These six reviews are all from Ariel Publicity. We've been working with them for over a year and I generally like the variety of music we get from them - mostly pop and jazz and blues. So just look at some of the selection of different bands represented here:
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Dreaming Isabelle This review is a little behind, but it was quite easy to do because Awake is just a short four-track EP, from Virginia's Dreaming Isabelle. Their biography doesn't list much, which suggests they might be a very new band, but listening to Awake I felt that they played really well together. Take a listen to "Not Missing You" as it starts with a great guitar hook, timed perfectly as the drums kick in, then followed by the singer on queue. The three songs that follows the opening track seems to all start off pretty slow. "That I Am" starts off acoustically, while "Above All" is overall mellow and "Mine" has a great guitar noodle portion. I must admit "Mine" did sound a bit creepy/stalkerish with the lyrics "She will be mine" repeated over and over. [ read more ] |
Josephine
Joséphine grew up in Paris, France, left at the age of 17 to Montreal (the mostly French, half English Canadian city), where she started singing with The People’s Gospel Choir of Montréal (they won some award for their album). She eventually made her way to New York, where she is currently released Unfinished Life in 2007. For the most part, I think the whole album is very pop/acoustic songwriter type of music, mostly centered around her very sweet young voice. I really like her poppy song, "Stronger". Take a listen as she belts out "I need to get together when I'm falling apart/I need to love when it's broken my heart", followed by some great guitar playing by Craig Wilson. Wilson co-wrote all the songs with Joséphine with the exception of "Bit by Bit" (by Joséphine only) and "Right Here" (by Wilson only). [ read more ] |
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Della Valle I got a trackless album from Della Valle, which made it kind of annoying to add in my iTunes. Although I would have to admit that I did end up listening to all the songs to determine all 10 titles... so Mister Jay Della Valle, you've suckered me into listening to your album! All kiddings aside, I actually liked what I heard, so it wasn't such a nightmare. Out of his four releases, the tracks are basically from Stay Gold and The Best Years EP, which Della Valle is calling it his "Greatest Hits", then humorously retracted:
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Satoru - Balancing In the Twilight The funny story about Satoru's first CD, Ash Returns to Ash, was that it was just a CD-R with a hand-written note saying that he had trouble with the printing company and so he doesn't have the finished product. It didn't matter because I thought the album was really enjoyable that I wrote about it. I am glad to see that he came through on his second Balancing in the Twilight, in March 2008. I believe he already had the album "in the can" as they say last year. Both Ash Returns to Ash and Balancing in the Twilight are in standard digipaks, they are very reasonably priced at $9 on Amazon and $10 on CD Baby. But what I am really impressed with is that all of his music is licensed through Creative Commons, which grant you permission to copy, distribute and transmit the work, as long as you give credit and attribution for noncommercial usage. I think all artists should follow in this footstep. [ read more ] |
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Michael Paige The press material I received for Michael Paige's self-titled debut album, out now on Astrum Records, explicitly stated that under no circumstances should I be allowed to stream one particular song, "Aqui Esperando". So naturally, that is the first song I queued up to listen to. I was pleasantly surprised that "Aqui Esperando" is a Spanish version of "Right Here Waiting", originally by Richard Marx. This kind of legal thing upsets me, because this is actually a very good song, and I'm assuming writing royalties would eventually end up in Marx's pockets - so why bother trying to stop people from hearing this very faithful rendition? I believe there's only one other cover on this album, is "Eres Tú" a second place winner from Eurovision 1973 by a band called Mocedades. [ read more ] |
Edgar Gabriel's StringFusion - Not Radio Material Their album name, Not Radio Material, couldn't be more approriate. Edward Gabriel's StringFusion music is a very interesting (and rare) blend of classical instrumentals, primarily violin string arrangements, blended with mellow light jazz piano and saxophone riffs. A sultry vocal is offered on track three, "Would You Be My Valentine" along with a very smooth keyboard solo. The percussion driven samba of track 4, "Mobile", suggests more Latin swing influences, very contemporary and cool. The saxophone on track 5, "I Knew That" really soars to some impressive heights. Down and dirty blues guitar can be heard on the urban slynish of track 6, "Blue 7", probably my favorite composition on this CD. [ read more ] |
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