Wilder Maker 'Male Models'

 

Latest album from New York band, Wilder Maker, out 29th July from Western Vinyl

The new album from trio Wilder Maker features an eclectic list of guest vocalists, combining with the sun-kissed soulful dripping indie rock that is on offer. Guests range from Adam Duritz (Counting Crows), Katie Von Schleicher and Felicia Douglass who each lend their vocals to another heartfelt folk laden composition married with Gabriel Birnbaum's insular narrative laden lyrics.

Male Models' inspiration is as eclectic as the sound it carries with influences ranging from novels to basketball and Thin Lizzy to positivity. The band comprises of frontman Birnbaum with long time collaborators Nick Jost and Sean Mullins, with the album being recorded live over several days. The overriding impression you get from the first listen is that this is an album for a vinyl listening party, something you put on in the background but every now and then you have to stop in your tracks because you are hearing something fresh, invigorating and hypnotic.

Birnbaum admits, 'I've been keeping an ever-expanding playlist of songs that I never want to skip. I wanted to make a record that sounded like a playlist in this way; it became a kind of songwriting challenge for me.'

The album succeeds in bringing that effervescence to your speakers with a balance of jam inspired soul and funk with pulsating indie rock that is reminiscent say of We Are Scientists but this really reminded me of a band called Video Age and their album 'Pleasure Line' while that had hints of yacht rock in it, that album and Male Models shares a strange sounding DNA and both had a summer release.

Latest release 'Static' is one of those such tracks featuring vocals by VV Lightbody; a jaunty jam of funk that marries summery vocals with a neat bassline.

'Silver Car' is a personal favourite of the band themselves and that features Katie Von Schleicher guesting and the album has these moments of calm amidst the fevered excitement elsewhere such as ballad 'Surfers Trace' which is sun-kissed and elegiac.

Following the global pandemic, there is a real sense that this big world did become a lot smaller as we all had to experience the change to our daily lives and routines. It forced us to reach out to those we may not ordinarily make contact with and provide support to those in less fortunate positions but also the chance for collaboration. 

Male Models is indicative of this sea change as music is made across zoom calls and ideas are shared frequently across continents and nations - the finished product fills you with a great sense of joy and pride that perhaps the good in humanity will win out as wars and corruption still appear in our society. This album speaks to the good in people and the light that shines in us all.

Male Models is out from Western Vinyl on 29th July.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

S. Raekwon 'Where I'm At Now'

 

Debut album by S. Raekwon, NY based artist out via Father/Daughter Records on 8th October

S. Raekwon, born Steven Raekwon Reynolds in 1995 is a singer/songwriter/producer from New York by way of Buffalo - the pseudonym of S. Raekwon embodies Reynolds upbringing in the Big Apple and the various genres that he would grow up around from a mother who adored musicl theatre and the sound of piano in the house.

Recorded over a six-month stint during the pandemic at his girlfriend's parents home in Illinois, extracting him out of his New York City lifestyle - Raekwon wrote a feverish demo of tracks in his studio apartment which gave him a purpose to write and finish with the sounds around him.

Snippets of the album cut in and out with amazing frequency of influence ranging from Frank Ocean and D'Angelo to the sound of rap troupes yet there are flourishes of rock, pop and folk popping up throughout the ten track album.

You need only listen to album opener 'Darling' and not be hit by the similarity in beauty of the track with that of Bon Iver's sophomore self-titled album from 2011. The pacing and momentum of the album is a joy to experience, moving through all manner of emotions ranging from turmoil to love as from 'Do You Feel the Same?' to the social message of 'T.D.T.K.A'

The end result is an album by an artist who refuses to be pigeonholed by a specific genre either as a musician or a person; an album full of sweeping moments that will be embraced by those far and wide from New York to old York.

Where I'm at Now is out from Father/Daughter records now.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

The Natvral - Tethers

 

Debut album from Kip Berman (The Pains of Being Pure at Heart) Tethers is out April 2nd via Dirty Bingo Records.

Following the disbandment of the band in 2017 after the release of The Echo of Pleasure, Berman found himself at a creative crossroads. Having written about young adult life in New York City with maturity and a fine ear for a tune - Berman found himself at a creative crossroads.

Tethers is the further maturation of Berman as a songwriter in a new guise as The Natvral with an observation of the changes in his life marking this as a self-portrait of sorts. This comes with a move from hipster central Brooklyn to Princeton and the arrival of a new daughter, this new identity as a parent came a shift in how he approached and created music. Instead of constant months of touring, came the writing for himself after bedtime for the children.

Tethers has a raw but earthy sound reminiscent of the Laurel Canyon sound with the swoon of Berman's voice sounding like mid-1970s Bob Dylan or Neil Young. This freedom of writing marks Berman out as a songwriter of great nuance and intellect as those famous troubadours but also in the footsteps of David Crosby and Ron Sexsmith.

 

The album opens with 'Why Don't You Come Out Anymore?' which is both triumphant and reflective of a time when younger they would be out everyday but now as life takes hold and responsibility appears so does the time for friends.

Second single 'New Moon' (track 2) is this soulful ballad again about reflection but of hope springing eternal at the end of day, when you look at the moon and think about the day that has passed and what has been achieved.  

From the emotive nature of 'Sun Blisters' to the yearning of 'Sylvia, the Cup of Youth' which brings to mind the prolific nature of Ryan Adams to the barnstorming 'Alone in London' which ends the album on quite a crescendo.

Tethers is out from Dirty Bingo Records on 2nd April on all formats.