Rating: ****1/2
Earlier this year, New York City musician, Patrick Grant released a full-length album called "A Sequence of Waves." Now Patrick is a skilled musician that plays a ton of instruments. He's part of a movement called "new classical" that combines traditional classical music with jazz, rock, and electronic influences. Sounds neat on paper, but what happens when it's fully realized? I review Grant's latest to find out just that.
Watch the music video for "Lonely Ride Coney Island" below:
The first track is To Find a Form That Accommodates the Mess, and it comes out of the gate swinging. Much less classical sounding and a lot more jazz-influenced, it sounds like the score to a cinematic action sequence. I dig it. Lucid Intervals follows and it's completely different. This one you can really see where the "new classical" gets it's name. Downtempo and haunting, it's a really gorgeous song. Track 3 is called Driving Patterns. It's got kind of an 80's synth feel. Pretty dramatic sounding. Again, it sounds nothing like the previous 2 tracks at all. From there we go to Prelude I. Whoa guitar! This one has a really blues-ey feel and it's such a rad departure. Each track truly stands on it's own thus far. It even gets into a prog rock vibe at one point. I really love this one. Alcohol is track 5. The track has an old Billy Joel "Moving Out" vibe to it, which would make sense seeing that it's called "Alcohol". There's a ba-dum-ch somewhere for that right? The ominous Tobacco is next. It very accurately captures the depression of cigarette addiction through music. Even though there is no vocals or lyrics, this album paints such a great picture only through sound. From there we get to the relatively positive sounding Firearms. It's crime drama cool. So far there isn't a bad song on this record. Seven Years at Sea is more experimental and infinitely harder to connect with. It's not bad, but it's esoteric nature makes it a little harder to hold on to. Breaking Butterflies Upon a Wheel is track 9. It's got a speedy, Sonic the Hedgehog feel to it. I can see the blue critter running through levels to this tune quite easily, actually. Lonely Ride Coney Island is next and it's the first single off the album. It's an interesting choice for a single, because I think there are actually stronger melodies on the LP but it's solid nonetheless. Track 11 is Primary Blues. This one has a great groove to it. The already excellent album is ending strong. Prelude II comes off as sort of a sequel to Prelude I and it's another gorgeous guitar based track. The last track is One Note Samba and it's got a really dream-like quality to it. Different sound effects infiltrate the song and it changes course quite a bit. A perfect microcosm for the entire record, actually.
Patrick Grant is very talented and he's assembled quite a lineup of players for this one. It's an excellent LP and is very worthy of the time spent to listen. If you like diverse jazz and classical, you're gonna love this.
Keep up with Patrick Grant here:
Official: http://www.peppergreenmedia.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patrickgrantnyc
Twitter: @tiltedaxes
Instagram: tiltedaxes