diNMachine - Dance To Reason

diNMachine – Dance To Reason

2014, diNMachine

Brooklyn is home to a lot of noise, depending on what part you travel through. There’s perhaps no noise coming out of Brooklyn these days quite like that made by diNMachine. The five-piece electro-art-rock outfit is an anomalous collective that blends live instruments and computerized music to create inventive, edgy and groundbreaking compositions. diNMachine features Michael J. Schumacher, Hari Ganglberger, Nisi Jacobs, David Cardona and Eric Martich. Along the way the band caught the ear of the one and only Bill Laswell, who mixed Dance To Reason and brought some of his pure animatronic musical grasp to the project.

Dance To Reason opens with "Sang Gween", an almost disorienting mix of drum n bass and noise. The simplistic rhythm section is blown over by an ever shifting mass of RF noise. "Minor Me" is an original composition, but sounds strangely like a minor key variation on the main riff from Yes’ "Shock To The System". The base of the arrangement has a ‘Mad Max’ feel to it, and the layering of sounds organic and electronic creates an infectious rhythmic tapestry that sweeps you off of your feet. "Ground State" is a seventeen minute magnum opus that begins with organic ambience and moves across a plethora of sounds and styles. This is a stamina piece, with diNMachine creating something special here. The folks who dig this are likely to be a fine tuned and lean subset of the music marketplace, but also the sort of rabid fans that keep a band eating.  "Recht Tik" is similarly schizophonic, but at just over five minutes is much more manageable for the casual listener. 

diNMachine brings a bit of funky swing to "Tryad", once again recalling the progressive tendencies of Yes, this time in intriguing passages reminiscent of Steve Howe and Chris Squire.  "Lpse" is a sparse piece of mechanical madness, living through an occasionally frenetic bass line and multitude of samples.  Don't step away in the middle of this tune, there's a lot of nuance, pithy and otherwise, to be missed.   "Telepath" tries for a party feel while maintaining a progressive feel. This runs out of originality long before it runs out of room on the album, but it’s a fair effort nonetheless. "5th Bass" goes yard with a rapid fire mass of sound that's ambitious and overdone. There are some moments here, particular when the cascades begin around three minutes in, but there may be ultimately too much going on here for some listeners. 

dinMachine gets major points for ambition and musical prowess on Dance To Reason.  The instances where ambition falls short of fruition are not for a lack of talent or vision.  When you shoot high you’re going to miss occasionally, but diNMachine scores more often than not.  Fans of integrated electronic rock and progressive rock will find a lot to like on Dance To Reason, and the band has laid a terrific cornerstone for a sound whose time, perhaps, has come.

Rating:  3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more at www.dinmachine.com, and be sure to check out diNMachine's video for "Minor Me".

Tom Levin - Them Feet

Tom Levin - Them Feet
2014, Distrosong

Swedish-born Tom Levin was educated in the United States and Australia.  His Alaskan exchange family heard him singing in the shower and encouraged him to join the school choir.  The rest, as they say, is history.  That encouragement set Levin’s feet upon an inevitable path to a career in music.  The 2007 NMW Awards winner for “Male Artist of the Year” (he beat out John Mayer, James Blunt and Daniel Powter) has had significant chart success in Sweden, and continues to draw regular crowds at shows in the United States.  Levin releases his latest album, Them Feet, on January 29, 2014.  It is the first of two new albums from Levin in 2014, and it’s going to be hard to beat. 

The first thing to understand about the evolution of Levin’s work is that moves forward by moving backwards.  Levin writes brilliant pop songs, disguised as deliciously stripped down mishmashes of country, Americana, gospel and pop ménage.  The title track, “Them Feet”, is a brilliant piece of songwriting, a look at true love with a long view.  Levin is utterly convincing in describing a love that builds even as time breaks down.  The song is cut from a minimalist cloth.  Flourishes are saved for occasional accents while Levin allows the songs to speak for themselves.  “I Raise My Flag” is a song of determination that is delivered with low key style that nearly belies its subject matter, unless of course you cue in to the quiet intensity of the chorus. 

“Pull Yourself Together” could be a country tune, a pop tune or a classic rock number, but Levin crafts it as a quiet diatribe that’s all the more intense for its quiet Americana delivery.  This has hit written all over it.  “As Long As it’s Good” is cut from similar cloth, with Levin allowing the inherent pop brilliance of the song shine in its own rough-hewn style.  These are songs you will be singing and/or humming for days after you hear them, and they are utterly accessible.  Levin sings in a perfectly imperfect voice and range that your average music fan can sing along with; his messages are universally understandable; and his approach is earthy and real. 

“Once I Almost Killed A Horse” is an off-beat story song that finds Levin reminiscing about the keystone moments in his life that led him to his current love.  The individual references may not mean anything to any one particular listener, but the tapestry of life experiences has a journeyman’s appeal that’s inescapable.  Levin delivers this all in a low key fashion that’s part conversational and part reverie.  “Company Man” sees Levin digging into an American gospel style, but the halting arrangement saps the momentum of the album.  Atmospheric reverb counters Levin’s bare voice on “June’s Memory Lane”, a quiet gem hiding out in the last third of the album.  This moving still life of a song is a thing of beauty, as Levin uses vocal brush strokes to bring to life a scene full of vibrant quietude.

On “Father To Son”, Levin imparts important bytes of wisdom in a brilliant piece of Americana/pop songwriting that details the transition of a father as his own son joins the clan of fatherhood.  The personal reflections and expressions of love here are palpable, with Levin showing a deep personal connection that pulls the listener in.  You’ll want to call your Dad after hearing this song.  “King Neptune” is a song of memorial with a fairy tale-like feel.  Levin shows respect for a man of integrity and honesty, much like himself.  The beat of the song is penetrating, delivered on guitar rather than through percussion, and drives home the quiet sincerity of Levin’s lyrics.

Them Feet is not built on any measure of perfection, unless you consider the vitally accurate rendering of streams of the human heart as perfection.  If you do, then Tom Levin has created as near to a perfect album as you could hope for.  There are bumps and bruises here, just as in life, but Levin navigates them all with the quiet certainty of one who has found the meaning of his life and is working to play it out to full effect.  Levin’s lyrical style might be dubbed “conversational reverie”, as he mixes memories and moments into his current observations with a poet’s touch.  The music is stripped down and accessible, but never fails to hide his pure pop genius.  Them Feet is brilliant in its imperfection.

Rating:                        4.5 Stars (Out of 5)
Learn more at www.tomlevin.com.

Tristan Eckerson - Dance Craze EP

Tristan Eckerson - Dance Craze EP
2013, Tristan Eckerson

Tristan Eckerson shows a sense of movement and energy on his debut EP, Dance Craze, which is all too often missing from electronic music.  Eckerson selects concepts to memorialize in music and creates theme-based variations that eschew melody and structure for form. Eckerson appears to be fully infatuated with the deminimus instrumentation evident on Dance Craze, and consequently gets in his own ways at times. 

Eckerson opens with "Life", a digitized dance vibe that takes the looping approach of electronica and combines it with the trance like undulations of contemplative New Age music. The result is not so much structure as it is form, with subtleties such as melody being more a suggestion than an actuality.  "Dance Craze" is cut from the same cloth, with a hint of melody-like glaze in the synth.   Eckerson closes with "Poly" brings tribal rhythms into play, but the music is otherwise unchanged. 

Tristan Eckerson does all he can to engage listeners on the Dance Craze EP.  Changes in tempo and dynamic are evident throughout the EP, but at the end of the day this is a fairly mundane listening experience.  Eckerson makes Dance Craze all about form over substance, but in the end there simply isn’t enough structure to hang onto.  In the end, Dance Craze is competent if unremarkable in approach and sound.

Rating: 2.5 Stars (Out of 5)

Cookie Rabinowitz - Four Eyed Soul

Cookie Rabinowitz - Four Eyed Soul
2014, Cookie Rabinowitz

Cookie Rabinowitz is something of a mystery, a musician who offers little in the way of biography or explanation. There is no spin, no brooding sense of presentation. There’s just the music, a mix of soul, funk and pop that at its best will make you want to get up and dance.  On January 4, 2014, Rabinowitz will drop a full length album entitled Four Eyed Soul.  1970’s soul and funk are the musical base, while Rabinowitz opines in a neo-urban patois full of irony and occasionally, pastiche.

Rabinowitz opens with "Sing Alone, Sing Along", a funk-laden ode to isolation gone global. This is a toe-tapper with more depth than you might pick up on the first time through. "Crakka Smile" glories in its retro-1970's sound, from the funky syrup of the guitar fills to the smooth as silk horn section. Rabinowitz has something of a limited voice, but like a professional he knows how to mine its limits to near perfection.  "Every St." is a piece of gentle, rhythmic pop music with sparse electronic elements and sincere commercial potential. "Life On Mars" is a lazy piece of dream-pop with funky rhythms. In spite of this the energy is fairly flat, and Rabinowitz sounds like he's sleep walking here. 

"Pass You By" reclaims a bit of the energy shown early on by Rabinowitz, but seems locked in its own culture of cliché. In spite of this, the arrangement is crafted from the sort of sticky, soul/funk you just can't get out of your head. Rabinowitz trips on his own snarky self-assurance with "Text You With My Mouth", which is as frighteningly awkward as the title suggests.  Rabinowitz spends much of "Get Your Own" in his lower register amidst muddy pitch control and a heavy breathing vocal style that's unappealing. 

Rabinowitz falls into a rut with "Blue", "Underground" and "Self-Loathing" where the need to craft songs has perhaps surpassed inspiration. He recovers a bit on "Rock & Roll Karaoke"; an almost careless pop confection that tries too hard to be hip bit nevertheless has its own spark.  "More Tired Than Lonely" has a lackluster feel, a motif that carries over into the tired closing track, "Talking To Pigeons". 

Four Eyed Soul brings elements of geek rock and soul together in its best moments, but Cookie Rabinowitz stretches his best material much too thin by including a fair amount of filler to achieve his vision of a full-length release.  A more compact album would cut out some of the chaff and present Rabinowitz in a more impressive light. That is not to deny Rabinowitz at his best, there is some outstanding music on Four Eyed Soul, but there are also some fairly low energy moments that will leave listeners stranded. Take Four Eyed Soul for what it is; an uneven album with some really great moments that are worth sticking around for.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more at www.cookierabinowitz.com. 

Steven James Wylie - Everything I Love

Steven James Wylie - Everything I Love
2013, Red Cabin Entertainment

Steven James Wylie went from being a real estate tycoon to living in his parents’ basement with his expectant wife seemingly overnight.  What seemed like disaster at the time turned out to be a gift in disguise.  Wylie reconnected with his music and it’s all been up from there.  Wylie’s Everything I Love is a heartfelt and poetic ode to the important things in Wylie’s life, and is crafted with a sort of neo-pop aestheticism that has all but been lost in the quick hit musical slaughterhouse of the 21^st century.

"Everything I Love" is a heartfelt ode to the important things in life: faith, family, friends and love. Even if you don't agree on all points, Wylie will have you convinced by the time he's done. The chorus is magical, right down to the Eagles-style vocal harmonies. "This Is What Faith Is" starts off well, but closes with an unexpectedly dark and disturbing musical canopy around it.  This is more disturbing than comforting, but that may be the point.  "Flower" is a pretty little love song that's unfortunately way to overlook. While the song is well-written with a pleasant sound, it somehow fails to stand out in this set. "Butterfly" is cut from similar caught, but has a memorable, if overly simplistic chorus and some real energy in the vocal line. Wylie closes out with "Beautiful Souls", a still life of lives that were never still. There's an eerie beauty to this song, which seems caught between memory and eulogy. 

Steven James is a musical aesthetic, ala Dan Fogelberg. His lush, emotive pop arrangements are often beautiful, occasionally to a fault. What's clear is that Wylie has a mastery of composition that's amazing, but he sometimes struggles to bring music, lyrics and energy together in equal measure. Everything I Love is a marvel of developing talent, an EP that even for its lapses is stunning in beauty and detail.

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more at www.sjwmusic.com.  

Slack Armada - Slack Armada

Slack Armada - Slack Armada
2013, Slack Armada

Slack Armada is the performance name of James Hrabak, a multi-instrumentalist who recently returned to making music after a 15 year side-trip into 9-5 career.  The random arrival of a musical catalog into Hrabak’s life, combined with the plethora of musical communities available online encouraged him to make music again.  What was post-punk shoe gaze fifteen years ago has turned into vacillations of sound and rhythm that often eschew form for aesthetics on Slack Armada’s self-titled debut EP.

Slack Armada kicks off with "Rebirth", a mid-tempo composition full of minimalist loops and simple, new age style synth sounds; Not so much a composition as a Jackson Pollock style collection of notes and rhythms, listeners will tire of this quickly. The compositional style is more expansive on "Your Majesty", which uses synth and faux bells to create the atmosphere of a holiday tune. There isn't a hard theme or melody here to latch onto, but there are suggestions of melodic form in the arrangement that are interesting enough. "Looper" brings a darker and heavier sound to the fore, but the arrangement is rote and repetitive, falling under its own weight.  "Escape  Velocity" never matches its name, becoming bogged down in repetitive and mind numbing rhythms and loops. 

Slack Armada’s muse is boundless and without real form if you consider the looped rhythms a theoretical construct rather than a palpable one. Slack Armada is often self-referential and denies any real sense of creative construction, leaving the listener somewhat lost in the process.  Electronic music fans that prefer being stuck in an artistic and ill-defined loop with love Slack Armada, but listeners who look for something deeper in the music will quickly move on.

Rating: 2 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more at www.slackarmada.com.  

Aradia - Possibilities: Light EP

\Aradia –Possibilities: Light EP
2013, Aradia

Aradia is a Seattle-based singer/songwriter with a penchant for insightful, observational lyrics and electronic sounds.  A veteran of both the New York City and Atlanta music scenes, Aradia has developed her sound in bands such as Some Band (NYC) and Twelfth Planet (Atlanta).  The latter was a mainstay in the Atlanta scene.  Aradia is intellectual and smooth in style, with an electric stage presence and a sultry voice with dark colors swirling beneath.  Aradia’s latest EP, Possibilities: Light EP, is a companion piece to 2012’s Possibilities:  Dark EP.  Whereas previously she explored the underbelly of completely changing your life and moving to a new city, this time around she is finding the silver linings in those dark clouds.

Aradia opens with the bright, airy electro-pop of "The Light", a positively themed message of hope that things will get better. The dance and electro elements are understated but clear, and Aradia's complex and intriguing voice is a perfect contrast.   "Trouble" starts out in slightly darker territory, but lights up with a brilliant pop feel. "Today" is a bit mundane in sound, lacking much in the way of dynamic engagement. It's a solid enough album track, but doesn't engage the listener enough to shine. 

"On Fire" finds Aradia settling into a more aggressive, dance-oriented sound. Aradia's vocal presentation is confident and sultry, with a sense of personal style that is compelling. "Slow Ur Roll" drops the tempo, and while Aradia is very competent vocally, the energy just isn't here. It all comes back for "Keep On", which brings sitar and eastern rhythms into play for one of the most musically interesting compositions in Aradia's catalog. This song will get stuck in your head and stay there, and has serious potential as a breakout track for either the club scene or for commercial radio. 

The common difficulty for artists who dwell in the electronic backwaters of what has become popular music is that it is easy to become indistinguishable from the throng.  Electronic music tends to suffer from a lack of dynamics in sound and style. It is easy to allow looping sounds to fall into repetitive waves that numb the listener rather than enliven them.  Aradia reaches beyond the easy path to create vibrant music, and her sultry, earthy vocal style brings each song to life.  Possibilities: Light is a breakout effort for Aradia; the sort that could garner her much more attention down the line.  Aradia is one artist to keep an eye (and ear) open for.

Rating:  4 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more at www.aradiamusic.com.