Music Reviews by Kent Manthie

Renee Zawawi Legends (Sapiens Records)
Pop-princess Renee Zawawi is a smart young woman; she has written a bunch of songs, recorded them and the result is “Legends”, her debut CD; 13 tracks of danceable exotic pop-phoria.
“Legends” is a CD with some vividly expressive vocal chords. It’s syncopated Euro-style neo-disco with a tinge of the Middle Eastern to it, but mostly it’s a dance-pop record that with a European flair to it, not too American sounding – which is a good thing as there is already too much homogeneity in American pop music. The music on this CD is not at all like the empty-headed drivel such as you’d hear today if you turned on your local Star FM station – that horrible syndicated radio station that plays the bottom of the barrel, musically speaking, and repeats the same garbage over and over again all day long, infiltrating city after city in the US. You get none of that on “Legends”. Renee Zawawi is different; for one thing, she wrote her own songs, which makes for much more original-sounding songs as opposed to crap that’s written by a music factory in Santa Monica.
Each person has their own unique, individual stories and experiences and their own personal ways of expressing them, so when someone, for instance, writes their own songs and sings them the music often tends to have something about it that’s more honest, fresher and more original, you end up singing from the heart, as it were, your heart, because the words came from your own experiences and hopes and dreams, et cetera. In a nutshell, that explains the difference between an artist and an entertainer.
Ms. Renee has a pretty voice; an earnest childlike quality with a bubbly effusiveness, a cross between Bjork and Jane Wiedlin. “One Time in Italy” is a lush pillow talk of a song, romantic to the core. “Reunion” is a flashy dance number that I can picture pulsating out of the sound system at some hip nightclub in downtown Beirut. The song “Never Knew” has a Spanish flair to it, with castanets and track number 8, “You’ve Got To” has this simple kind of pleasure to it, something bright and shiny about it that appealed to me, but the last track, “On the Road” is probably the strongest song, a mellow, straight-ahead personal song; a detour from the ebullience of the rest of the CD; a good way to close it out.
“Legends” had me under a spell, for one thing, I wasn’t expecting to be very impressed, I’m jaded, I guess, but soon I found myself getting into it; the way each song segues into the next one kept me listening longer and longer. I’m not sure what, but something about “Legends” was both exciting and soothing at the same time, perhaps it was this very trait that had its hold over me. Website – click here: http://www.reneezawawi.com – KM.

Single Cell Orchestra Celldom V.2: Arc (Cyberset Music)
Lay back, relax, let your mind wander and let us do the thinking for you. Yeahhhhhhh – mellow as hell and hypnotic to the bone, baby – that’s the essence of “Celldom V.2: Arc”, the fascinating new release by Single Cell Orchestra. “Celldom…” takes the listener on a spring vacation of the mind, inducing a droning euphoria that can’t be beat. Take two ‘ludes and call me in the afternoon.
I was hooked from the get-go on “Celldom…” Its entrancing reveries were droning on and on and I was just buggin’ out, loving it. It’s not a dance record, it’s more drone/ambient – not a repetitive drone, but a meandering, noodling introspective thingy. I fell in love with pure pleasures like “Lullaby”, “Deep in it” and “Cathexis”, just three examples of the brilliance of Single Cell Orchestra. “Celldom…” is a must-have for all you fans of German ambient stuff like Faust and Can.
For you fiends, the website can be had by clicking here: http://www.cyberset.cc – KM.

Music from the Edge Volume One: a Cyberset Music Compilation CD
The title says it all – “Music from the Edge” is a sampling of the roster at Cyberset Music, an indie label that specializing in glowing ambient thrills; each track is done by a different Cyberset artist but the songs all melt into one another perfectly, each track absorbs the space around it and actually becomes part of the environment. A couple of highlights: track 5, “Purple and Orange” by Welder goes on and on, a pleasure drone with a tense undercurrent; “Sufi Swirl” is a multicolored hue that is anathema to not dancing; also “Effigy” by hands upon black earth – this one relentlessly throbs with an undulating pulse – careful, it’s contagious! Our friends Single Cell Orchestra also make an appearance here with a track called “Febru-Wary”, a super-duper hedono-poppy mix. It’s a great showcase of some interesting new sounds as well as a great mix CD in itself that will entertain and inspire at the same time; use it for your meditation workout. http://www.cyberset.cc – KM.

In Every Breath
This is a tight album of some slick metal-ish rock. In Every Breath have a kind of glossy sheen; a brightly lit presence. Their eponymous debut is a short, sharp shock of stuff – three tunes to whet your appetite and to be ready for the big full-length release whenever they get around to recording it. The first cut “Fades to Red” is a power-jam, a tightly reined uber-cut. Song #2, “Shards” holds steady; it’s a little slower, a moody rocker that you can swoon to. The final piece, “Distrust” is a heady work, for my money the best tune on here; it’s the perfect way to end this little sampling. Keep your ears to the ground, this is just a teaser, I’m sure they have many more things in the works. Check ‘em out at their MySpace page, http://www.myspace.com/ineverybreathmusic – KM.

Eight Minutes to Twilight Fairlanes Avenue (Zissou Records)
The horn that interpolates in and out of the music on “Fairlanes Avenue” adds such a beautiful melancholia to it. I was in a real lethargic, empty mood when I listened to this CD for the first time and it was the perfect soundtrack to my disposition at the moment, it didn’t grate or bore or annoy, it just was the perfect atmosphere and flowed smoothly through my brain.
Eight Minutes to Twilight is the brainchild of two Joshes: Messrs. Wright & Howard, a couple of San Diegans who have ditched the typical power-pop vacuity that is associated with Southern California and instead have focused on introverted, emotive compositions that are pleasing musically as well as lyrically apt. “Fairlanes Avenue” is their greeting to the world; it says “Here I am; I hope you’ll like me, but please don’t get too close and smother me…” The sad English horn noodles throughout the opener, “Collision” and really complements the sentiments well. The stark, quietude of “Goodnight Prayers” is haunting. It’s a shivering, lonely cry in the dark and then “Matt” picks up a tad, bringing a hopeful bit of optimism to bear.
While the ethos and attitude is rock ‘n’ roll, the music isn’t brash, ebullient or jarring; it’s more of a brooding, cerebral crooning and a plaintive cry for some kind of release from whatever pain it was born from. Fortunately, though, its wryness and coy jadedness, reminiscent of the hip smugness of Ben Folds, keep “Fairlanes Avenue” from sounding like so much dirge music. But, really, there’s something about this that will not fit in a box so it’s very hard to pin any kind of label on it, I mean, it’s not really rock, per se, but neither is it folk nor jazz, country, soul nor R & B, it’s just honest, bare music and that is so refreshing for a change! To get more information about these guys go to http://www.zissourecords.com – KM.

Savu Sea The River Light
Savu Sea are the epitome of kaleidoscopic freak-outs; their psychedelic brand of wow-pop is just the most refreshing thing for a jaded cynic like myself who thought that this sort of creative artistry was dead in the rock & roll world. For instance, they have recently recorded a magnificent album that they entitled “The River Light”. It starts out with a real psychedelic workout (“Shape Unknown”) and from there passes through several different doors, each one containing bigger and better stuff. The singer reminds me, with his deep baritone voice, of the vocalist from Kitchens of Distinction and you know, Savu Sea’s music is not all that different than KoD either. At least it’s a good point of reference; however, Savu Sea are a uniquely original band, except for that voice, they have an unmatchable prettiness, songs that are so lush and beauteous that you can’t turn away; you’re stuck, you’re spellbound, as in the immortal track #8, “The Needles Eye” a broad field of green grass with a warm breeze blowing through your hair, shaded by an hibiscus tree – this is probably the best tune on “The River Light” but then again, I could change my mind in a couple days. _ Oh I don’t know, there are a million different things I could say about these guys, but what I want to get across is their sound. It’s a great thing to finally start hearing some new music, some truly new music, not just a retooling of the same damn emo-pop-teen-angst kind of crap. This is a real treat to hear! In one way it harkens back to the golden age of music – the 1960s – in that they are captivated by their own sounds and want to please themselves even more and so keep striving to be better and better and when they blow their own minds then you know they’re ready to blow your mind. It used to be about being as unique as possible and trying not to sound like the other guys. Unfortunately, nowadays most of the music business is just like the car business: the first original thing to come around that is popular and sells well is just copied en masse by everyone else until the whole world is homogeneous and you can’t tell one thing from another. Savu Sea said “no thanks” to that kind of fraud and went their own way – I applaud that. Website: http://www.savuseamusic.com – KM.

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