thePULSESarah Blasko’s As Day Follows Night
By Shelly Aucoin
Shining a bright spotlight on her immense vocal talent, As Day Follows Night ~ produced by Bjorn Yttling (Peter, Bjorn & John) ~ is Sarah Blasko’s third studio album. Combining playful violins with sophisticated, poppy beats, her songs are at once inspired and arresting. When Blasko croons about failed relationships and contemplates the intangible, it’s easy to see the beauty in her pain. She intrigues us with” Bird on a Wire,” seduces us through “Lost and Defeated,” strings us along in “Down on Love” and ultimately lets us down hard with “Is My Baby Yours.” Blasko describes the album as “pure elemental songs played on acoustic instruments.” I say it’s the perfect music for lying back and welcoming fall.
An Australian native, the 34 year old singer-songwriter moved to London in preparation for the album’s release after winning Best Female Artist at the 2009 ARIA Awards. Her debut album,The Overture and the Underscore, released in 2004, hit number 35 on the ARIA Album Chart; she followed it up with the certified gold album What the Sea Wants the Sea Will Have in 2006.
Be sure to check out Sarah’s myspace page where you can listen to streaming live songs from her current album for free. She’s also started a blog to share her experiences while working on her current recording project in New York.
www.myspace.com/sarahblasko
www.sarahblasko.com
sarahblasko.wordpress.com
Rooftop Recordings
By Jennifer Russo
When you think of live music, you usually think of amplifiers blazing a power-chord from a strobe light speckled stage, crowds roaring with applause and high pitched whistles at the end of a song. Maybe you have visions of lighters dotting the air during a ballad, or expect the singer to shout out an audience-grabbing question like “How ya feelin’ tonight!!??”
Take that idea of live music and take away everything commercial. “Live” simply means there are no do- overs, no second chances at getting that note just right or deleting a guitar string mishap because it wasn’t perfect. Rooftop Recordings, produced by Michael McMenemy, is exactly that. It’s a recorded jam session where a very talented group of 13 local musicians ~ including Jon Short, Andy Cummings, Ari Charbonneau, Dan Burke, Niki Luparelli, and even McMenemy himself ~ park themselves and their instruments on top of a city roof, and just let their music do the talkin’. Songs are infused with the sounds of Worcester in the background ~ cars driving by, sirens blaring, and commuter rail bells.
According to Michael, “The concept was inspired partly by the Beatles’ final public performance, the rooftop concert featured in the film Let It Be. The songs range across genres with something for everyone, whether you like jazz, blues, acoustic rock, or even music with an international flair. Each musician brings his or her own unique style and view to the roof. It’s what you’d imagine a bunch of daisy haired, bell bottomed wearing rebels sitting around in the mud at Woodstock with their guitars and voices might’ve been like and the CD brings that nostalgic feel. It is live music, in its most inspirationally pure and artistically raw form.
Many of us got to grab a copy of Rooftop Recordings at Oct. 24th’s CD release party at Ralph’s, and the CD is now available at Nick’s and Vincent’s and can be ordered at www.mcnemesis.com.
Dan Chauvin’s Small Town Life
By Matthew Holcomb
Singer/songwriter Dan Chauvin (whom you may remember as one of Pulse’s Up and Comers from a couple of years back) has carved his name into the hardwood of the New England folk scene with his captivating live performances, unique voice, and signature finger-picking technique. His newly released album, Small Town Life, proves why Dan is such a respected part of that scene.
Chauvin, born and raised in Northbridge, weaves songs of small town experience with an unmistakable New England aesthetic. Small Town Life, boasts nine robust tracks that will please the musical palate of many folk aficionados, but also win him a host of fans new to the genre.
The opening track, “Coyote,” ensnares you almost immediately with Chauvin’s intricate guitar technique, and the moment he unveils his vocal ability you realize…he has you.
Chauvin is a storyteller; he narrates with musical tales including title track “Small Town Life” as well as with other tracks of love lost but not forgotten. There are stories that elate and those that dwell in despair ~ but never cease to be lovely. They are deeply personal and genuine songs that seem to haunt a familiar collective memory of both listener and performer.
Though the lion’s share of the album falls into the acoustic folk realm, Chauvin seamlessly explores sounds that range from hard country to road house electric riffs, and his technique and craft remain strong throughout.
Amidst the resurgence of folk and neo-folk, Chauvin’s work has inspired comparison to Stevens and Taylor, but with Small Town Life, it is quite clear that he cut a musical path all his own.
Catch Dan live at The Cool Cats Coffeehouse in Shrewsbury on Saturday, November 6 @ 7pm.
www.myspace.com/danchauvin Photo by Bob Crownfield
Chemical Distance’s The Pain & The Progress
By Alex Kantarelis
Chemical Distance is a band that doesn’t necessarily fit into a genre. Instead, they have meshed together their own, with a frantic blend of rock ‘n’ roll, techno, electronic, and trip-hop. Their style dives into the harshness of bands like NIN and the Prodigy, while at times sounding like Depeche Mode and even Devo. With its constant twists and turns, The Pain & The Progress is in many ways like a roller-coaster ride, ripping through different musical styles and genres at a hyperactive pace.
After an atmospheric instrumental intro, things kick off with “The Carnival,” an upbeat rock song full of samples and electronic beats, which at times seems to sample background noise from an actual carnival.
The album takes a sudden twist with the fourth track, “Sugar.” The song resembles a somber blues ballad before it rips into a guitar heavy chorus mixed with their blend of hyper samples and effects. Vocalist Michael Hauptly-Pierce sings, “Tell the whole city I just want to live, and ask if they’ve got any sugar to give.” Keeping things fresh, the next track, “The Protector,” is 3 minute and 17 second instrumental which serves as a perfect bridge to “No ‘Real’ Friend,” a frantic industrial song that most closely resembles NIN. It’s this ability to shift their sound from song to song in a seamless way that makes the album flow through the 13 tracks.
With a lightning fast techno beat, the song “Life’s Blood” stands out as the album’s most upbeat and danceable, and is followed by the catchiest song on the album, “The Golden Child,” a hip-hop song which amazingly manages to be the least reliant on samples, and is based in guitar, bass, and drums like any old rock song.
The song writing style manages to be experimental while remaining true to rock and roll elements, and the constant changes in genre keep things interesting throughout. I recommend this album anyone who wants to hear something refreshingly different.
