“When the pandemic hit the East Coast and venues shuttered their doors, Better Human scaled back out of necessity, playing virtual sets in a solo or smaller band configuration with Wexler taking over lead vocals. New single ‘Complete,’ released on Halloween, bears the marks of this transition without sacrificing any of the band‘s core sonic DNA.”
Stretching into corners of the emotional mind… it’s without a doubt that Root writes his truth, a kind of truth that some people can spend all their lives trying to avoid confronting, while others find their own honesty in his.
“I think everyone has the power to imagine great music, but moving it out of your mind and into the physical world is a great process. Usually within that process, my ideas morph into their own entities, which is exactly what happened with Relaxylvania.”
Consider the Source’s latest full-length makes up for their four-year gap in studio releases with a meaty, seventy-plus minute offering of highly inventive multisectional instrumental epics.
“In Songs About Worms, a thorough combination of the novel and the vintage creates an endlessly compelling sonic palette that is at once unique and familiar.”
Gnomon, The Clock Reads’ second LP, is an excellent primer on their unique sound and personality as a band. The instrumental jazz quartet makes use of two guitarists along with bass and drums, a relatively unusual configuration that raises challenges ably met by the ensemble.
“Here, the lack of a conventional harmony instrument allows the trio to communicate their ideas with nothing more than the unadorned essentials: rhythm, bass, and melody. The musicians deploy the full extent of their resources to ensure the listener never feels that absence. The focus, energy, and precision of the ensemble’s interplay and the fluency of their improvisation provide plenty to occupy a listener’s attention.”
Tweed has always been a live performance-focused group, and their patience in waiting to release an LP has allowed them to take the time necessary to differentiate themselves from their peers, to develop their unique voice, and to learn how best to translate that voice to an effective record. This patience has paid dividends, and all that work is evident on Moves.
The short takes viewers on a tour of a paradigm shift, using Klaproth as the subject. In the opening scenes, she’s rifling through bills, Philadelphia Parking Authority-issued tickets, and other usual paper pests that come with adulthood. While taking a ride on her Vespa scooter, she approaches a forset staircase with two mystical nymphs—who have been following her the entire video—enticing her to drink a potion.
Incorporating elements of jazz, soul, and R&B, this is undoubtedly some kick-back-and-feel-good music. But their jazzy jams aren’t just for Sunday morning— performing, the TRiBE folds their grooves into peaks and valleys, using improvisation to segway their soul.