Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Free and legal MP3 from Evening Magazine (a big ensemble that knows also when to stay quiet)

"Apple Eye" - Evening Magazine
     Marrying an old-fashioned "sound of Philadelphia" sweep to 21st-century electronics and indie-rock flavorings, Evening Magazine makes music that shouldn't probably work but in this case does, however idiosyncratically. A nine-piece collective from (yes) Philadelphia, the band is led by guitarist/vocalist David Disbrow (formerly of the band BC Camplight) and engineer Kevin Francis (who plays synths too), and features a trumpeter, trombonist, flutist, and harpist, among others. For all the colorful instrumentation, the band doesn't feel the need to fill in all the aural blanks. As a singer, Disbrow has a somewhat fragile presence, and the music gives him space to establish this presence; in fact, he usually isn't singing on top of much more here than an acoustic guitar and a drumbeat. The arrangement is reminiscent of classical music, which is more willing than rock to explore dynamics via having instruments just stop playing for a while. Rock musicians, if they're holding an instrument, they want to play it pretty much constantly.
     What makes it all work for me is nothing more complicated than a pleasing melodic interval. Actually, a relationship of intervals. After the relaxed, horn-driven intro, the melody in the verse, itchier, finds Disbrow singing a rapid-fire series of tones. Staying on the first note for six or seven iterations, he slips down just a half-step for four syllables and then up five steps of the scale for the last three. Disbrow sounds particularly fragile at the top of the leap--so much so that the note, while actually the tonic of the scale, the home base, sounds unresolved, just a bit off, adding to the muted urgency of the ambiance fostered by that half-step-down, big-leap-up combination.
     "Apple Eye" is the lead track off the band's debut EP, The Ride Across Lake Constance, released this month on Ohso Records, which appears to be the band's own imprint. Thanks to the band for the MP3.

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