Are you in a hurry ? Here's the release page on the Already Dead Tapes' record label website. You can stream one track there. But beware, while this streamable track is very great, powerful, melodic, well written and with a lot of feeling in its performing, many tracks on this album shows a different aspect of Chris Brokaw's work, which makes me think - that's only my opinion - about a male Anna Calvi ; the same incredible talent for songwriting, guitar lines arranging, and vocal and guitar performing. You can also stream the streamable track from Already Dead Tapes' bandcamp, by the way. The release is available on tape, in a limited edition of 200 copies, and I don't know how much remains.
What can I say ? During the very first seconds of the first track, I knew I would write a review of this wonderful album, and the more I was listening to it, the more I was sure of this fact. Someone speaking in a song about walking into the woods is the kind of people who would awake my interest, for sure. Then, someone playing so great guitar arrangements, singing so perfect vocals, would makes me consider the idea of writing about his album.
Besides this, such a killer DIY production is among the things that would make me, added to what I previously wrote, makes me listen to the release, looping, for hours - that's what I am doing currently.
But this is not the end of the story. Because, the real magic of this release resides for parts in the greatness of arrangements and performing, for sure, but also in the outstanding level of excellence in the basics of the songs, the songwriting thing in other words. These songs are just perfectly written.
Talking about the melodies, especially. I like Anna Calvi, for sure, but Chris Brokaw, while having some aspect in common with her, puts into his work a light punk touch, especially in the melodies and the vocal textures, that makes his songs even more valuable that Anna Calvi ones, according to my musical taste.
When I started Underketing, I thought it would be an easy way to help spreading the word about great artists I like. A few days later, I realised that it could also allow me to discover music that would fit to me perfectly, without having nothing to do to achieve this task, just because of nice people who would contact me about such or such album.
And, for the first time, such a thing happened. Thanks goes to the Already Dead Tape team (I told them about the Panda Kid album review, an album that they released, that's how we got in touch) who carefully hand-picked a few releases they issued and suggested me to listen to them. I met an artist who is incredibly succeeding in the task of creating some music that I would be fond of. I don't say my musical taste is the canonical standard for what is good and what is not - even if I often tell here that if I review something, this is a milestone in history of music (and this is definitively the case for this release), but there's a kind of humour that I don't expect anyone on this earth to understand when I say "This is the best music available, just because I love it". But, if you are reading this blog, chances are high that, at least for some aspects, we have a similar idea of what is good and what is not. Then, I would strongly suggest you to investigate the Chris Brokaw case a bit.
Just because, if you don't, you'll probably continue your musical adventures as a listener without being aware of a pure gem, the kind of record that you would appreciate beyond any limit.
No comments:
Post a Comment