Nick Lowe - The Old Magic

Very often, it’s hard for this reviewer to stop himself from searching for the ‘point’ of an album, for the place of a band in the musical sphere, where they’re going, what they want and where they came from. So sometimes, this reviewer will not listen for a genuinely nice piece of music, but instead search for its relevance.

Well, in this case, Nick Lowe’s album, ‘The Old Magic’, is one occasion where it’s pointless to look for what this album is trying to say, and where Mr. Lowe is trying to get himself. Nick, as he sings on Checkout Time, is sixty-one years old, he’s a New Yorker who has been writing music for forty years, and has been constantly releasing material all that time.

To me, this is just a very nice album, free from the world conquering ambition that tends to plague a lot of newer bands. Its folk/rock tinged and its lazy tightness reminds the listener of the experience and skill of Lowe and his backing band. It’s a perfect record for a Sunday morning.

There’s not much more to say about Nick Lowe’s, The Old Magic and to not tar the record with the same brush I used on Blanck Mass a couple of weeks ago, I’d implore you to check it out yourself. Definitely one this reviewer would recommend. Just don’t try and think too hard about it.

Drop-D Rating : 6/10

Published on Drop-D.ie - 15th August, 2011

Epigene - A Wall Street Odyssey

It’s been a while since this reviewer has been so divided in an opinion on a record. It’s rare when a release can be so promising and be so downright awful at the same time, and Epigene’s A Wall Street Odyssey is one such release. The album is a twenty-two track concept album detailing the rise, fall, and ‘second coming’ of the Wall Street Trader, Yossarian.

Across the album’s two CDs we follow Yossarian from the heights of Wall Street, through his mental and emotional breakdown, his drug use, his exodus to the country, his rehabilitation in the ‘Settlement of Love’ and his return to the city as an enlightened hippy to warn society about the impending economic disaster and an inevitable imposition of an oppressive police state.

The music that this saga is hung upon is a mixture of electro and prog. It’s not particularly innovative but it’s tight and suits singer Sean Bigler’s vocal very nicely. Bigler’s vocal itself is for the most part fast-paced and it works for him. There aren’t any big soaring vocals here and the tracks are better off for it. There are a few cheesy vocoder parts in places but in general the music is interesting and cool in a very retro sort of way.

My issue here is not with the music but with the subject matter. There are themes in music that are as old as music itself, themes that are universal, such as Love. Bob Dylan sang about being scorned by a lover and put it in a unique way despite the fact that hundreds of people had sang about the same thing before.

Then there are themes that are less universal and intersect with a specific places and time. An example in our time is the current world economic recession. Subjects like this tend to be discussed so much by the media and by the average person on the street that they very quickly become types of clichés. So the unfortunate reality in this case is that Epigene have worked very hard on a piece of work that the second it was released became dated, clichéd and irrelevant.

That’s not to say that there isn’t potential in the subject, after all the fall and redemption of a man is one of the oldest subjects know to man. But here it’s not being put across in a nice way. The lyrics are so immediate, ‘I woke up at 3 a.m. and brushed my teeth’ sort of immediate, that they are almost cringeful. This reviewer also feels that the band could have left out the new age hippy preaching that pervades the work from track eight onwards.

If Epigene’s back catalogue (which consists of a number of full length albums) keeps the musical style and drops the poorly relayed concept lyricism there would be some serious potential in their work, which is why this reviewer is so torn on ‘A Wall Street Odyssey’. But as it stands this is one album that I would steer clear of.

Drop-d Rating: 4/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, 9th August, 2011

ECHOGRAM - Remixed EP

This past week saw the release of Echogram’s Walk In The Sun REMIXED, a remix EP that contains a number of tracks by four electronic artists from both at home and abroad, Ghostcopy, Kurtis Mantronik, Real, and Cork’s own, Bantum. The artists have each reworked the song in their own distinctive manner and the result is quite interesting. The EP is a textbook example of how one song can be interpreted in many different ways, and each interpretation gives the track a new life.

The EP opens with what Echogram frontman Killian Petit describes a “hands in the air summer remix” by Ghostcopy. There’s a serious Chemical Brothers vibe off this track. Its relentless throb, the peaks and troughs put you in mind of ‘Star Guitar’. The extra lead synths added by Ghostcopy compliment Petit’s vocal line. It’s great to hear a contrasting but complimentary take on the band’s usual sound of electro driven rock.

With an Anglo-Jamaican background, Kurtis Mantronik’s take on Walk In The Sun is very different to the opener. This track would be right at home in any of the world’s clubs, or dance festivals. Listening to the swirls and pulses here, it’s hard not to imagine the tracks on a bigger stage. Kurtis gives equal priority to Petit’s vocal, something which Ghostcopy seemed to shrug off slightly, and the mix here is nicely balanced between the underlying rhythms and the vocal. The EP also features a subtly heavier version of the track for the remix’s true home on the dancefloor with a dub version of the song.

Next up is Real’s take on the song and again, we shoot off in another direction. It’s an altogether more laid back mix with a distinctly Garage tone. The standard Garage rhythm patterns open the song with pattering hi-hats, snapping rim hits and sporadic kicks as Real plays with the more subversive elements of Walk In The Sun. If Kurtis Mantronik gave a good balance between the vocals and the rhythms, Real gives whole bias towards the rhythms and vocals only feature slightly, and even then they are very much effected. Not that that’s a big gripe, but this reviewer is a sucker for a good vocal line, especially on tracks such as this. That said, the laid-back take on the band’s debut single here is great.

The fourth and final remix on the EP is by Cork’s own Bantum, aka Ruairi Lynch. Obviously each artist on the release brought their own style of music into their track and Bantum is no exception. Like his previous remixes for other artists have showcased, Lynch is a lover of reverb, big effected beats and even more effected vocals. All these traits are showcased here to great effect. It’s very much a shoegazey track and is easily the most lo-fi on the EP, but there’s a certain charm to that. As a whole, it’s an interesting EP; a nice departure from their usual sound. Definitely one to check out.

Drop-D Rating: 8/10

You can download the EP from iTunes. Echogram play the Crane Lane Theatre this Saturday, July 23rd. Watch this space for the band’s next single, ‘Conspiracy’.

Published on Drop-D.ie, 25th July, 2011

Black Market Serotonin - Dead by Five O Clock EP

Black Market Serotonin are a hard/prog rock band based out of Manchester. Their sound is a brash mixture of soaring, accented vocals, thrashing drums and guitar solos. Or at least that is what their debut EP, Dead By Five O Clock, would have you believe. Each track is huge sounding, rock odyssey and the EP itself times out at just about thirty minutes, which is impressive for a five-track CD. It’s the first release by the band so let’s see how their first foray into recorded material goes…

The EPs title track opens the CD, and as one might expect, it’s rich with heavy drums and screeching guitars, while vocalist Andrew Pimblott wails over the track. The song has a serious epic feel to it, the mix of the acoustic opening section and the synths adding substantially to the big sound the band have going on. One thing I will say it that the song has a few too many parts and if the band could have funnelled down some of the material, maybe cut a few guitar solo breaks (of which there are many), they could have come out with a damn fine track. I mean, it’s all in there, and the chorus is a mighty one, although it does go on a bit. That said, ‘Dead By Five O Clock’ is probably the best song on the EP and it’s rightly to the fore.

The big long instrumental parts show up again in the next track, ‘The End of History’. Another ‘big’ song, all the constituent parts of a high energy/high emotion track are there, but the sound and structure just needs to be refined. Same goes for the rest of the EP. ‘Revelation One’ has a kicking chorus, and a Journey-esque breakdown; ‘Clarity’, though perhaps the weakest song melodically, still has a charm; as does the piano infused closer ‘Hours’. Yet all three just drag on too long. By the end the listener’s ears are awash with cymbals, distorted guitars and unintelligible vocals, so much awash that the gems behind the lengthy songs are almost forgotten.

I know that this band are just starting out, and maybe I’m being over critical, and I’ll always prefer snappier, to-the-point songs to 6 minute odysseys. But without a doubt, the EP shows a band that have a good grasp of melody and a strong songwriting sense. As is the way with bands in their early days, it’ll take a while for them to find their footing but, they have potential. If ever the phrase ‘watch this space’ applied, it applies here.

Drop-D Rating: 6/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, 13th June, 2011