Sep 27 : "In Formation" - Left Of Logic (Philly)

New Music / Freshly Written & Recently Released (last week)

Philly Music!

AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

This is about two alternate universes. The first alternate universe is the new world that Philly band “Left of Logic” has created and is taking us to in their first full-length cd, “In Formation”, which had its formal debut last Friday at the Arts Garage. … A couple weeks ago the band gave me a pre-release copy of the cd and asked me to do this review about the new cd along with the release show.

The album is divided into two parts, the first being a collection of individual songs separately created during the band’s short one-year history. This includes my personal favorite, “I Want You Alive”, which also appeared on the band’s introductory demo ep, “A Common Theme”, which was released last Winter.

The second section of the cd is a five-movement panorama that takes the listener on a journey through a dreamscape that has monster dogs in one song, a carnival in another, and a seashore with pounding waves in yet another. Another part of this alternate universe is when we actually leave Earth in the song “Spacetic Fever”, as we go on a hilarious and raunchy satirical trip into space.

There is a lot of movement in these songs, not only physical movement as we battle waves of the sea (“Shells”), as we walk out the door each morning (“Locomotion”), or even as we travel around in the B-movie ether between planets to find that girl who has “Spacetic Fever” “bad”, but also a different kind of movement, a psychic movement, that takes place in our heads but manifests itself in our actions and how we look at life.

The album has an overall optimistic view about life. While it deals with some of life’s rocky roads, there is an optimism about growing into what each new day has to offer.

The optimism is a little hesitant in the first track, “Locomotion”, but by the time the final track rolls around, “The Meaning Of Things (The Dream Lives Ought To See)” we see a strong confidence coupled with a defined way to look at life.

The second alternate universe was the band’s stage performance Friday night. From that standpoint the band I saw last Friday at the Arts Garage was almost a different band from the one I had seen back at Milkboy last Winter, or even at the Brewerytown Spring Festival in May. I was completely amazed Friday night. While Left of Logic always seemed comfortable on stage and the members did talk a little to the audience, I wasn’t prepared to be in a different world, seeing such a huge transformation that the band’s stage presence has shown in these few short months. I would say that was the most unique thing about their show on Friday. The show was very vibrant, loud, rocking, with the band members totally and simultaneously engaged with both the music and the audience, making more detailed comments about the songs, never stopping the eye contact with the audience and at times giving shouts back and forth with audience members, and still being totally wrapped up in the music, their faces relating the changing feelings of each phrase in the music. I’ve never seen such a dramatic and sudden transformation and rarely this level of intensity. On a stage presence scale from zero to ten, they broke the scale!

The band has three members. Austen Royce Goodman plays bass guitar and does vocals. Austen is also a poet. Austen comments: I started playing the bass guitar when I was 13 years old.  The sincere love that followed became my life.  I would improvise for 15 hours daily learning a repertoire of my own sounds and feel for the instrument. I played by ear for years and more recently I studied music theory and jazz composition under Bill Rossi. 

Tim Knowlton plays drums and does some vocals. He has a wide range of interests. I've been actively making music since beginning piano lessons at age 7, which eventually transferred into percussion so I could join the concert band in middle school at age 12. I've been playing classical, jazz, afro-cuban, marching, and rock percussion through middle school, high school, and college ever since then 12 years ago.

And Dan Townsend plays keys and does some vocals. And some background that Dan has given: I went to West Chester University and got a bachelors in Theory and Composition, and I'm pretty good with that stuff (being able to tell what kind of chords are being played, harmonically what's going on, etc.) but really, to me the best thing about music is the ability to throw that away when you're neck deep in an entirely free jam, and coming out on the other side not sure what happened. It's like a musical zen. Listen, play. Push and pull. Tension, and release.

One of the characteristics of Left of Logic's music is the stating of a theme at the beginning of a song, then wandering off into a couple other genres, only to come back home to the original styling at the end. This is evident in the song "Shells (The Dream Lives Out to Sea)", which is the eleventh and next to last track on the new cd. "Shells (The Dream Lives Out to Sea)" is playing right here on my blog page :::

To sum up the vibe of the album, here is an excerpt, the closing passage from the album's last track "The Meaning Of Things (The Dream Lives Ought To See)" :::

Washing away those years
Starting from behind and pressing on and on
A trail is beginning to clear
A dance for every thought
From the moves we make
Starting Point A to break
Meaning is to create
Meaning is to create
Meaning is to create

To visit Left of Logic, here is their Bandcamp site where you can hear samples of more of their music as well as download the new album ::: Left Of Logic on Bandcamp (CLICK HERE)

If you'd like to see a previous video of Left Of Logic, here they are playing "Momentum", one of their original songs, at the Brewerytown Spring Festival this past May, here is the click :::: Left Of Logic at Brewerytown Spring Festival (CLICK HERE, AND REFRESH YOUR BROWSER TO MAKE THE VIDEO PLAY IF NECESSARY)

p.s.:::: Don't look up "Spacetic". You won't find it. I searched "Urban Dictionary" as well as googling it with all spelling variations I could think of. The guys later told me the word is made up. :)

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"IV. Shells (The Dream Lives Out to Sea)" and "V. The Meaning Of Things (The Dream Lives Ought To See)" © 2012, Left Of Logic. All rights reserved.
© 2012, Robert Seabury. All rights reserved.