Right away, this tune gets an A+ on production quality and arrangement. Huge sound on this track, with great changes and an awesome east-meets-westpopfusion. Liquid Blue is a high energy pop outfit with a big sound and a clear, positive message. Just imagine if Amy Grant and Ravi Shankar had a love child. Now, try to imagine they had seven of them: three vocalist/dancers, a guitarist, a drummer, a DJ and bass player, and a lead vocalist and keyboardist and sent them off to tour Asia (and if you know anything of Ravi, it's not *entirely* out of the question ... love ya', Rav).
"Making Up" is a positive pop tune that squarely addresses world conflict and old wounds being healed by simply letting go of the feuds and going forward from today. Okay, so I'm starting to sound a little bit like Amy Grant myself, but after the third listen I swear I was singing along. The introduction to this song is a very solid "sombati", swimming in layers of electronic and percussive sounds; the opening hooks almost make you think you're listening to belly dancing music. The fusion takes a sudden turn down the silk road to the oriental, and then swerves off into the western pop. Singer Nikki Nova steps in and takes over, with awesome harmonies and clean, melodic lead vocals. Of course, a nod to both the keyboardist and guitarist on this tune (Scott Stephens and Michael Vangerov, respectively). Great hooks and layers, all throughout. The transitions, I have got to say, are smooth. Well orchestrated and well performed. Kudos goes out to whomever is doing the arrangements for these guys ... er ... folks.
Liquid Blue may be considered too 'bubblegum' for some folks out there, but for anyone into the optimistic world pop fusion genre they are definitely worth a listen. In fact, this may be too super pop for some of those strongly opposed to something this squeaky-clean to even make it past the first listen. However, I would encourage my fellow haters of sub mainstream pop to go ahead ... close your windows ... shut your blinds ... check to make sure your roomies aren't home ... then turn up the volume and just let yourself dance around the house to "Making Up" for at least one hour in your underwear. Alright, so you don't have to do it in your drawers ... but you know you want to.
Euroman is a four-piece out of Poland headed by Pawel Przywara, a writer and recent Ph. D.; however Dr. Pryzwara prefers to rock. His vocals on this tune are intimate and edgy, and heavy with accent. Personally, I find this rather cool. Rather reminiscent of Berlin, in my opinion.
On an opposite note, and just to be fair, if you don't like quirky europeanprog rock, you probably won't like this. Pawel's vocals are thick, close to the microphone, and very much accented Polish-like. The lyrics themselves are almost like a mushroom trip; hard to follow and slightly fragmented. However, the musicians in this quartet are obviously solid and talented. No matter what your tastes are, you certainly can't miss that.
Blame is almost psychedelic groove rock; dark and melodramatic, and very european. This tune is kind of a cross between New Wave and an eclectic version of something you may have heard in the late seventies. Spooky, eclectic and brooding, "Blame" is definitely worth a listen.
It's tough not to spot a classic rocker when you come across one. I mean the kind that grew up on Credence, the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd, rides a hog in packs of fifteen or more (two across, of course), and relies chiefly on three things -- music, motorcycles and money. You would think "women" would be missing from this list, but, in way, that's kind of what this single is about in the first place.
Music, Motorcycles, and Money opens up with a pretty decent guitar riff intro, and then breaks open into a full band tune; complete with keyboards, bass, and drums. The tune pretty much rides hard all the way through, with good changes and a solid arrangement. There are also some decent solos and electric guitar work during the course of the song. This is a pretty full sounding song with a nice breakdown, a great, spacey electric guitar solo during the main bridge, and a decent overall mix on the production side of things.
The story around the song is pretty clear -- Gary tells a story about a man growing up and facing the world and the deconstruction of his dreams; refusing to submit to anything along the way regardless, including love, and growing to appreciate his life for what it was and holding on to his independence and a desire to live life in his own way. In fact, Gary's Album, "Looking Back", seems to fit this theme to some degree.
The recording quality on this track is nice and clean -- perhaps recorded by the artist, in this case (Gary has, in fact, constructed a digital studio for himself). In several of my listens, I couldn't help but feel that the recording was a bit "wet"; meaning in this case a few too many effects on the vocals and on the wall of sound behind them, which kind of drown the vocals out a bit in the mix for me. I also couldn't tell if I was listening to a real drummer or a midi drum track, although my first instinct screamed "midi". I also couldn't make out a bass line in the song, which really would have held it down. In my opinion, this track would rock a whole lot more if we could get a real (sounding) drummer and band in there and hear those vocals a little more than we do now. All in all, however, the recording is clean and well put together.
Music, Motorcycles, and Money is a solid tune overall; especially for those who share the lifestyle. In short, if your hand goes for the lighter in the pocket of your leather jacket when Freebird starts up, then you would definitely dig this song. But then again, I guess we all can't help but do that, can we?
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July 09, 2008, 12:49:42 AM
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