the blog of Jerry Bolton
Posts tagged Music
…memories of dark days
03 years ago
Title: Surrounded By Lights
Artist: Jesse Sprinkle
Label: Blind Records
Length: 12 Tracks / 44:35
Gorgeous, stripped-down acoustics coupled with careful harmonies typify this offering from Jesse Sprinkle.
Jesse was a founding member of the legendary 90′s Christian rock band Poor Old Lu, and is a former member of Morella’s Forest, Demon Hunter, Dead Poetic, A Cold Vein, and Burning Daylight. Unless I am mistaken, in all of these cases, he served as the drummer. Such is not the case on Blind Records’ 2008 release Surrounded By Lights, which, if you include Jesse’s time calling himself “The World Inside”, is approximately his 12th solo recording. On this, as with all aforementioned solo projects, Jesse basically handles everything – drums certainly, but also guitars, vocals, and generally any other instrumentation you hear. Despite releasing such a litany of material over the last decade, as well as arduous touring with Demon Hunter for a period, very few are familiar with his solo work, which is characterized by harmonies – at times soaring, at times subdued – and beautiful and simple acoustic guitar work laced nicely with other orchestration.
Jesse categorizes this record as “dark pop”, and it’s a fitting moniker. The overall tone of the disc is shaded, and the mood is decidedly quiet and suspended in thought and contemplation. It comes through in the downtempo pacing as well as the lyrics, such as this example from midway through the disc:
There comes a moment when you have to touch
All the hurt you hold so dear
Then an echo bounces off the blood
And it asks you to follow near
I could not protect it
I could not discern
Between the lines of fabrication’s words
Jesus never told me
How to love and learn
In a time like now,
Between the Ice and Earth
(from “Between the Ice and Earth”)
This isn’t the sort of record that sticks in your head, as a rule. It is, however, the sort of record that has a distinguishable “sound” that is very attractive to have backing up specific moods. If you’re feeling subdued and mournful, melancholy, or perhaps apprehensive and anxious for a future to come… Sprinkle provides the soundtrack.
This guilt within
Isn’t what I’ve been
In the August light
It’s paperthin
But we don’t begin
Until we really die
And the answer’s become
Erased
We’ll dance in the sun
For days
In the moonlight above
Forgave,
And one day You’ll ask me to come.
(from “Lights of June”)
Jesse has a great falsetto – a rare thing amongst singer/songwriters of late (two others that come to mind immediately are The Rocket Summer’s Bryce Avary and Pedro the Lion’s David Bazan), and, even better, has a great ear for harmonies – another rarity. Both are put to extensive use on Surrounded By Lights.
If I was forced to draw comparisons, I’d say that Jesse sounds like his brother Aaron Sprinkle (also known to release poppy acoustic guitar records) might if he were prone to slave over his records as much as he slaves over his production work for Tooth & Nail. Which is to say, Jesse has layered Surrounded By Lights with enough complexity to give it depth, without sacrificing the sublimity that is “a man and his guitar”. Those with a penchant for the sort of things you frequently hear strummed and hummed at coffeehouses and small pubs will find plenty to wash themselves in here.
Other than the transcendent pacing and “feel” of the music, the decidedly “dark” part of the “dark pop” found on Surrounded By Lights is the lyrics. Jesse doesn’t deal in happy, optimistic generalizations here – there is an urgency and a stirring evidence of hard-wrought labour in the words. Consider the previous examples quoted as well as this:
Sleepwalking to destinations dim
She’s responding with nothing but a grin:
Your religion is frail
Blurred visions and rusty nails
The womb of grace unshown
No…
Keys dropping and games evolved to wars
There’s no stopping, as ceilings become floors
Your correction has failed
Steel buildings and casket sales
Remind me who I was
Fold me over, lighting…
Fill the ocean, crying…
Will we go down, fighting
With the worst years yet to come?
(from “Steel Buildings And Caskets)
Lyrically, there’s a lot to ingest. Jesse makes no attempt to mask his expansive grasp on the English language – and it shows on every track with plenty of excellent and complicated constructions to work your head through. There’s a lot of spiritual content as well, much of which is difficult to make heads and tails of because some of it is presented as quotation from a character in a song, whereas other parts are Jesse himself speaking. The general tone of it seems to be neutral – questioning and curious, not necessarily attacking or defending. The best thing to compare it to would be the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes, which is quoted in the liner notes:
Light is sweet,
And it pleases the eye to see the sun.
However many years a man may live,
Let him enjoy them all.
But let him remember the days of darkness,
For they will be many.
Everything to come is meaningless.
Ecclesiastes 11:7-8 (NIV)
The recurring theme of the album is in it’s title: we are Surrounded By Lights, even amidst the memory of our “days of darkness”. This album appears to be just such a memoir – memories of dark days in Jesse’s life, captured, redeemed, and shared, hopefully, with those who will listen.
The bottom line is that this is a darkly atmospheric, beautifully organic, harmonious, soaring, haunting collection of songs. Play it on those early mornings when you scrape yourself out of bed, those late nights when you’re chained to the keyboard to polish off that last assignment, or those times when the world makes so little sense you just need to retreat from it. Highly recommended listening.
4 lightrays out of 5.
Standout Tracks:Better Places, Between The Ice And Earth, Lights Of June, Wait Or Want, Steel Buildings And Caskets, The Legend Of Saint Agnes.
Jerry Bolton – for The Phantom Tollbooth.
April 6th, 2009
…hear my voice goes to ones and zeroes
0Current Tunage: Thrice – Digital Sea (Live)
Thrice’s recent live record is an exmaple of a live album done right – 25 tracks on 2 discs from 1 show, a DVD of the concert including an extensive and downright interesting interview with the band, and *excellent* recording quality. Not to mention they played a great show, very much like they always do (I need to see them live again!).
Posting more regularly is a promise I often make here, and it’s probably my most often broken promise (not that I break many, I hope). It would be interesting sometime to aggregate through all the last 5 years of posts and trace every broken promise to post more. Interesting, but largely meaningless.
I recently got sucked into the swirling nether vortex known as Twitter, and you can find me here, tweeting away. I figured that my compulsion to update my Facebook status deserved a more fitting arena for its execution. So far, I’ve been quite impressed. I love the adless, clean simplicity of it. I also love knowing what many of my heroes and inspirations are doing with their everyday lives (although that in itself makes twitter feel far more voyeuristic than Facebook has ever been, though I suppose the lack of photographs makes it less so in reality). This is particularly true when aforementioned heroes and inspirations are, for example, in the studio recording that new record, releasing an update to software I use regularly, or what have you. Knowing these things in realtime is handy-dandy.
So, shameless tweetvertising aside, life is good. This will be an update. In approximately a month and two days, I will be a university graduate. That much is certain, although it is contingent on my completion of about 7 odd projects, papers, and assignments between now and then, most of them sizeable. Foregone conclusions, though, eh?
Lately I, and my wife with me (usually), have been enjoying the swirling and ephemeral sounds of The Rocket Summer, Thrice, The Appleseed Cast, Mute Math, Mae, Celldweller, Nobuo Uematsu, and, on occasion, a little Underoath, Living Sacrifice, and Mars Ill. Oh, and I mustn’t forget Brandon Heath, Bebo Norman, Remedy Drive, Derek Webb, Aaron Shust, and whatnot.
Musical preferences aside, we’re as-they-say “chugging along”. Weekends are full of more happenings and happenstance than weekdays (and thus tend to be busier, if that were possible). I’m back to my old ways as part of the Worship team at our church, helping run Sound Tech a couple times a month – Mixing and Matching and Mastering and trying to Make-things-sound-real-good and such. It’s a fun exercise for my ears and (sometimes) my reflexes. Steph is back to her old ways teaching Sunday School once a month also. We’re really starting to feel like it’s “home”, friendships are starting to firm up, we’re starting to know most of the people by name (at least the major players), our small group has been an encouragement and a blessing, and we’ve been on the requisite dinner date (discovering friends who share our passion for 24, board games that are fun, good coffee, and doing life for Jesus). Not that we didn’t have friends like that already, but more is always good, ya?
With regards to my “second reformation” series, I do still plan to pick it up in some form. I suppose the problem is that views and thoughts are always evolving, and so unless one keeps at a body of work consistently, it can run away – or, better put, it can grow its own legs and mind and evolve into something beyond your control (kind of like children?). This is to say, in order to pick it up, I really need to map out where I want to go, decide what specifically I want to say (and to whom), and get my head around things. I also need to re-think what I want to call it – I’ve decided that Reformation is too strong a word for my thoughts (particularly after reading a few Emergent authors claim their movement is a new “reformation” – ugh). Perhaps it will be “Jerry’s Thoughts for the Future of Autonomous Local Churches (particularly the Open Brethren of Ontario)” or something, I guess that would be more specific, eh?
Musings aside, I’m in a good place right now. Small Group is starting into a study on the Foundations of Discipleship which PROMISES (indeed, all but GUARANTEES) revelations and challenges grandiose and meaningful. School plugs away; I can smell the finish line, I can see the work that lies before me, and I can know beyond a shadow that ‘this too shall pass’. Marriage is still the best thing on God’s green earth, and Steph the best Thing.
Jesus is sweet and terrible, wondrous and dangerous, full of majesty and full of ways to tear my Self apart… He’s “the Image of the Invisible God” and I love Him for it, even as He takes me, breaks me, and makes me something new again and again. Praise God for the Cross, the Life, the Way. Nothing else in this finite universe compares with the Infinite One.
Saturday morning (I mean afternoon) quibble: “Infinite One” is an oxymoron, but I’m overlooking that because it frankly doesn’t matter. God is One and God is Infinite. So, to call him the Infinite One is sensible even as it is a mystery and a challenge to my finite (grey) matter.
…if you got soul
03 years ago
Title: Deepspace5oul
Artist: Beat Rabbi & Deepspace5
Label: Illect Recordings
Length: 22 Tracks / 63:21
Have you ever wanted to time travel? Do you love relevant, conscious, thinking-man’s hip-hop? If you answered “YES!” to both of those questions, Beat Rabbi and Deepspace5 have concocted the perfect cure for your ailments in the form of their late-2007 Illect Recordings release cleverly entitled Deepspace5oul.
Made up of 22 tracks, about 10 of which are interludes (some are short songs, some are instrumental) – the record is jam-packed with more Deepspace5 than you can handle. Recorded during the summer of 2003 prior to their sophomore release Unique, Just Like Everyone Else, Deepspace5oul is a blast from the past equivalent to the manic time-travel episodes of Bill Watterson’s classic serialized comic strip Calvin & Hobbes. The album gives us an unique presentation of the DS5 crew since it is the only release to feature singular production. Where all other DS5 releases have featured production from DJ Dust and Manwell, as well as rappers Fred Bruno, Playdough, and others (highlighting the multi-disciplinary talent of the crew), Beat Rabbi handles all of the beats on this project with only supplementary scratching and the like from others.
Thus, Deepspace5oul is an interesting side-release of the crew that highlights the excellent sounds coming out of Rabbi’s lab as well as sharing some circa-2004 raps from the crew. This is a remarkable listening experience for any fan of the group; the lyrics are excellent as always, and you can really hear by contrast just how much some of the guys’ vocals have improved since then. It’s a study in improvement and change, in that sense.
Musically, Rabbi sends up some of his best work ever on Deepspace5oul, sampling and fusing extensively from sounds such as soul, jazz, funk, and breaks – harking back to that classic (and rightly so) 1990′s rap sound. Sonically, the album traverses a wide landscape of areas – from full horn sections tickling your subconscious (“Deepspace 5oul”) to brilliant vocal tracks forming the backbone of a beat (“Beautiful”) to amazing bassline-driven rhythms (“On A Side Note”), Deepspace5oul is an exercise in production excellence. It’s plain that much time and thought and perfectionism was focused on this project, and the results are quite frankly thrilling.
Lyrically, the DS5 crew brings it as tight as they always have. Hearing new-to-us verses from almost 5 years ago is a very interesting experience, as it not only highlights the great strides of improvement made since (which has already been mentioned), but also just how amazing DS5 was even prior to that forward progress. Most notable is when the difference isn’t really even in the realm of “improvement” but of just plain difference – see The Listener’s verses, which definitely sound much more akin to his more traditional Whispermoon and The Night We Called It A Day style than to his present manifestation as heard and enjoyed on Ozark Empire or Return to Struggleville. Overall, between the shiny verses and the smart choruses, there’s food-for-thought and phonetic wonder here for weeks of repeated listens.
With the recent release of Bake Sale (an EP by DS5 standards at 10 tracks) and Greatest Beats & Unreleased (a b-sides and beat record), both in 2008, as well as 2009′s soon-coming and much-anticipated third album The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be, it’s becoming clearer than ever that Deepspace5 is one of rap’s undisputed supernovas of talent and an incredible machine that churns out hip-hop happiness in a way few other crews could ever hope to come near.
Deepspace5oul is a blast from the past that seems carefully designed from the top down to remind us that Deepspace5 pumps out quality, mind-and-heart-blowing hip-hop not only in the present and future, but the past as well. If you love rap and time-travel, you owe it to yourself to pick this puppy up and let it explore your soul with sound.
5 Souls out of 5.
Standout Tracks: Deepspace 5oul, Beautiful, On A Side Note, Double Dog Dare You, Downtown Connects, Say Yeah.
Jerry Bolton – for The Phantom Tollbooth.
January 10, 2009
…top ten records two thousand eight
0Here’s my top 10 records released in 2008.
They are IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, and are followed by a few lines about each.
Format:
## – Artist – “Album Name”
01 – Thrice – “The Alchemy Index Vol. 3 & 4: Air & Earth”
If their 2007 EP “The Alchemy Index Vol. 1 & 2: Fire & Water” hinted at anything, it was that the experimental direction begun on their previous record “Vheissu” was but a portent of things to come. “Vol. 1: Fire” revealed that Thrice can still melt faces with blistering post-punk rock even when they play with bizarre timings and unique structures, and “Vol 2: Water” revealed an entrancing, largely synthesized, beautiful ambient Thrice we had never heard before. In a
similar fashion, “Air & Earth” pushes that envelope further, with “Air” glistening and crackling with quiet energy and what can only be described as a whirlwind of light and atmospheric crescendos. Conversely, “Earth” shares much more in common with frontman Dustin Kensrue’s solo work and is full of acoustic sounds akin to Johnny Cash and old-school folk and country records than anything else in Thrice’s catalog. In a word, breathtaking.
02 – Brave Saint Saturn – “Anti-Meridian”
Not only the best BS2 record, but the best thing Reese Roper has ever written and performed vocals for – and that includes Five Iron Frenzy. A brilliant ending to the loose story arc begun back on “So Far From Home” and continued on “The Light of Things Hoped For”. Lyrically strong, musically strong, and very highly rated independent release out of the remains of what will always be one of Third Wave Ska’s greatest memories.
03 – Underoath – “Lost In The Sound Of Separation”
Blistering, anthemic, organic, pulsating with purpose, raw, passionate, and ultimately the best Underoath record to date. Structurally remarkable as it almost unilaterally avoids the trappings of traditional verse-chorus, and sonically/lyrically impressive as it comes across with a remarkable juxtaposition of distortion and clarity.
04 – Emery – “Where Broken Hearts Prevail EP”
Quite simply, this is a wonderful hybrid of the sounds explored on “The Question” and “I’m Only A Man”. In short, they’ve taken the best parts of both, made a hybrid, tightened up the screws, and unleashed their best album ever – the only downside is that it only lasts 7 tracks.
05 – The Classic Crime – “The Silver Cord”
Not exactly known for pushing envelopes musically, The Classic Crime do manage to outdo their previous work both in terms of scope and in terms of sound – with the tasteful appearance of quite a few new instruments (the least of which is not frontman Matt MacDonald’s visceral yells, a welcome addition). Overall, there’s a whole lot more depth and maturity here, resulting in one of the best rock albums in recent memory.
06 – Becoming The Archetype – “Dichotomy”
Quite simply, Becoming the Archetype finally realized their remarkable potential on this album. Moving out of riff-city and into epic-metropolis, and from “we can write sweet bits for songs” to “we do write great complete songs”. Consequently, this is the year’s must-have metal record. A completely mind-blowing re-imagining of the classic hymn “How Great Thou Art” stands as an example.
07 – Dustin Kensrue – “This Good Night Is Still Everywhere”
Thrice frontman Dustin Kensrue releases his second solo effort, this time a Christmas record. Questionable choice? Sure. Fantastic results? Absolutely. Eight covers (only one or two that are unremarkable) and two amazing originals. This one will see regular rotation for many years to come.
08 – Mars Ill – “Black Listed Sessions”
Mars Ill’s producer and deejay extraordinaire DJ Dust has been remixing their records since 2003, and the results are consistently as good or better than the original mixes. In this double-take on their previous “Blue Collar Sessions” EP, Dust provides us with some amazing reimaginings of classic tracks. They are so good that they might as well Blacklist them, for their release upon unsuspecting eardrums might cause the musical equivalent of a hydrogen bomb attack.
09 – Deepspace5 – “Bake Sale”
Upon finding themselves label-less after a brief stint on Gotee Records, rap supercrew Deepspace5 set out to record and release their third album independently. To fund the effort, they recorded and released this incredible 10-track equivalent of a grade school bake sale (hence the name) to raise funds for putting out album #3 (which will be called “The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be”). The results, as always, are spectacular. Challenging beats coupled with humorous/convicting/clever raps, and brief enough to leave you hungering for DS5#3 in 2009.
10 – Copeland – “You Are My Sunshine”
Copeland finds itself on Tooth & Nail Records, being produced by Aaron Sprinkle. Awesome, overwhelming serenity results. Hands down the smooth, sleepy, ambient, vocal-driven hit of the year.
Honourable Mentions:
GZA/Genius – “Pro Tools”
Coldplay – “Viva La Vida”
City & Colour – “Bring Me Your Love”
Brandon Heath – “What If We”
Sev Statik – “Shotgun”
Death Cab For Cutie – “Narrow Stairs”
Braille – “The IV Edition”
…paperseasonfall08
1Current Tunage: Mars Ill – The Life And Times Of A Simple Man
Old Ironsides. Classic Mars Ill material circa 2007.
I know, I know. I’m waiting too! Lots coming down the pipelines as soon as it’s ready. How does this sound:
2 Papers (aka Essays), 1 Journal, 1 Presentation, 1 Assignment. 1 week.
This week, that is. Yeah, I thought you’d understand: I’ve been up to my neck and down on my knees.
Anyways, I was just chilling out to some traditional Mars Ill grooves, namely the 5 Year Anniversary Edition of their 2001 classic debut “Raw Material”. Essentially, it’s kind of like a best-of. See, “Raw Material” was released twice. First it was released by Sphere of Hip-Hop (back when they did a little cd-releasing, instead of just being the kings of online conscious hip hop distro and assimilation). It had a couple tracks on it, namely “Destined to Be” and “Under the Sun” (featuring Listener) that weren’t on the next (and much more common) release. Which was the Uprok Records release, which instead of the aforementioned tracks, had two new ones – “The Abolition of Manchild” and “Fade to Black” featuring Sintax the Terrific. Other than rearranging the track orders, the two releases were identical in their remaining 17 tracks, quite a few of which were instrumental.
On the 5 year anniversary, they have all four of the above tracks. They also removed the beloved “Sphere of Hip Hop, Part 2″, but added “Sphere of Hip Hop, Part 3″ to fill the void (you can only fit so much on a disc). Further adding to the fray, they’ve added two versions of a song that was lost in Dust’s basement closet, entitled “Flipside” – represented with two beats, one by Playdough, one by Dave Kelly.
The only interesting catch? Everything but the “new” tracks is instrumental. Which is fine, because freaks like me have all the other songs already anyways.
I’m reminiscing about the 20-01 folks, and the ‘niscin is good.
…because his mercy is ‘merciless’
03 years ago
Title: Merciless EP
Artist: JustMe & Sintax the Terrific
Label: Illect Recordings
Length: 6 Tracks / 19:32
One part playa, one part Puritan,
All parts Prodigal Son sent to return
(Sintax on “Compound Interest”)
In a genre where albums regularly clock in over 15 tracks and at least an hour of playtime, EP’s are fairly scarce – and even more difficult to ingest. Typically you have a boatload of beats and rhymes to ingest with which to assess the artists’ heart and soul and style. To have just a scant six tracks and twenty minutes of playtime to accomplish the same feat is no small order.
This is particularly true when the EP in question features the dynamite duo of JustMe and Sintax the Terrific. Southern California’s JustMe is known for his past work with early 2000′s crew The SolSeekers and for his current run with supercrew Scribbling Idiots. He also has one solo record out (One Man’s Trash) and another on the way. Sintax is best known as being one of the nine mouth-pieces in rap-godzilla-monster posse Deepspace 5 and for his two well-received solo albums, Simple Moves and Curb Appeal. Both emcees are well-known and respected in the Christian “Triple H” (Holy Hip Hop) community. Thus, the combination of the two is timely and more importantly it promises good things.
As expected, good things abound on Merciless. The dynamic of doing a collaborative EP is one that JustMe and Sintax approach in a very fluid and manageable way that comes across as being anything but forced and results in some really remarkable intertexting and crossplay. The best example of this would be the first track, “Saturation Point”, where they each have a distinct overall form of the same beat and the beat morphs back and forth between those two forms (and a multitude of subtle variations) as they take their turns – each one going for about 16 bars at a time. The effect is brilliant and it gives a perfect introduction to the rappers as well as to the EP; it showcases their distinct styles while drawing them together to highlight their united voice. The song’s content itself is equally impressive, essentially capturing a fictional conversation’s dialogue back-and-forth.
This united front proves to be a formidable strength throughout the record, as JustMe and Sintax have never really been ones to shy away from difficult or heady topics. Both prove themselves formidable in terms of deftly weaving meaningful orthodox theology and philosophy of life throughout their verses on Merciless. Topics include life and how to live it, death, the mysteries and wonders of God’s justice and mercy in Christ, and quite a bit more. All of this is remarkable considering they cover this ground in a mere six cuts.
One song in particular which gripped me lyrically was the EP’s fourth, entitled “Death is Real”. The best way to explain why is to share some of the profundity with you directly. First, we hear the beginning of the first verse, from JustMe:
In the words of Paul – “I’m the worst sinner”
Living it up while the starving get thinner
Dinner for the flies, Beginner to the wise,
Even God knows what it’s like to die
Like sight to eye, that fades away
Some sooner than later, can’t wait for the Day…
(JustMe on “Death Is Real”)
Later on in the song, Sintax drops this bomb of a verse. This was pretty much the crown verse of the record in my mind, and really served as a beautiful closer on a beautiful, haunting track. Here it is:
Yo, I’m back from the dead to tell you that it’s for real
Out-of-body born-again-believer appeal
I’m feelin’ eager to peel back the ether intact
You might have read some CS Lewis but you don’t know Jack
The brain’s an artifact, body is a relic
But the soul is where it’s at, in fact the new black velvet
Forget what you know, put your hands to the ceiling
Like I’m so post-modern my feelings have feelings
Living in a fantasy world living fancy
Pearls got us strung out on vanity – Girls,
It’s like insanity’s the rule, peace the exception
So I’m feasting on a diet of gruel and resurrection
Hyperbole the tool to wake you from the daydream
Genius is a fool and real rap is mainstream
Death is rebirth, but I’d have to kill you to prove it
‘Cuz life really starts when you lose it (gotta lose it)
(Sintax on “Death is Real”)
Musically, the beats are all very solid. There’s a lot of variety in the sampling and a lot of depth in the layering of sounds throughout the beats. Production was handled by JustMe himself and I’d venture to argue that he outdid all the beats on his first solo record One Man’s Trash by a fairly wide margin on this EP (which I found a little strange – but I guess we can chalk it up to growing experience as a producer). The beats aren’t tiring or annoying as beats can often be, and they generally pulse with a kind of chill and meditative vibe that can actually really permeate the skull and get caught up in it – or, in other words, they can get stuck in your head. That’s always a good thing where rap beats are concerned.
It began on the wrong side of the tracks:
Lack the art of facts, and lack the art of laughter,
Exactly what I’m after – Not knowing, not showing
The signs of a grand design.
Find a fine rhyme in the silence like a pantomime
And to find letting my actions speak louder,
‘Til factions of doubters
Get crushed into powder (and raised again)
It’s called ‘grace’, my friend!
(JustMe on “Rough Crossing”)
All in all, this is a really fly EP – there’s a lot of great moments and the variety of back-and-forth, verse-and-bar trading that JustMe and Sintax supply throughout the disc gives it a lot of gumption as well as uniqueness. Many lesser joint EP’s just have emcees trading off verses and maybe singing the chorus together, so it was great to see some new variations on old ideas.
Bottom line, it left me wanting more – maybe a lot of it. This is a testament to the quality and ability of these emcees, as well as to their ability to give hearers a unified conversation-slash-monologue to take part in and/or be in awe of. Both emcees bring their ‘A’ game, and this means that Merciless isn’t your usual second-rate afterthought EP, but instead an example of two artists coming together with one purpose and one vision to share one message in an impactful manner. It’s everything a rap EP should be.
Here’s a closing thought, on the topic of the mysterious co-existence of Justice/Wrath and Grace/Mercy as attributes of God in Christ, given from His perspective:
Every last breath makes reality true,
I’m unabashed in the way I feel love for you
‘Cuz I dashed everything to make your soul renew
I was merciless the way I showed mercy to you
(Sintax on “Merciless”)
JustMe and Sintax the Terrific are merciless in the best imaginable way on Merciless. Cop it.
4 mercies out of 5.
Standout Tracks: Saturation Point, Compound Interest, Death Is Real, Merciless.
Jerry Bolton – for The Phantom Tollbooth.
November 14, 2008
…a list or two
0Current Tunage: Underoath – The Only Survivor Was Miraculously Unharmed
Lost In The Sound Of Separation is incredible.
So. There’s about a month and a half left in the Oh Eight, which may be a bit early to do this, but I feel like doing it now.
TOP TEN RECORDS RELEASED or discovered by me IN 2008 (mostly no particular order):
x LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION – underoath
x II – maylene and the sons of disaster
x BAKESALE – deepspace5
x CURB APPEAL – sintax the terrific
x SLOW FLAME – mars ill
x THE ALCHEMY INDEX VOLS. 3&4, AIR & EARTH – thrice
x THE SILVER CORD – the classic crime
x THE IV EDITION – braille
…put the drum beat back in my heart
03 years ago
Title: Daylight Is Coming
Artist: Remedy Drive
Label: Word Records
Length: 11 Tracks / 34:40
If there’s one thing this world has a shortage of, it’s piano pop-rock bands – specifically, good ones. For all the Switchfoots and Coldplays out there, there’s 100 million other bands I won’t dignify by naming who fill radio airwaves with the most inane drivel. Remedy Drive is, for lack of a simpler way to introduce them, none of the above… exactly. Remedy Drive is more like what happens when you pump your stereo so full of the aforementioned Coldplay and Switchfoot that it starts to pour out this kind of gelatinous, filial harmony.
All of which is to say… it takes something special to be an unsigned, independent band for ten years. This is what Remedy Drive did, mostly under the name “Remedy”, and prior to that, “The Aslan Band”. Blessedly, they tagged a “Drive” on the end of “Remedy” and avoided future confusion as a David Crowder Band record. I’m not even gonna touch “The Aslan Band”… yikes.
Remedy Drive is four brothers. They harmonize well. They play their instruments well. The brother who does lead vocals sounds like a rather direct cross between Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman. Quite direct. In fact, when I first heard Remedy Drive, my immediate thought was that it must be a Switchfoot side-project (not that Jon Foreman doesn’t have his hands full). I was surprised to learn that no, it wasn’t Switchfoot and no, it wasn’t Coldplay either. I was intrigued.
I went from intrigued to quite interested when I found out that their final independently released disc, 2006′s Rip Open The Skies sold over 20,000 copies.
Daylight Is Coming is Remedy Drive’s first album as a signed band. It shows. The production is clean and doesn’t get much in the way of the sound, the harmonies, the essence of what they were up to. Thus, they avoided the “first-time we have a budget” blues which are known to be caused by over-production and losing your vocals and instruments in 800 pounds of sonic effects. Put more simply, the production is clean, fitting, and draws attention to all the bright and enjoyable moments the record has to offer.
Musically, Remedy Drive is about what you’d expect from a genetic mishmash of Coldplay and Switchfoot: lovely piano, lovely singing, and best of all, lovely harmonies that are made all the more glistening because of the foursome’s family ties – they all have similar voices, so uniting them results in the kind of harmonious cascade that only genetics can produce. It’s a beautiful thing, and because they couple it with ten years of songwriting experience, it has plenty of opportunity to shine.
The only real downside to the record is lyrical.
First, the positive: the lyrics are hope-permeated, uplifting, and center around the ideas of rebirth, salvation, and regeneration (a stark example is the stellar track “Heartbeat”).
Second, the criticism: There’s not a lot of lyrics – many of the songs have fewer than 15 lines, most of which are short lines. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, however one of the challenges which that kind of approach poses is that you need to say a lot, meaningfully, in just a little space. I didn’t really feel that they were up to that challenge, and I felt as though the lyrics were very straightforward, and at times they seemed very much like I had heard them somewhere before (cliché, perhaps?).
Try this on for size:
All of my castles in the sand – washed away again
And I’m left back where I began tonight
The only thing that can ever fill me up
Has been right in front of me all the time
(from “All Along”)
In the same vein, quite a few of the songs clock in at under 3 minutes… consequently the 11-song album clocks in at just over 30 minutes – quite short even by pop-rock standards. By means of comparison, Coldplay’s recent and critically acclaimed 11-track Viva La Vida came in at 50 minutes and Switchfoot’s latest, Oh, Gravity, clocked in at 12 tracks and 45 minutes of playtime. Put in contrast like that, and taking into account the shortness of the lyrics, it’s hard to miss. You really begin to notice that the songs are mostly chorus (generally a fault of dodgy pop-rock) and that they’re over just when you’re starting to feel them.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, the best song on the record is “Heartbeat”, which sports the longest verses as well as (in my opinion) the best writing on the album. Further, it captures Remedy Drive at their strongest… the album is full of vagueries and generic talk, and when the lyrics really develop there’s actually a lot to chew on; it just doesn’t happen often enough. It also has a really great refrain involving some “oh oh oh” back-and-forth harmonizing-slash-chanting that really hits the spot.
So, what can I say? Musically, Remedy Drive hit the jackpot. Although they sport a tonne of feel-good Switchfoot and Coldplay likeness, those bands are rightfully acclaimed for their excellence and so to be compared to them is definitely a strength and not a weakness. The music is crisp, sharp, clean, clear, harmonious, and masterfully executed. The lyrical content is minimalist and often falls short of really developing the ideas and the themes of the record. That said, when they really apply themselves, the lyrics are more than just listenable, they’re excellent.
If this was Remedy Drive’s debut, I’d be saying they’re full of promise and heading in the right direction.
However, since they’re old indie stalwarts, my advice is this:
Invest more time in writing your lyrics and developing your songs so that they’re not all over before they begin and aren’t mostly chorus. Your music, harmonies, instrumentation, and production all hit the mark, but your content is sorely lacking. Man up and write us a remarkable, meaningful, and well-thought-out sophomore label record and we’ll crown you part of the pop-rock trifecta.
By way of conclusion, I submit this to you, dear reader: This is a great album. My wife LOVES this album. It’s a dissapointing album, when I consider the potential the band has to deliver something downright PERFECT… but it’s great nonetheless. If you’re into pop and rock and you’re a big fan of Switchfoot and Coldplay and singing along with wonderful harmonies and great instrumentation… you’ll really, really dig Daylight Is Coming. Get it, love it, and join me in hoping that they hone their text-crafting skills and beef up their quantity for the next go ’round.
3.5 drum beats out of 5.
Standout Tracks: Heartbeat, Something Made To Last.
Jerry Bolton – for The Phantom Tollbooth.
November 2, 2008
…appealing to the curb and the noggin’
03 years ago
Title: Curb Appeal
Artist: Sintax.the.Terrific
Label: Illect Recordings
Length: 18 Tracks / 69:37
You choose to use the broken and abused soft-spoken misfit to open your good news.
(from “Broke Toys (An Anti-Intro)”)
Curb Appeal is the sophomore outing by founding Deepspace5 member Sintax the Terrific, who when not rapping is known as Ryan Seacrest. Prior to this recording he could be found spittin’ rhymes on Deepspace5′s The Night We Called It A Day (2001, Uprok Records) and Unique, Just Like Everyone Else (2005, Gotee Records) as well as his debut record Simple Moves (2004, Illect Recordings) and a bevy of guest spots on conscious hip-hop records. Before all of that, he got his start in the late 90′s with underground crew The Pride. My first encounter with Sintax was on Mars Ill’s 2001 epic Raw Material where he had a couple guest spots.
With few if any exceptions, his stuff is always well-received for its honesty, wit, and unashamed proclamation of spiritual truth – be it troubling and convicting or just lighthearted and touching. Sintax has a way with words, and a noticeable love for life, hip-hop culture, and most of all Christ. All of these things come through loud and clear on Curb Appeal – there’s just so many incredible and well-worded thoughts permeating this disc that it’s all but impossible to do it justice unless I quote from it pretty extensively:
I’m the Ryan Seacrest of this rap game, no shame
In my dep gel, making pop idols look lame
Bring revival, not fame – I’m Billy Graham plus Busta
Rhymes, spit theology in double time structure
Sike! I hate double time, I only spit traditional
Boom bap, KRS-One type material
(from “Moonlighting)
Sintax has a way of weaving insight and challenge throughout his lyrics that I find particularly impactful. One of the closing tracks on Curb Appeal is called “Make Believe” and the first time I listened through it closely, I was in tears. Here’s the chorus as a sample:
You make me believe it’s not make believe
Fill in all the gaps that I can’t conceive
Break a skeptic down to his basic need
To put a finger in the wrist where salvation bleeds
You make me believe it’s not make believe
I’m breath taken by your sacred mysteries
Take me to the root of that ancient tree
Where knowledge is the fruit that only faith can see
(from “Make Believe”)
All throughout the song, the interplay between the idiom “make believe” and the injunctive idea of being made to believe goes back and forth, to the point where Sintax has encapsulated an often complicated spiritual concept – the idea of faith – in an easy to remember and repeat statement. Namely, the re-casting of the idiom “make believe”. It’s brilliant, and I hope it serves as a clue as to what kind of calibre of rapper we’re dealing with on Curb Appeal.
Sintax is a father, a husband, and an all-around normal guy who loves Jesus Christ. He’s also a bona-fide premium rap-artist wordsmith who can tangle flows with the best of them. He keeps the heavy and yet very accessable content of the album from becoming dark or overbearing by putting his eldest son Jackson (who’s about 2.5 years old) to extremely touching use. Jackson appears a few times on the album, in one place he’s recording himself trying to sound cool like his dad (“Yo”) and thus delightfully trying to rap and beatbox. In another spot, he introduces the Christmas-tinged song “Immanuel” by attempting to sing the old classic carol “Hark The Harold Angels Sing”. It’s a poignant moment designed to ease the listener into the right frame of mind before the song beats them over the head with the wonder and glory of the thought that the Creator God would humble Himself to come as an infant and ultimately as the Savior. Here’s one particularly brilliant moment in the song:
Oh! Bethlehem, your sky was so thin
Didn’t even try to hide the Hope within
Heavens open wide to let the oceans swim
“Peace on Earth” spoke the Golden Rim
of angels found a few of life’s broken men
To show the rest of us how to behold a gem
Go and tell the Word that’s now life and limb
That Immanuel will grow to throw the yoke of sin
Hope can’t choke the well of grace we’re soaking in
Nor provoke the Son of Man to turn stone bread-thin
(from “Immanuel”)
Musically, the album is what I like to call a “slow burner”. It grows on you. Some beats will grab you right away, while others will take repeated listens and maybe even a month or two. Trust me though, they’re all keepers. The sound runs a gamut from laid-back (“Hurricane Crush”, “Soul Weep”) to the very intentionally boom-bap (“Falcon Plume”, “Showstopper”) and most places in-between. There’s a lot of horns, guitars, and minimalist synths. It’s not a very complex sound, but the choice to take that direction seems intentional, and it serves to accentuate the lyrical content quite well. A couple of the beats made me drop my jaw a bit (“Soul Weep”, and “Moonlighting”), but for the most part they take a pleasant backseat and avoid getting in the way (something that both incredible and awful beats can do). All in all, the record has a cohesive sound despite a handful of producers, likely due to the pedigree involved; Production was handled primarily by DJ Ryval and Sivion, with Fred B, Playdough, JustMe, Beat Rabbi, and Kurfu contributing as well.
I write the raps that make kids dream in colors
Where whites and blacks are brothers from different baby mothers
I write the raps that make people better lovers
Not between the sheets, but with the God that they discover
I write raps cuz a Terminator X scratch
Made my heart skip a beat my breath couldn’t catch
I write raps cuz I love to hear the snare snap
To let the bass drum know exactly where the fun’s at
Plus writing raps is safer than gun clap
I’d rather talk smack than trade shots you can’t retract
And that’s a fact, rap is better than flowers
To shower you with sun spun from the night the light devours
I write for hours so that you can really know me
Every word I write is like a long lost friend who left me lonely
Christ the only path to righteousness before me
I write raps to tell His story
(from “Showstopper)
If I had to level criticisms against Curb Appeal, the first and most natural thing to say is that it’s way too short. Unfortunately for me, it’s 18 tracks long, only two of which are “filler”. In other words, it’s already plenty long, and clocks in over an hour. I just want more Sintax – so I ordered his first record. It hasn’t arrived yet.
If it wasn’t clear by now, I love Curb Appeal. It’s full of groove and poignance, full of heart and meditation, and best of all… full of challenges. It’s full of Sintax taking every ounce of himself and recording it in the hope that those who listen would come to know Christ or to follow Him more closely.
Curb Appeal is something I worship to, something I think to, something I live to.
Curb Appeal deserves your attention. A very worthwhile (terrific?) sophomore effort from Deepspace5′s Sintax The Terrific.
As a way of closing, I’ll share the album’s inscription, taken from the Biblical book of Amos:
Take away from Me the noise of your songs,
for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
But let justice run down like water,
and righteousness like a mighty stream.
(Amos 5:23-24)
Curb Appeal reveals that Sintax has his priorities straight, and the music to back it up.
Five Deep-spaces out of Five. (YES!)
Standout Tracks: Hurricane Crush, Immanuel, Moonlighting, Soul Weep, Make Believe.
Jerry Bolton – for The Phantom Tollbooth.
October 22, 2008
…boost all my stats
13 years ago
Title: For the Love of the Game
Artist: Pillar
Label: Sony BMG Home Entertainment & Essential Records
Length: 17 Tracks / 58:02
Before I begin, let me first clear the air. I haven’t heard Pillar’s entire back-catalog, nor have I thought much of them to this point.
I thought Pillar’s first record, 2000′s Above, was awful – trite, cliché, formulaic, riding the rapcore bandwagon (poorly), and chock-full of boring music and decidedly sunday-school lyrics. I wrote them off, and to be honest I was surprised that they not only survived that first record, but managed to put out a listenable and marketable sophomore product in 2002′s Fireproof. Fireproof wasn’t anything too spectacular, but it was a night-and-day improvement – engaging, slightly less predictable, and the lyrical content actually contained some decidedly less regrettable songwriting. Particularly once they had the album re-mixed and remastered in 2003, I enjoyed it. For the most part my exposure to Pillar has been minimal since, other than hearing snatches of 2004′s Where Do We Go From Here. I haven’t heard any of their EP’s (which they started to release inbetween albums following Fireproof), and I haven’t heard their 2006 effort The Reckoning.
So, with that as my background of exposure to Pillar, I must report that their new record, entitled For The Love Of The Game, to my mostly uninitiated ears, sounds like a lot of other bands right now. Specifically, it sounds like a lot of other bands whose genres are dying or dead. In this case, Pillar started out as rapcore, segued into nu-metal, and now that both genres are dead they are trying their hands at the same kind of “rock and roll” that a lot of other bands in similar situations have been lately. The best example to reference would be Linkin Park, who recently abandoned their rapcore/nu-metal roots in favour of a similar rock sound on their recent 2007 outing Minutes To Midnight (with similar results). As a side, sometimes it sounds inescapably like Pillar’s Rob Beckley is channelling Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, particularly when yelling.
What you have here, basically, is a rock album. Nothing too fancy, written to appeal both to those who like their music “Christian” and to those who like their music suitable for play at the local sports venue. Lyrically, Pillar isn’t particularly preachy, and their lyrics aren’t even remotely what we saw back on Above. Indeed, I found them enjoyable as a whole, if not particularly challenging or thought-provoking. A notable would be the second track, entitled “Turn It Up” – a failed experiment in trying to fridge-magnet lyrics together out of the names of notable albums and songs from Christian music history. The fun and/or depressing thing about it was identifying each reference offhand. As an example:
I’m drawing a black line
Define the great line
Maybe I just feel so alive
It’s a super good feeling
So I’ll keep waiting
(from “Turn It Up”)
(If you recognized album titles by Project 86 and Underoath as well as song titles by P.O.D., Bleach, and Stavesacre in there, you get bonus points.)
So, while I admire Pillar for referencing some of the great musical juggernauts of the past 15 years all in half a verse here, the song comes off as filler… ie. “we couldn’t write anything good so here’s something we spent 15 minutes throwing together”. Can’t say as much for the music – the track is one of the more enjoyable on the album – and maybe that captures my response to For The Love Of The Game as a whole: mixed feelings.
This is fairly run of the mill alternative radio-rock music: at times anthemic, at times touchy-feely, and between lyrical and sonic content… pretty consistently less-than-challenging. Just like the aforementioned Linkin Park album.
If you’re a big Pillar fan, you’re probably already in love with The Game. If not, you might want to look elsewhere to satiate your alternative rock needs.
Two Team Flags out of Five.
Standout Tracks: For The Love Of The Game, Throw Down, Forever Starts Now.
Jerry Bolton
08/17/08