hear in a seedy jazz club on a Saturday night; a dusky alto that might have been a key to success in any era of jazz. Partly the wanton-woman neo-torch toughness of Fiona Apple and partly the ultra-smooth style of Norah Jones, Desai brings a little sass back into vocal Jazz/Pop.

Desai opens with Trouble Is, exploring a deep and powerful crush that causes you to wake in the wee hours of the morning thinking about no one else. The vocal line and musicianship are A-1, and Desai captures this scenario in picture-perfect fashion. Do I is all about a relationship in transition. The narrator is trying to figure out what she feels, and the hesitation speaks volumes. At All features a lush vocal line set against an almost minimalist arrangement, allowing every nook and cranny of Desai’s voice to shine like the sun. The melancholy and self-doubt of the song almost seems to magnify the emotive qualities of her voice. Wake Up is a funky bit of jazz with enough pop sensibility to make it to the airwaves; it’s a wonderful bit of songwriting and one of the surprises of the CD. Will You Love is more in the Norah Jones style but with more vocal dynamics and a bit more chutzpah. Desai closes out with Deviance, a lush song about the darker side of human nature. Desai crafted this song with a dissonant undertone that eventually becomes a consonant yet separate part of the harmony. The line, like deviance itself, starts out as a musical anomaly, only to become a working part of the full character of the song (or person), separate yet nearly inseparable from the rest. This is the highlight song of the album and some of the most subtly ingenious songwriting you’re like to hear.

Connor Desai has a voice that will floor you, and a songwriting ability that will keep you interested once the novelty of her voice has subsided a tad. The potential for greatness is here, and has already actualized on her first CD, Connor Desai, easily one of the best Jazz/Pop hybrid albums of the past few years. We here at Wildy’s World are excited to see what comes next!

Rating: 4.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Connor Desai at www.myspace.com/secretstairs. You can purchase a copy of Connor Desai at www.cdbaby.com/cd/connordesai.

Review: Zpiderflower - I, Zpi

Zpiderflower - I, Zpi
2008, Diamond Tone Deluxe

Zpiderflower is the alter ego of Seattle’s Alex Trzyna. His release as Zpiderflower, I Zpi, is a step away from his previous work as part of various Indie Rock outfits (Secret Stairs, Kiss Her For The Kid, Mr. Twit, Red Velvet Relief and Leanne Wilkins Band). Trzyna had complete artistic control of I, Zpi, and played/programmed all elements himself.

I, Zpi opens with More Streets, a straight up mellow rock tune informed and filled with guitar riffs and drum loops. It's a pleasant listen but doesn't captivate the listener, relying on repetition of the same progression over and over to lull the listener into a sense of comfort. Darling Don't Take That follows a similar path, although Zpiderflower does mix up the instrument (sound) mix about two minutes into the song. Zpiderflower maintains the same rise and fall of chords for nearly three-and-a-half minutes in an uninspired series of repetitions. Catching starts out a promising note on acoustic guitar. As other instruments become involved the guitar loses its vitality and what starts out as a vibrant composition sinks back into the mediocrity of repetition. Zpi is an exercise in sound with little or no structure. A Problem starts with a promising riff on acoustic guitar, but quickly sinks into the art of repetition. 1981 falls to the same sort of looping chord progressions.

Zpiderflower plays in a mix of organic and electronic sounds where much can be done that was impossible before the dawn of the digital age. Unfortunately there is little compositional effort expended here, with looping chord progressions that sound like fancy versions of Casio pre-programmed tracks. There is a lot of potential in these sorts of compositions -- in the age of computers the choices are nearly endless, but Zpiderflower appears stuck. This may be fine for background music, but this ultimately is at best pre-programmned backing track material. Little or no compositional freedom or creativity is noted.

Rating: 1 Star (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Zpiderflower at http://www.zpiderflower.com/. You can purchase I, Zpi as a download from Amazon.com.