Earth Patterns. SZun Waves
Recently I posted on 'Orbit I', Recitals' debut album. It holds a special spot for the trumpet. The way it is played instantly echoes in the saxophone played by Jack Wyllie of Earth Patterns. A very jazz like way of playing without the music being jazz as in Recitals and more so with Szun Waves. The instrumental album is part experimental and part working with clear themes. The trio, besides Wyllie, Luke Abbott on things with keys and Laurence Pike on drums and percussion, eschews clear rules where its music is concerned. It is Abbott who creates the atmospherics with his synthesizer, over which he, at times, plays the piano. Abbott takes care of the middle ground, keeping it all together, in conventional and unconventional ways. This allows Wyllie to go wherever he wants to. This can be traditional sax sounds but also playing through a layer of effects, creating soundscapes that go way beyond the imagination of Adolphe Sax I'm sure. Szun Patterns just as easily incorporates eastern musical patterns into its music as that it reminds me of the instrumental and only album by Absolute Elsewhere from 1976, 'Atomkerne' especially. Something totally different for this blog but certainly very much worthwhile to literally undergo.
In my review of single 'Hank', I warned that the album would have to be more varied. It is. Friendship works on the dark side of folk, pop, slowcore and softrock. Part The Velvet Underground/Lou Reed, some Low. It is all slow moving music, sung with a dark voice with a few accented notes for good measure here and there. Friendship takes its time to present its songs. There's no rush alright. Admittedly, this does make 17 songs a long sit. Friendship tackles this hindrance by varying its songs. The four members of the band are all multi-instrumentalists, above all shown by the fact that three songs were written by the drummer Michael Cormier - O'Leary, who can also play all sort of keys and things with strings. With his dark, sometimes rather dead sounding voice Dan Wriggins sets the mood in a principal way. He's listened to Lou Reed obviously but also to several alternative country singers of the past 50 years. The result is a mixed and varied album that when all is said and done captures my attention time and again. The Philadelphia based band does a lot of things right on its new album. Friendship is offered and returned I might add.
Bands come and go and some come back. Maple Mars has not released a new album in over a decade but is back in 2022 with Someone's Got To Listen. It sounds like a desperate call but if it is any help, I've started to do so and have become quite hooked within a few days. Someone's Got To Listen has the same effect on me as the fantastic 'Whirligig' by The Caulfields from 1993. A band I've never heard anything from ever again. Now I had never heard anything by Maple Mars until quite recently. For me it's a new band. Pop is oozing out of Someone's Got To Listen. Rick Hromadka, Steve Berns, Ron Pak and Joe Giddings obviously know how to not only write a good song but also to get the most of out of a musical idea. The two guitarists, Hromadka and Berns, intertwine their guitars in all the right ways, while the band's harmonies are impeccable. The fun of creating them shows so clearly. The dedication Maple Mars' members put into towards their songs shows loud and clear. Listen to 'Goodbye California', a mid tempo, pop rock song. It is about the end of California, as it slides into the sea. The bittersweet, melancholy verses working towards the calamity in the chorus, are simply perfect pop with some great accents. Seldom has disaster been set to more beautiful music. The album is filled with songs like this. I nearly missed out on the album because of it being released during my vacation. A final check rescued Someone's Got To Listen from obscurity. Fans ranging from The Beatles to The Posies or Oasis for that matter, should pay attention here. And The Caulfields fans of course. Too bad for the album art. That should have matched the quality within. It's the only flaw I could find though.
Wout de Natris
You can listen to and order the albums here:
https://szunwaves.bandcamp.com/album/earth-patterns
https://friendshipphl.bandcamp.com/
https://bigstirrecords.bandcamp.com/album/someones-got-to-listen
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