Stephanie Rose releases sophomore release

What an appropriate name for Stephanie Rose’s new release. The successor to her debut EP Go Where the Wind Takes You is a six song EP entitled Sprout and the plain-spoken brevity of the title is fitting for a sophomore effort expanding Rose’s songwriting vision with the same understated artistry that shapes her material. She starts off with the title song and, while the songwriting keys on a much different image, you can’t help but hear this song as a metaphor for her ballooning reputation as one of the most promising performers and writers today. The arrangement is quite a kicker to me – who would ever expect horns, but it punctuates the song really well. Rose puts some effective dynamics into “Rusted Love”, alternating from a full throated rock sweep into muted, yet simmering, passages, and she fills the lyric with a strong presence.  It’s quite a change from the first song, but entertained and engaged me from the beginning.

URL: https://www.stephanierosemusic.com/about.html

She really swept me up with the EP’s third song “Luxury”. It’s emblematic of her growing talents; Rose places herself in the middle of a life in dire straits yet finds redemption in the ties that sustain her subjects. It’s a song that could risk melodrama and cliché alike; Rose avoids that, however, thanks to how she grounds the song in so many telling details that flesh out the experience for listeners. It has an elegiac, slightly rueful air, but I never feel like the arrangement or lyric dragged me down emotionally. Instead, I finished this song admiring both her characters and Rose’s own considerable talents. She changes things up and goes in a much rootsier direction with the song “Old Soul”. It doesn’t get much more basic than a fleet footed shuffle tempo and acoustic guitars, but the song is a winner nonetheless. Much of the responsibility for its merits comes from the casual fluency of the musical performance and another engaging Rose vocal.

She goes back to the familiar ground of the EP’s second song for “Crushed”, but there’s a more even balance between her low key country influences and the rock side of her character. The light touches of reverb on the six string during the introduction give the song a slightly unsettled vibe she returns to later in the song, but Rose builds much of the track’s success off the same juxtaposition of dynamics that made “Rusted Love” so memorable. I think the chorus for the last song “Same Old Same Old” is one of the album’s best moments in this area and Rose, along with her fellow musicians, play the moment with just the right amount of skill. It’s mid tempo, but there’s still enough hints of a slow drag shuffle in the arrangement any listener will feel familiar with the setting from the start. Rose does an excellent job mixing the signature with the recognizable on Sprout and the EP’s six songs show tremendous growth from a first EP that still ranks among the best country releases in recent years.

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/steprosemusic?lang=en

Jason Hillenburg

Rob Alexander’s new album Long Road Coming Home

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

Rob Alexander’s new album Long Road Coming Home is chock full of vibrant and evocative tracks that each work to capture a different element in his multilayered sound, but the record’s title track and fourth single is perhaps the most opulently vivid, emotional and relatable in its collection. Alexander doesn’t pull any punches in the lyrics of this song; on the contrary, he goes out of his way to wear his soul on his sleeve, cutting through any barriers that might exist between the music and us with his slick style of attack. For being a lethargic year in pop, this single stands out as a much needed beacon of radiance and optimism.

All four singles released from Long Road Coming Home have shown off a different angle of Rob Alexander’s multidimensional approach to songwriting, and in the title track we get to experience his more elegant side firing on all cylinders. The song plods along at the pace of a funeral drum, but its melody is anything but elegiac in nature. The crispness of the percussion and the insular hum of the instruments slinking around Alexander’s commanding voice create an atmospheric glow that is infectiously comforting. Though its climax isn’t as exciting as I’d like it to be, the brooding shadow the chorus casts makes up for it in spades.

Alexander is as vulnerable as he’s ever been with us in “Long Road Coming Home,” but he also comes off as speaking from a removed place of wisdom. Hindsight isn’t always 20/20, but what’s really trying to be conveyed to us here isn’t the concept that time heals all wounds. More than anything else, I get the impression that Alexander wants us to consider the courage that it takes to admit our faults and transcend the past in order to make a better future. After all, we’re often the ones who make the road home all the longer with our indecision and lack of self-realization

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The mix of this track is a little plain for my taste, but the play from the band and Alexander himself is actually quite exceptional. It’s somewhat frustrating that the chorus is so much louder than the introductory verses are, but the absence of clarity doesn’t take so much away from the performance that the single becomes unlistenable. Rob Alexander has a wild talent that I would imagine is hard to capture within the four walls of a studio, but I think his music would benefit significantly from a slightly more concise mix in the future.

While he still has room for growth in several cosmetic areas of his songcraft, Rob Alexander shines nevertheless in “Long Road Coming Home” and delivers another rollicking soft rock sonnet to satisfy our inner lust for unblemished harmonies. Like the whole of his new album, “Long Road Coming Home” showcases the smoldering passion of a songwriter who utilizes a unique method when it comes to constructing original material. His music isn’t born out of a template nor a concept conceived by his forerunners; it comes from within his own heart.

I-TUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/long-road-coming-home/1348846070

Trevor Hopkins

The music of Rob Alexander has been heard all over the world due to the promotional services offered by Danie Cortese Entertainment & Publicity. Learn more here - http://www.daniecorteseent.com/

Abby Zotz - Local Honey (LP)

URL: https://abbyzmusic.com/

I value, more than all else in music, albums and artists who can transport me into their own personal vision for a time. I want it to be a fully immersive affair. Longtime folk music singer/songwriter Abby Zotz accomplishes that and more with her first solo album Local Honey and, definitely in some senses, the album marks a break with her extraordinarily rewarding past in favor of a new dawn. Many of the musical strengths defining her two decade musical career are present on this album, as well as the roots of her classical education, are in evidence throughout the collection, but she has expanded on the sound she hears in her mind with Local Honey and sounds comfortable on every cut.

Some people might find the premise behind the opener “Stability” to be a bit predictable, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as part of the joy the song produces comes from hearing how well she executes the inevitable turns in its lyrical and musical narrative plus what added personality she can bring to a familiar theme. The energy crackling off the recording never overwhelms listeners, but it’s ideal for the album’s beginning track. Zotz latches onto a funky retro vibe with the second tune “Big Hope” and the title alone reflects the inherently upbeat slant defining this album. It isn’t a Pollyanna approach to the world, however, and that’s reflected in the bluesy guitar lines cutting through the song’s mix. The production is a constant strength for Local Honey and gives these already great tunes even more dramatic punch.

YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU1Pg_pFpyqeQXbLRz54kRQ

“Peace Sweet Peace” and “Pirouette” are wildly contrasting songs illustrative of her far reaching talents. The light-stepping musical approach of her gospel cut “Peace Sweet Peace” strikes a pleasing universal note but the latter song is a much shapelier, tightly controlled number with a shuffle like sound that Zotz’s voice slides through with great confidence. “Pirouette” is one of the finest lyrics on Local Honey, but the later track “Be Here Now” may be the sharpest piece of writing on the release. There are some particularly winning lines near the beginning drawing together a character with a few brief strokes and the remainder of the song fleshes it out with a single wasted movement.

The comforting touch of “Hush Baby Waltz” is one of the album’s more elegant musical turns and the vocal for this song is framed perfectly against its arrangement. The apex of her nuance on Local Honey comes with the song “Sea Change” and the weaving of her voice, taking obvious delight in the lyrics and phrasing alike, plays off the musicians with a sparkle in her eye. I didn’t enjoy the album’s ending, at first, thinking it too light, but “You’ll Never Know” grew on me with a few listens because it’s such a confident, underplayed conclusion for Local Honey. It’s an important new turn for her musical career, but the variety of her first solo album heralds a critical turning point in her life as well.

DEEZER: https://www.deezer.com/us/album/69628302

Levi Colston

Wave 21 releases Self-Titled LP

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/wave21band

In their eponymous new full-length album, Wave 21 comes roaring out of the Canadian wilderness to find themselves smackdab in the middle of the Nashville spotlight and changing the game for every country music band around them. In ten elegantly stylized original songs, they assert themselves as one of the biggest players in the international pop music scene and easily the most exciting band to watch entering the next decade and beyond.

I had a chance to listen to Wave 21 ahead of its release this year, and although I was expecting to hear something pretty terrific based on the sterling reputation that the band has built up for themselves, I could have never predicted that I would be as moved as I was by what I heard. Wave 21 aren’t just making the best brand of country music to be introduced in 2018; they’re making the most charming pop music in all of the western hemisphere right now, and having a really good time along the way.

YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0rm0gWc7RWsOeR8PrKtEGA

My favorite song from this record was “It’ll Be One of These Days,” but “Set Me Free” was a very close runner-up. Both tracks recall the golden age of country pop’s apex of success back in the late 1990s, and yet neither feel like a throwback to the past. Every song on Wave 21 is deeply unique to our modern, innovative times for sure, as I don’t think that most of these songs would have even been creatable with the limited palates that were producing records twenty years ago. Country music doesn’t need anyone else singing about cheating wives and drunken bar brawls in a dusty, half-yearning half-jaded voice anymore. What it does need is more bands like this one, who aren’t scared of change but instead make an entire career out of embracing it and seeing where the winds of creativity take them. I don’t think it matters for Wave 21 whether or not they get a platinum record or dominate the airwaves with their music videos. If their melodies have reached even one person, then their mission has been accomplished.

REVERBNATION: https://www.reverbnation.com/wave21band

If you’re in the market for a colorful, diversely appointed record that rebels against stereotypes and the analogue way of doing things, I would highly recommend checking out Wave 21’s latest collection of country anthems. This is bar none the coolest listen of the late summer, and hopefully it will usher in a more exciting autumn than what a lot of other critics have been anticipating it could be. 

There hasn’t been a lot of great talent to really talk about in the last ten years, but now that Wave 21 is around there’s reason to get enthusiastic about country music and the artists behind its current campaign. I’ll be patiently waiting for this band to visit my town in the near future and give me a chance to see their live show in person; until then, you can count on this record being in my daily playlist for the indeterminable future.

BANDMIX:  https://www.bandmix.ca/wave-21/

Tyler Shaughnessy  

The Merrymaker’s Orchestrina - Act 3

FACEBOOK: https://mtouch.facebook.com/TheMerrymakersOrchestrina/?__tn__=%2AsH-R

It wasn’t but a few years ago when I believed the best music in our culture belonged to the past and even the most talented among younger, more modern generations lacked something I admired in their older, iconic counterparts. I theorized the lack existed because the frame of reference for aspiring musicians today is so much more limited than I experienced as a young man. We are drowning in media, inundated with choices, and our reeling brains satisfying shrinking attention spans with increasingly narrow selections. No one seemed to be in it for the long haul; everything sounded tailored towards the least common denominator, and fixated on familiar themes without any individuality or invention. New York City based songwriter Ryan Shivdasani and his band The Merrymaker’s Orchestrina, however, is evidence for me and any reasonable listener that there are extraordinarily talented musicians and songwriters working today with the ambition to spread their artistic wings as far as they like.

The Merrymaker’s Orchestrina’s Act 3 has thirteen songs with a potpourri of styles. Shivdasani and his musical partners are gifted with obvious chops, but they manage what a lot of top flight musicians can’t – subvert their inclination to exhibit the extent of their skills while still utilizing what they know to extend the song’s appeal. The songs “Particle Craze” and “Watched You Out My Window” lay strongest claim to traditional songwriting, but Shivdasani skewers our expectations with a sonic landscape all his own – rhythms seem slightly off, the vocals are treated with suggestive post production effects, and the latter song may reminds some of 60’s psychedelic pop, melodic, but slightly unsettled in a way you just can’t turn your attention from.

Some listeners may not initially know what to make of “Cowboys and Indians”. In some ways, it sounds like a glorious riff on classic Devo and spiked with a spastic amphetamine rush. Others may hear lightly demented surf music coming through and there’s definitely a punk rock influence bubbling through the song as well. It’s one of the album’s shorter songs, under three minutes, and bristles with kinetic energy from the outset, but listening to the lyrics reveals one of the more thoughtful pieces of Shivdasani writing on Act 3. There’s an aspect of the singer/songwriter to what Shivdasani is doing and the words aren’t afterthoughts in any way.

There are a couple of quiet interludes on the album and the first of them comes with the track “Slip Away”. It’s a folk influenced song, surely a style Shivdasani has thorough exposure to through his own listening and presence in the New York City area, and the recurring vocal harmonies are all the added gloss needed for this song.

“There’s No Such Thing as God” revisits the suggestion of punk influence heard with “Cowboys and Indians” but, this time out, makes no bones about it. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but even those uncomfortable with its message can concede it’s an effective tune. “Blood Country” is a wicked good track, but not particularly pleasant – what mitigates it, however, is the cracking musical performance that manages, while paring things back to the barest of essentials for a song, still manages to pack an enormous wallop. The album closes with “Wait Behind”, the second acoustic track, and it’s a little lusher than we heard with “Slip Away” with some melancholic instrumental breaks built in. One can scarcely imagine much better in modern music, at least for a listener like me – The Merrymaker’s Orchestrina Act 3 hits all the marks for me and whets my appetite for more.

I-TUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/act-3/1375728072

Lloyd Bear

AV Super Sunshine drops explosive Single

URL: https://www.avsupersunshine.com/

 “Time Bomb” comes in two distinct mixes, the radio DJ and club cuts, and both pack one hell of a wallop in different ways. One characteristic distinguishing both versions is the five star production focusing the musical elements of each song in such a way that everything works in concert rather than listeners experiencing the feeling of different sounds and instruments pulling against each other or working at cross purposes. The club mix is very uptempo, but backs off the pace at a handful of points in a way generating tremendous momentum for the next passage and the effect is quite good for listeners. 

Electronic instruments dominate the club mix, certainly not unexpectedly, but they are always presented in such a way that it never feels overwrought – the mixes are very different from one another, but one common approach linking them is how muscular both takes are in approaching AV’s musical ideas. They come leaping to life in the club mix and it isn’t hard to hear how appreciative listeners and audiences across the world will be to hear this version.

Unlike many acts in this vein, there’s never any sense of Bradford attempting to bury the vocals in order to strengthen the sound of the electronica. Instead, he wisely keeps them equal throughout much of the performance and only restructures the singing in a major way during the club version’s second half. Guitar and melody take on important parts with this mix, although there isn’t as much emphasis during the club version as we hear with the radio DJ cut. The club mix is much longer, as well, running over five minutes long, but we never hear any sense of Bradford overreaching to make an impact on listeners

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The radio version of “Time Bomb” shares some of the same mounting quality we hear in the club mix, but it likewise never comes off overcooked in any way. The same muscularity makes this work as well, but it stresses traditional instruments much more than the synthesizer work in the club version. Despite the quality of the instrumental playing, the key for the radio version ends up being the strong vocals courtesy of AV’s lead singing coupled with some strong backing vocals. It’s a much shorter number than the club take, less than four minutes in comparison to its companion, but both songs share another quality – the laser-beam push of both versions never wastes your time and involves listeners from the very beginning. 

It’s a performance designed to have the widest possible appeal, but it’s equally appealing to fans who’ve been listening to music for years. I’m not even that much of a fan when it comes to electronic instruments, but this song made me a believer earlier on and it holds up under repeated listens.

CLUB MIX: https://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/29911618

RADIO DJ MIX: https://soundcloud.com/av-super-sunshine/time-bomb-radio-dj-mix

Richard Spradley

Conceptz drops new Single

URL: https://www.conceptzmusic.net/

There’s been a lot of debate over what’s going on with hip-hop right now. Everyone in the music media seems to be convinced that hip-hop is under siege from external influences who don’t have its best interests at heart. If you ask me, in addition to all of this pointless arguing, it’s the big egos tug-of-warring over stylistic and financial control over hip-hop as a commercial entity that is what’s really killing the scene right now. Indie rappers like New York twosome Conceptz often seem like the only ones swimming against the current when it comes to megalomania in hip-hop, and in my opinion their new song “Splash” is their greatest contribution to battle yet, embodying the true essence of what it means to be focused on making art for the sake of art.

“Splash” is an grand, anthemic call to push shyness to the side and get a little crazy, but it’s less of a party jam than it is a straight up missile fired point blank in the direction of the remaining northeast hip-hop elite who stand between Conceptz remaining underground heroes and becoming a world-wide smash. The damage is extensive; I haven’t heard anyone banging out this kind of red blooded thunder with nothing but a beat and a microphone in years, which is odd considering that this aggressive approach to rapping is probably what made the genre so appealing and addictive listening back in the 90’s.

Conceptz has mad attitude, but “Splash” isn’t as threatening or severe as what some college radio rappers often produce, making this song far more accessible to the casual hip-hop fan than the average track of its class. It’s possible that Conceptz decided that they needed to take things in a slightly more polished direction as this decade ends and the next one dawns, but I don’t think the decision was one that was solely based on a market strategy. In fact, I think that this refined addition to their discography is more characteristic of a band maturing and growing into their sound a little more, which is something that doesn’t always happen, even when a group has been together for as long as Conceptz has been.

I’d recommend “Splash” as an excellent starter track for anyone just getting into Conceptz huge collection of recorded works. It’s a great way to get a glimpse at the full scope of the pair’s almost limitless abilities both as producers and as songwriters, but most of all, it’s could get a lot more people previously disinterested in hip-hop to give the genre another chance to have the impact on their lives that it’s had on all of ours. It’s a commendable and quite honorable notion, and in my gut I can feel the pride that Conceptz takes in knowing that their music is having the effect on pop culture that it is at this present moment in time. Who knows what will come next for these two as their story continues to be told before our very eyes.

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

Casey Logan