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MUSICDISH
CD REVIEWS
If you want power and Pop presented on a different plane - Fallen From Grace is certainly the band you seek. Their unique approach to Alternative via acoustics and electronics make for a potent combination of sounds geared to peak all of your senses. Fallen From Grace provides a provocative mix of rock, pop and alternative that instantly catches your attention and invokes a certain energy that will have you listening over and over.
He's backed by Dave Grech, whose awesome percussion and keyboard stylings may very well be the glue that connects the band, and Steve Frederick. Steve's guitar lines and electronic savvy add the flavor that bastes Fallen From Grace and brings their sound full circle. Finally, the lyrics produced by this band capture emotion and send your mind on a trip far from where you are. Fallen From Grace hooked me up with some incredible, sometimes even haunting, mental images. I reveled in their use of harmonics and synthesized backup. The tracks I downloaded made me an instant fan of Fallen From Grace and I even burned them to CD to listen in my car. Of 5 tracks, I heard 5 hits, or at least 5 Billboard 100s. Fallen From Grace is a dynamic act with a lot to offer almost every listener. It's good to see where music is progressing and these guys' vision of the future makes for a great sound and feeling that will drill straight through to your soul. Recommended Trax: "Catch It If You Can," "Lonely At The Top," "Break Us."
Pensive rocks hard and attacks your auditory senses swiftly on their CD/EP Something About the Stars. There is something about their music too, it is raw an unencumbered with a punk edge that screams out...listen! It is hard to ignore. This is six tracks of powerhouse music putting us all on notice that they have arrived and this is only the beginning for a band with a truckload of spitfire energy. Even though their music has a hard edge to it, it is still danceable with plenty of melody, and if you like to slam your head against the wall on occasion you can do that too. They seem to have enough talent to sound polished or roughshod, it depends how you like it, over easy or sunny side up. Roughshod rules right now but I would expect some change on their next full-length release. Pensive is a band with plenty of capacity for expansion and growth. This band is a diamond in the rough waiting for the right prospector to discover them and polish them into a shining finely cut gem that will sparkle so the entire world will notice. Record labels major and indie alike, are you listening?
"Most of my writing, perhaps all, is automatic - a term I have heard used by such writers from William Burroughs to the group Led Zeppelin! It is not a huge mystery, I just don't 'work' to conceive the lyrics or melodies I write, they come very quickly and sometimes unexpectedly, whenever the muse hits"... "Anyway - spontaneity is key, as I don't really 'control' the muse; she controls me"- Leah Callahan Describing her music as "Pre-rock, very personal, [and] poetic." Even Sleepers introduces the listener to a very different montage of CD communication. It is a journey into the singing interpersonal musical chemistry, of singer/songwriter, Leah Callahan. Opening with "Valentine" a cabaret styled triad, of voice, guitar, and accordion. Callahan begins (sings) with a good sense of vocal "ear-catcher" quality. A simplistic song - yes, but it is, musically catchy. "The Red Eye" (third-track) demonstrates the unusual use of applied music backward motion. With her voice well driven by the slurred speech of percussion, and mixed within the "no boundaries" of unrestricted, disconnected, staccato guitar. The seventh-track "Love Some Thing" is another triad/song. Featuring the warm vocal bounce of Callahan's voice, singing against the set musical parameters of guitar, and a well-played violin (Jonathan Lamaster). Listen also to "Shocking Pink" (the eighth-track). A duet between her voice and a broken down piano (Joel Simches), it's a good fun to listen too... sailors song! Produced by Shaun Wolf Wortis, Even Sleepers is the frequency distribution of nine songs that are not "quite" long enough (only a little over twenty-two minutes), but still if you're looking/listening for something different, it is well worth a not commonly encountered... musical experience!
There are new age albums, relaxation albums, jazz albums, world albums, but few combine all the pleasures of these elements as well as the soft-spoken Two Trees. One listen to 'Brother's Prayer' should do it for you, if you've any soul left. It is a beautiful piece of setting sun and mystic East flute music that never goes a shade beyond subtle. Perfect pitch for stream of consciousness writing and cool, sunny days indoors. Apart from a few guests, all you hear is performed by: Al
Jewer - Native American flutes, drone flutes, concert flute, alto
flute, bass flute, whistles, percussion, electric bass To call it merely instrumental is cheating, but perhaps joyful relaxation is its true name, as if swirling around Indian burial grounds or a Smithsonian exhibit. The tranquil music will speak different things to different people, so there's no use being poetic about what is so eloquently talking without words hear. Just listen; you won't be disappointed with this hour plus. Provided by the MusicDish Network. Copyright © Tag It 2003 - Republished with Permission
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Artist: Fallen From Grace (
Artist: Pensive (
Artist: Leah Callahan (
Artist: Al Jewer & Andy Mitran 