Jim Hagen - Jazzical (2017)

OFFICIAL:  http://www.jimhagenmusic.com
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/HagenJazz/

ITUNES: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1229838302?ls=1&app=itunes

Artwork by John Lind Whitby

Written by Frank McClure, posted by blog admin

Southern California based guitarist Jim Hagen’s release Jazzical is aptly titled. Hagen is a composer and musician seldom content with limiting himself to just one sound. Instead, the nine songs on Jazzical never pursue purely purist invocations of the jazz genre. Hagen brings a number of elements to bear on these performances and the label “smooth jazz” applies to much of the work here, but it reaches further. Blues, classical flourishes, and different textures make their presence felt from song to song and all of it blends together with a naturalness that, in its own way, strikes more a purist jazz note than any other approach. The nine performances on Jazzical have a beautifully organic quality and never strain for effect thanks to the first class collaborators he’s enlisted to flesh out Jazzical’s musical vision.

The first track “Pismo Beach” has a patient, meditative vibe that’s never dependant on Hagen’s guitar. There is, instead, a fine interplay between keyboards and Hagen’s six string work with them taking alternating turns in the spotlight. Melody is never far away from what Hagen and his cohorts do on Jazzical and the opener is no exception; the lyricism of his guitar playing is simply superb. “D-Tuna” has a much more artsy feel than the aforementioned song and slowly coalesces into form rather emerging full born the first second in. It doesn’t seemingly conform to typical structures, but the band never meanders and “D-Tuna” will ultimately strike listeners as a song that achieves its final effects through accumulation rather than showing all its cards immediately. We’re back in much more overtly melodic territory with the song “Alexandra”. There’s a bit of a preamble before the band launches full on into the song and, once it starts, it has a slightly melancholy air that lingers with listeners long after its conclusion.

The bass line of “On the Scene” clearly illustrates a small turn in musical direction. Hagen and his creative partners go in for a little bit of light funk here and pull it off with great style. The keyboard touches have a lightly playful air and wind themselves around the rhythm section with great finesse. “All Blues” is, oddly, the most traditionally slanted tune on Jazzical. One might expect him to tinker with the form here as he does on many of the album’s other cuts, but this is a relatively straightforward instrumental that emphasizes the keyboards and lowers Hagen’s guitar to a largely supporting role in the mix. The title song is one of the finest moments on this release thanks to how expertly Hagen marries classical guitar color with his jazz inclinations. The presence of acoustic guitar is another key difference and it’s recorded with tremendous warmth. Aficionados of the form and casual music fans alike will find something here to put a smile on their faces. Jazzical is accessible and quite a musical ride.

Grade: A

Chris Bartels - Myths and Mold (2017)

Myths and Mold / Album Video Teaser #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8y-LCoVbAE

Written by David Shouse, posted by blog admin

Chris Bartels’ career trajectory is reminiscent of many other fine performers on the indie scene. He’s a jack of many projects, never adhering to just one course, and it’s resulted in a number of notable projects and efforts that reveal him as one of the best all around songwriting talents flying under mainstream radar today. His guitar playing is a powerful part of his presentation, but his vocals shouldn’t escape notice as he has quite an intelligent and emotive side to his singing reaching far beyond the ken of most indie singers. It makes his often poetic, at least suggestive, lyrical content stand out even more. The five songs on his newest solo EP, Myths and Mold, clearly shows that he’s capable of crafting some beautiful lyrics alongside near ideal sonic settings for that writing.

The EP begins with a decidedly alternative rock/indie music guitar vibe, but Bartels never stops there. He’s expended a tremendous amount of creative energy getting the guitar sound and composition right on songs like the opener “Blind”, but it’s equally apparent that he’s devoted considerable effort to structuring the vocals in such a way that they have a dramatic theatrical quality missing from much of modern music. Some might hear similarities or influences from the popular act Bon Iver, but Bartels is a more accessible singer and songwriter overall and the sheer variety of voices he utilizes in his performances often outstrips Justin Vernon’s offerings in this style. The guitar playing is even more assertive on the EP’s second track “Missoula”. Careful listening to this song reveals it to be a track about inchoate and specific longing – Bartels does an exemplary job of placing that mood in the right musical context. The melodic virtues of this track are the strongest on Myths and Mold, but they aren’t run of the mill melodies with identifiable tropes. Like he’s capable of in other areas, Bartels’ melodic sense challenges the audience’s preconception of what popular music and melody can accomplish together.

The theme of longing continues with the track “Stay”. The same melodic excellence we heard on the preceding song thankfully persists through this tune and the lyric even more directly exposes Bartels’ vulnerability without ever cheapening it. Myths and Mold takes its artiest turn with its title song, but Bartels never belabors his ambitions. He packs an impressive amount of musical world into the title song’s relatively brief amount of space while maintain a light, tasteful touch. Not many performers mixing electronica, guitar, and multi-tracked and layered vocals can claim that. He returns to more familiar territory with the last song, “Counting Hands”. This conclusion probably has a more definite “shape” than any other track on the release, but this veneer of traditional normalcy doesn’t sound out of place. There’s certainly enough of Bartels’ unique musical imagination powering this, albeit more subtly than usual, to make it an effective final curtain. Myths and Mold is a release of such quality that it places Bartels among the first rank of indie songwriters and sonic auteurs working today.

Grade: A-

The Real Hooks - Damn You (2017)

Artwork by Odandiee

OFFICIAL: http://www.therealhooksband.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/therealhooks/

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/therealhooks/

ITUNES: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1227977371?ls=1&app=itunes

Written by Bradley Johnson, posted by blog admin

As far as flawlessly crafted power pop goes, The Real Hooks are the real deal. They bring a masterful command of popular song’s fundamentals, an amusing sense of humor that never comes off as gratuitously sophomoric, and obvious musical talents keeping everything afloat from the first note onward. They’ve built a well-deserved reputation as a winning recording and live unit since their debut a few years ago and have taken all the necessary steps to expand on that initial strong showing. Their family bonds have produced much of the band’s material until recently when they’ve started collaborating with outside songwriters in an attempt to reach an even broader audience than before. It has enriched their songwriting as well – the new single “Damn You” features all of the aforementioned signature elements in the band’s sound, but it goes a step beyond and sports the high end polish that working with decades long veterans of the music world can provide.

The energetic, freewheeling musical character of this song can win over new coverts on its merits alone. It’s tempered in all the right ways however. A band more blindly eager to impress might have played this at an even faster clip, bleeding any hint of nuance out of it, but The Real Hooks achieve a high-stepping swing that makes other elements of the performance all the more contagious. The song’s melodic virtues are ostentatious, but they are quite real. The band’s songwriting has specialized in direct, uncomplicated melodic lines since their debut and this aspect of their presentation hasn’t changed. It’s further enriched by the strength of the singing, substantive harmonies, and a vocal melody that accentuates the humor of the song.

It’s a level of humor that can get over with young and old alike. Despite the expletive in the title, this is never an obscene lyric and, instead, has a lightly sarcastic edge much more intelligent than what we are used to hearing in this genre. The vocal phrasing is confident, loose, and makes great use of the dramatic possibilities in the lyric without ever laying it on too thick. Like a delicate ballad, success and failure with a song like “Damn You” depends much on how much muscle the singing and music exert. If it’s all about the notes you don’t play, The Real Hooks strike an entertaining and compulsively listenable balance on this new single. It goes beyond family though. These are clearly sympathetic musicians with a crystal clear idea of what this band should be doing and how to get there. Such chemistry is rare under any context. “Damn You” ratchets up the stakes with its deft turns of humor and it’s a performance and song capable of being enjoyed by a wide swath of the listening public.

Grade: A

Cranford Hollow - Color/Sound/Renew/Revive (2017)

OFFICIAL: http://www.cranfordhollowmusic.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/cranfordhollow/

INSTAGRAM: http://www.cranfordhollowmusic.com/#tour

VIDEOS: http://www.cranfordhollowmusic.com/#tour

Written by Alonzo Evans, posted by blog admin

Cranford Hollow’s journey through the modern music world has been shaped by their willingness to grow and take chances. The band originally began life as a more traditional minded outfit, but the addition of lead guitarist and fifth member Yannie Reynecke and a gradual evolution in their songwriting process has led them evolve in ways their fans and the band themselves likely never expected when they first formed. Their latest release Color/Sound/Renew/Revive is an eight song effort that might seem, when viewing the number of tracks alone, to indicate a work of relatively modest ambition. The truth is quite different.  These tracks highlight lead singer and songwriter John Cranford’s gifts in their full flower. Five albums into their career hasn’t dimmed his creative energies a single watt. Instead, Cranford writes like a man with something to say and the facility to express it in intelligent, often poetic terms and his vocals convey those lines with an appealingly theatrical world-weariness.

For novices to the band, the opener “Songfield” makes it startlingly clear that Cranford is every bit of the songwriter described above and plays with a band capable of investing his writing with the needed musical dynamics. Reynecke, over the course of Color/Sound/Renew/Revive, shows hints of his ability to dominate the recording with the sheer force of his playing alone, but the remarkable thing is how he restrains those talents with seeming ease. Instead, their performance on “Songfield” shows Cranford Hollow is a band of musicians and writers intent on serving the song first and foremost while deferring the spotlight to their efforts as a group. There’s a much more retro spirit powering “Long Shadows”, but the band’s blues rock spirit announces itself in artful ways. The instrumental breaks and chorus are dominated by Eric Reid’s violin playing while the verses are much leaner and guided by inventive percussion. Assertive and rather circular drumming opens the track “Noise” before other instruments gradually enter the mix. John Cranford is able to temper his vocal growl somewhat here and benefits from some key secondary vocal tracks to sweeten his gruff sound. The song has a brief and hypnotic melodic hook that has a slightly eerie effect on the song’s mood.

“North” sports a bit of a social consciousness, but Cranford is fortunately not a writer who picks up the soapbox and spews dogma. There’s an intensely personal quality touching his writing missing from songwriters addressing our time in much more strident ways. His phrasing is very effective as well; there’s something rousing about the way he treats the singing, but there’s a shadow of the melancholy seeping into the song. “Dark Turns” is a surprising instrumental this late on the release and encompasses a wide variety of musical turns, particularly near the end. The song certainly has a downcast air, but the tempo belies that and fiddle player Eric Reid glides and weaves through the arrangement with remarkable self-assurance. There’s a small amount of atmospherics woven into the fabric of the album’s finale “Swing”, but the tune has a definite shape thanks to some more strong, uniform drumming throughout much of the performance. Cranford Hollow has the rare versatility of invoking an array of moods without ever sounding incongruous. This is a result of their immense talents, but also a sense of identity – Color/Sound/Renew/Revive is the product of a band who knows exactly who they are, where they came from, and where they’re going.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Kittens Slay Dragons - Big Big Heart (2017)

OFFICIAL: http://kittensslaydragons.com/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/kittensslaydragons/

NEW MUSIC VIDEO -
Love is Surgery:  https://youtu.be/uLUjVFRQePk

STREAM: https://kittensslaydragons.bandcamp.com
 

Written by Craig Bowles, posted by blog admin

Kittens Slay Dragons is the electronic music project of singer/songwriter Sarah Donner and there’s no point during Big Big Heart when it sounds like a stylistic experiment. It sounds like a complete realized artistic and musical work that references Donner’s life in accessible ways and features songwriting that details others’ experiences as well. Despite the electronic nature of Big Big Heart, it never loses its warmth and heart – much of this is, surely, the result of Donner’s strengths as a melodic songwriter. She has an unique lyrical sensibility that serves the material well yet possess an understated conversational eloquence unlike many similar efforts in the style. The attitude infusing the songwriting is quite modern while still showing a complete mastery of fundamentals that supersede genre and sound – fundamentals that are, instead, the bedrock of popular song.

The first song “Gatekeeper” starts with a smattering of synth notes before a steady rhythm launches us off. Donner’s voice comes in soon after and, despite a light nasal quality to her tone, she sounds authoritative from the start and soon becomes the guiding emotional force of this release. Her approach to electronic music renders the form somewhat dreamlike – effects some to coalesce in Kittens Slay Dragons’ songs and the effect of the songwriting accumulates over time rather than arriving all at once. There’s a suggestion of the painter in this approach and she, indeed, uses the electronic instruments as conduits of color for these songs. “Smile Pretty” probably better embodies this than any other song on Big Big Heart. While Donner’s turn with this style shows off her talents for crafting direct, straight-forward numbers in this vein, this song shows her ability for going in a more atmospheric direction. It has a substantive lyrical message as well that she never communicates in a heavy handed way.

“Love Is Surgery” combines the straight-forward style with her more artful touches and succeeds. The multi-tracked vocals are a nice touch for a singer already possessing enough pipes alone to carry the material. The arrangement, likewise, has a patiently simmering quality. Minimalist verses build to an impassioned, well orchestrated chorus and the percussion does an excellent job mimicking the beat of a heart. The title song has some of the same patiently simmering qualities and Donner distinguishes herself with a flexible vocal capable of great sensitivity and towering emotional peaks. The insistent pulse beginning “Under the Waves” does a great job of scene setting before the synths join and Donner tackles the album’s sole duet. Her vocal partner wisely provides a counterpoint that accentuates his strengths while never attempting to supersede her importance to the song. It’s an interesting performance, as well, thanks to how it maintains such a restrained temperament throughout and yet hooks you into its web.

The album’s penultimate song, “Eggs”, has a muscularly soulful vocal from Donner and a rough-hewn arrangement quite different from anything else on Big Big Heart. The vocal melody stands out thanks to its cascading effect, but it’s the tension this song generates without ever quite exploding the way you expect that makes it especially notable. The song’s playful nature, as well, sets it at odds with the album’s finale “Head Down, Heart Up”. You can’t help but notice and admire the dogged determination behind the title, lyrics, and Donner’s exultant voice, but it’s a richer song for how it tacitly acknowledges that moments like this are products of struggle. Kittens Slay Dragons has produced one of the deeper, yet still faithful to the genre, electronic efforts you’ll ever hear. This is a songwriter behind this stuff, folks, and she makes every track count.

Grade: A-