The last stone cold Westcoast classic in a five-string album run going all the way back to 1975's Storm At Sunup, this is a remarkable recording from the Canadian captain of all things strange and passionate, Giиo Vαииεlli.
Listening to these awesome songs is strangely comparable to a line in the opening title track: "dreaming at night is like chasing a madman's rainbow": the journey is a nonsensical mess you'll wake up from later, but while caught within it...there's nothing else that matters.
"Bizarrely beautiful" is one phrase that occurred to me after listening through this wonderful, wonderful debut after purchasing it a week or so ago. "Somebody really wanted to do a Coheed & Cambria/Mr. Bungle cover band" was another.
In reality though, there is no simple summation to an album as genuinely progressive as Maps Of Non-Existent Places. It isn't afraid to blend anthems with atonal sax noodling, accessibility with the antiquated and uncommercially viable, or an emotionally charged chorus with violin/horn section brawlouts ('A Salesman's Guide To Non-Existence').
Thank You Scientist sound very, very very fresh in an era where its nigh impossible to stand out even when you do excel in your particular style. I do not have enough accolades for what these guys are doing, but don't take my word for it: check out their Bandcamp below!
A dyed in the wool Westcoast classic for the modern age, at times even outgunning the big dogs in the genre from years past like Steely Dan and Toto in the songwriting department. We certainly are living in strange times though -- Swedes and Nords now do everything from jazzy pop to glam metal better than the country those genres originated in!
Acid-infused progressive folk rock (the Californian sort) from the decade where such things were almost fashionable. The space rock and jazz influences that work their insidious magic through these arrangements make this something of a cult classic in my eyes, but let the cards fall where they will.
Gino Vannelli, whom Miles Davis once described as "the greatest musician the world", is also an incredibly fascinating guy. Enjoy his documentary below!
Modern science has concluded, years and years after everyone else knew it, that pop-oriented music is like cocaine to the brain. Hooks rattle and fire repeatedly like perpetual synapses, cycling through a manageable length of time with enough power to bring anyone back to life from the brink of spiritual annihilation.
Colton Holliday, a fellow Texan and talented to a degree that only the fewest of the few seem to reach, knows popcraft like some people know useless information: abundantly and uncannily. He's a jack of all trades who can do it all: write, produce, program, and rip into a guitar like a time machine tearing through the continuum.
And with his pet project The Panic Division's latest album, Eternalism, he has created a sleek modern masterpiece that will leave most rock bands smacking their lips in wordless envy. Blending the kind of dynamic energy that pulsed like a heartbeat through the 90's with the atmospheric drenchery of 80's AOR is no small feat, and yet its pulled off with sickeningly fun ease here.
Every track here is a rip-roaring single waiting to happen, with a couple in particularly being criminally infectious like opening gutpunch 'Silver Rings' and the industrialized rush of 'No Power Great Enough'. The overall production and songwriting approach is rather novel: Colton has a voice that's scarily reminiscent of Roland Orzabel (Tears For Fears), yet he uses it in such a way that makes one think of early Interpol or 2000's pop-punk upstarts like All Time Low. Quite a wonder to behear, in all honesty.
I own every album this maestro has set to record, but this third full-length is on another plane of excellence all its own. I can only listen through these songs in a state of bobbing, hypnotized awe and wonder why none of the Internet's top publications has gone crazy with accolades over this yet.
Looking for the perfect pop-rock album of 2012? You've found it, ladies and gents!
Paul's first foray into contemporary jazz territory, and his first full-length collaboration with the very talented Helen Rogers at the mic too. Although later projects under this particular moniker are more textured in some ways, this is the record that defined contemporary jazz over the next two decades and set a high standard for others to aspire to. Highly recommended!
