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Strumming Something New – Zan Strumfeld

17 Jun

Zan Strumfeld

 

While Zan Strumfeld carries her brand of stripped-down folk with her soft, Spektor-like voice, there is an endearing and subtle vexation on the horizon of her vocal that creeps through the sweetness of the piece and pulls the listener into her world of raw emotion. This quality is unique to Strumfeld, an Albany-based folky singer/songwriter.

Strumfeld – who has an excellent name for a person who plays the guitar – released her third EP, Someone New, back in April of this year. The album is a testament to simplicity. Strumfeld does not bedizen songs with electronics, pounding percussion, or superfluous instrumentals. Instead, she garners acoustic power with her multifaceted voice and some well-placed harmonies. The result is self-described “lullabies for the lonely lovers” and this one-sentence synopsis is quite apt.

 

Please excuse the contradictory nature of this description, but there is certainly a warm loneliness that penetrates the plucked strings of “Carry On,” a song that urges listeners to “learn to carry on.” Strumfeld’s piece is so intimate that it’s as if she is with you performing it live, and this local element adds to the songs potency.

“Someone New” puts Strumfeld’s voice on full display – abundant and delicate. The song may be a lullaby, but it carries a soothing ardor that keeps the listener hanging on each intonation.

Check out more about Strumfeld on her Bandcamp and Facebook.

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Amanda Merdzan Redraws the Indie/Folk Map

12 Jun

Amanda Merdzan

When astronaut John Glenn orbited above Perth, Australia in 1962, people in the Western Australia capital city turned on all their lights so the city would become a sparkling lightbulb to the orbital viewer; Perth is aptly known as the “City of Light” because of this magnificent communal stunt.

Indie/Folk musician Amanda Merdzan is also from Perth, Australia. What do these two things have in common (despite the similarity of origin)? Merdzan, similar to her hometown, is a “city of light” for Indie/Folk music. Her music dazzles with a powerful edge that shines through her savvy vocals. While a troubadour with a sincere rawness to her tunes, Merdzan juxtaposes this denuded flavor with a striking maturity in her words and musicality. Put simply, Merdzan is a fluorescent light in an often lucifugous climate.

After the release of her debut album in 2010, Merdzan spent three months in the U.S. before going home in 2011 and gigging around Perth. She is now on the heels of her latest release, an EP called The Map Has Been Redrawn.

“Afraid” is the title track off of the 5-song EP. The song bounces with a Mumford and Sons rhythm at its entrance, combining Merdzan’s potent vocal with an excellent instrumental of echoed strings, plucked acoustic guitar, and heavy percussion. The inception of the piece latches on to the listener like a good book to an eager reader; once it pulls you in you cannot stop exploring the created world. And it is quite a world – one full of imagery-inducing harmonies and musical precision. Seriously, the song does not have a flaw.

This live acoustic version of “Each Day Like the First” (the 4th song on the EP) exposes the tenderness of Merdzan’s voice. The song flows with the subtle authority of Fleet Foxes or Tallest Man on Earth. While pastoral, the persistent rhythm maintains an urban quality – a contradiction that works well to create the wonderful aura that encompasses all of Merdzan’s songs.

Follow Merdzan on her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

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Airborne Toxic Event – Summerstage Preview

10 Jun

Airborne Toxic Event

There are many reasons to like Airborne Toxic Event. As I have written in the past, the band plays an infectious alt/rock style that pulls influences from the 80s and mixes these influences with theatrical vocals and riffs. This amalgamation creates an intriguing aura of orchestral sound that echoes and pulses.

The music is also “smart” rock. It’s a neoteric genre. Let’s be honest; a lot of music today is, well, nescient – intellectually dumbed down for an audience that just wants to hear a consistent beat. That is not to say that the producers and creators of the music are unintelligent – they are simply playing to what will make money. But Airborne Toxic Event is different. The band is made up of uber-talented musicians who understand how to mix “smart” rock with infectious rhythms.

I initially became interested in the band because of lead vocalist Mikel Jollett. Jollett, a fiction and freelance writer, began seriously writing songs after a string of moribund events in his life. He named the band after a tremendous section of my favorite Don DeLillo book “White Noise.” The life-altering events that engendered the band’s creation are similar to “The Airborne Toxic Event” portrayed in DeLillo’s masterpiece. Thus, as a writer, Jollett’s lyrics are laden with symbolism and passion.

The Airborne Toxic Event, fresh off the release of its new album Such Hot Blood, will join a large Summerstage crowd in Central Park (5th Avenue and 72nd Street entrance) on June 18. Best of all – the concert is FREE. Yes, free as in no money. The band will be joined by The Calder Quartet, a LA-based string quartet, who have been called “outstanding” and “superb” by the New York Times. So, yeah, free Airborne Toxic Event show with The Calder Quartet in Central Park – you should probably come.

“The Fifth Day” is one of my favorite songs off of the new album. The song features one of my favorite Airborne Toxic Event elements. The music is almost subtle. While you can drown in the elaborate instrumentals and production, the music progressively rises and falls like waves before ultimately crescendoing. In this case, the music perfectly matches the melancholic lyric.

Check out more about the Airborne Toxic Event and don’t forget to keep track of the diverse Summerstage schedule!

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Highly Fascinated by A Time and Place

4 Jun
A Time and Place

One of the true prerequisites for the creation of good music is talent, and Andrew Weiss is simply oozing with it. A multi-instrumentalist with now three solo albums under his belt, Weiss is the modern equivalent of a one-man band; he excels at playing percussion, guitar, bass, and keyboards. And, if that is not sufficient, he also provides competent vocals (both lead and background) and lyrics. Weiss is a band in a box. Open him up and you get A Time and Place, his new 9-track album.

High Fascination, Weiss’ sobriquet, was founded as a solo-recording project in 2009. Weiss, a local New York product, has released three albums since 2011. Perhaps my favorite part of the new album is Weiss’ perspicacious ear – a quality developed through listening and practicing. The premier tracks on the album are like a ripe apple: crisp melodies when you sink your teeth into the music and juicy innards when you delve into its intricacies. Also prevalent in each song is the key to the success of every young artist: a penchant for plucking influences from favorite artists and adding similar styles into the pieces. Let’s delve into the album.

“Shadow of a Ghost,” the first track on the album, begins with the pairing of a constant key riff and slowed guitar chord progression. The verse takes on a keen BritPop feel, and, of course, Britpop was inspired by bands like The Beatles and The Kinks. It is not a surprise that the Beatles and Oasis are two bands that Weiss cites as influences. The song sends me back to the late 90s when BritPop reigned supreme. This piece, though, does take on other infectious elements. There is a bluesy undertone behind the BritPop exterior – reminiscent of Beatles-like exploration. Progressive elements like those that appear at the end of the song add a post-Britpop facet  – calling out to bands like Snow Patrol and Elbow. The song is a tight, well-developed piece with several catchy components that help add to its efficacy.

“Caught in the Act of Daydreaming” begins with an early OneRepublic-like keys riff that falls into percussion. The Beatles-like harmony is excellent – almost feeling like a psychedelic pop song from the late 60s. The song also plays with a bluesy component that lifts it away from traditional pop.

In September 2012, Weiss teamed up with Chris Karwaski (guitar, backing vocals), Dan Hemerlein (bass), John Meurer (keyboards, backing vocals), and Adam Holmes (drums) in NYC to form a full band. The band is currently playing venues all around the New York City area.

Check out more information about High Fascination on its Facebook and Twitter. You can also listen to the rest of A Time and Place on Soundcloud.

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Climbing Tall Mountains with Sydney Yeo

30 May
Tall Mountains

Tall Mountains

At only 20 years old, Sydney Yeo has already had to climb some pretty Tall Mountains to get where she is today. But one thing is for sure: her love for music trumps all. Yeo, who goes by the apt moniker Tall Mountains hails from Singapore, a Southeast Asian island off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. After graduating High School, she interned at Snakeweed Studios, an independent recording and production studio in Singapore before moving to New York in August, 2011. Considering that Singapore’s record low temperature is in the upper 60s – a balmy Spring day in New York – she must have felt like she entered a perpetual winter wonderland. Currently, she is studying music engineering and production at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and interning at record label Astralwerks – the home of Pet Shop Boys and Swedish House Mafia.

AND…in her spare time she is a musician – and a good one at that. She has performed at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn and at 92Y Tribeca. Her mellow melodies and soft, reserved voice garners unexpected passion. The saccharine strings blend with spry percussion and robust guitar. While pastoral, there is a certain fast-paced city quality to the music – an eccentric juxtaposition that plays to Yeo’s mixed inspirations. Perhaps this is best encompassed in “Who Told You,” off of the five-song Tall Mountains EP, which was released in November of last year.

See what I mean. Driven by rapid percussion and clear vocal ardor, the song still maintains a string-induced natural pulchritude – much like a pretty girl on a city street. This potent folk/pop is infectious and agrestic – even taking on some country elements.

“Better” has such an authentic 90’s folk feel it’s scary – like straight out of a Romantic Comedy from 1999. This isn’t a bad thing. The song is enjoyable – embracing a tapestry of harmony, vocal strength, and a sweet melody. It also features some of Yeo’s lyrical aptitude with lines like:

The glass on my window is black 
I just swept the gray dust from my floors but I’m sure it’ll come back 
Before I knew you, I was stewing in my own filth 
You made me anew, now I don’t know how to live

Check out more of Sydney Yeo (Tall Mountains) on her Facebook and Twitter.

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