We are in the hands of a well-reasoned production from the get-go here (Vanderveen produces here with Pete Fisher, who also plays bass on Release), with Michael Kay’s drums adding a nice marching snare snap, Kersten de Ligny a sweet harmony, a second electric and harmonica, and Vanderveen’s plucked acoustic laying underneath his delicate pipes on the title-track opener.
Music
Will Jackson: Songs From the Briarpatch
We get an excellent lyric on what could have been the usual tread about loss and memory, on “Polaroid Parade.†The fiddle marks the chills-up-your-back, but Jackson’s superb wordplay and the simple production mainly make this a killer track.
Aman Jagwani: This Place
And silky trumpet from Jason Palmer (although forgive me, it might be Milena Casado’s Spanish Flugekhorn, I do want to give both players their due as they both appear across the seven here), floaty keys from Ron Cha and super snappy kinetic highly-tuned percussion from Aman Pankaj Jagwani, float under Anubha Kaul high warble-of-a-vocal, starting us off on the new album from Jagwani called This Place.
The Chris Ruben Band: Madness on Repeat
Get ready to shimmy shake and listen deeply to The Chris Ruben Band’s new one, Madness on Repeat.
Waves Of Distortion: Race Against Time
Leading their press with a quote from C.S. Lewis, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world,” we realize we won’t be treated to the usual metal riot crash on Waves Of Distortion’s Race Against Time.
She’s Excited!: Shock Therapy
A ‘blumping’ fits-and-starts synth wash with a tight percussion bed slips under the talking, what will soon become a screaming, vocal of “Add Clarity†the first tune on She’s Excited!’s new Shock Therapy. Munich-born currently Brooklyn-based electronic artist Anne Wichman is at the helm of these five (two original tunes and three remixes) which she is presenting as much as an audio exploration as a visual one, releasing five videos of all the tunes with this EP.
Wax Moon: Hello Morning
What a breath of fresh air is the ‘plunk’ of banjo and soft sweet harmonies from John Blatchford and Paul Kimball that begin Wax Moon’s Hello Morning. The San Francisco Bay duo have been part of the Indi scene for a bit but have come together here, post a few EP’s, released a few years ago as Wax Moon with this, their first-ever full length from this project.
Blueanimal: Figment That Was Me
Blueanimal manages more than most with their sound and production on this, their third album. A lot of thought went behind what’s presented here and the lyric, which I thought at first was going to be wildly to “oh-whoa-is-me’ introspective, actually seems to bring the narrator, and us the listener, to an awareness.
3D The Boss:Â Push It
For me, it’s when 3D The Boss lifts from the danceable workout stuff (not that there’s anything wrong with that stuff; they do it so well) and digs a little deeper, as they do on the best tune for me here, the jazz-pop “Do My Dance.â€