Apr 10 : "It's Not Too Late" - The Silence Kit (Philly / NJ)

New Music / Freshly Written and Recently Released

The Silence Kit is a post-punk band from Philly / NJ. Headed by Pat McCay, the band is known for its explorations of some darker corners of the human psyche, places where other bands dare not go. They take a look at unfulfillment, alienation, and places where all hope is lost. The band came out with a brilliant new album a few months ago, titled "It's Not Too Late".

EQUAL STANDING

The most dramatic innovation of the new album over their previous ones lies with the instrumentals. "It's Not Too Late" boasts fuller-sounding instrumentals with more complex arrangements. And the instrumentals don't shy away from taking center stage with generally longer intros than we saw in earlier albums. Entering lyrics will just have to wait their turn. For example, the intro in "Captured Light" (Track 9) lasts until 1:09 on the clock, and the intro for "Hope Isn't Helping" (Track 4) lasts a full 1:58!

The band's previous release was the 2021 remastering of their album "In Regulated Measure". The band's most recent album of new music was 2018's "Fall Proection". While that remastering showed some interesting new textures and "nuance", and the 2018 album brought in some fuller instrumentals and faster tempos, "It's Not Too Late" goes way beyond nuance to bring us dramatically different stylings, from the smooth "Losing Sight" (Track 3) to the raucous "Vacancy Chain" (Track 11). In all of the songs the strength of the instrumentals is on an equal footing with the vocals. The range of the instrumentals and the complexity of the arrangements themselves largely bolster the album's diversity.

FINDING TRUE SELF

A continuing theme in The Silence Kit's music is the disconnect one has from their true self. The anguish that characters feel stems from living life with a certain emptiness, because living the way they do is too often just going through the motions and not rooted in one's connection to their true self.

Moving away from a little of the optimism in "Fall Protection", "It's Not Too Late" thematically continues where we left off in the seventh track of "In Regulated Measure". In that seventh track, "Trying Not To", the main character sings "You introduced me to myself; I lost him a long long time ago".

In the current album, "Let Me Dream" (Track 1) continues the theme. It references "lost myself", "burying the old me" and "recognize the real me".

And in "Losing Sight", the main character is observing someone else and is asking "Have you lost yourself?", but does it resonate with the other person who says that everything is all right? Here is "Losing Sight", very smooth in vocals, but strong in instrumentals. It's the third track on the album. The instrumentals on this are my favorite of the album:

If only all the noise can be cleared away and we can again recognize the true self, then life will be more fulfilling.

TURNING OUTWARD

Sometimes this disconnect can be a realization we make ourselves, or sometimes it can be something that another points out to us, as in "Trying Not To". A lot of the characters in The Silence Kit's music are deeply introspective and are maybe thinking passively about their own situations. But the second noticeable change in this album over the previous ones is the turning outward with a critical eye. While the character in "Losing Sight", is turning outward in an agreeable way while asking someone else, "Are you losing sight?", the characters in some of the songs after that become more critical and even aggressive.

In "Emphasis Flag" (Track 10) the main character is critical of an (unnamed) person for showing a fraudulent or self-important representation of their true self. We don't know who that person is or if there's a relationship there. In "Nonsense" (Track 6) the character gives a piercing critique to another person "I don’t care what you think.” … “I don’t care about your opinions.” ... “I stay away when you’re around.”

The instrumentals in this album are a change of feel from "In Regulated Measure", which were starker and maybe contributed more to the main character's feeling of isolation and abandonment. The instrumentals in this album (which are brilliant) carry with them some of the signature darkness, but are also strong and confident enough, that, no matter how agitated and alarmed the words are, counter some of that desperation to reassure us that all may not be lost, that "It's Not Too Late".

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To hear the whole album and check out the songs mentioned above, here is the click to the band's Bandcamp page: The Silence Kit on Bandcamp (CLICK HERE). There you can also find links to the band's other albums.

The Silence Kit doesn't have any shows coming up in the next few weeks, but here is the click to their Facebook page where you can keep up with what they're doing ::: The Silence Kit on Facebook (CLICK HERE).

Mar 17 : "Burst Lethargic" - The Silence Kit (Philly / NJ)

Philly Music 1/2

GRIT REMASTERED

Life in the 21st century can have its pitfalls. Is this relationship going to work? Does my life have any meaning? Will anyone miss me if I were to just disappear? These and other questions form the dark panorama of The Silence Kit's world.

The Silence Kit is a post-punk band that draws its talent from both Philly and South Jersey. This fall the band released a remastered version of their 2006 album, "In Regulated Measure." This was to celebrate the album's fifteenth anniversary. I first saw a live show of The Silence Kit back around 2006, probably at Khyber, and I'm pretty sure "In Regulated Measure" was the first of their albums I ever got. So for the past couple weeks I've been listening to both versions and doing some comparisons.

I asked Pat McCay, mastermind of the band, to tell us about the origins of the album. He says: I recorded "In Regulated Measure" on my own throughout the early aughts. "Shake and Tremble" was recorded in the living room of my one bedroom apartment in the winter of 2001, and was set aside as a demo. The rest of the songs were written and sketches were recorded through 2002 and 2003. I found friends to play with and The Silence Kit became a band in 2003, but for the next year or so a couple different lineups formed, played shows, demo'd songs, and fell apart. In 2004 or so I moved into a house and set up a make-shift "studio" in the unfinished (and uninsulated) attic and in the winter of 2005, I started in earnest writing and recording all the songs for "In Regulated Measure." It was freezing in the attic, with a space heater and a small amp, and my slightly improved recording rig. Sometimes with the amp, computer and space heater going all at the same time, I'd trip a breaker and everything would go black. I'd have to walk down a couple flights of stairs to the basement to reset the breaker and walk back up to the attic, and turn something off so it wouldn't happen again.

To describe the writing process, Pat says: For the majority of the songs, and certainly for songs like "My Name Is Another Room," "Burst Lethargic" and "Trying Not To," I programmed the drums first, and then recorded bass - the songs were very rhythm-centric. After that, I'd go about layering guitar parts and synth parts - much more than what was ultimately used. I'd go through and mute certain tracks until I found the right balance of keeping things stark, but with atmosphere. I had the majority of the lyrics already written, and I recorded vocals last.

Of the eight tracks on the new album, one track that stands out to me is "Burst Lethargic". I like the rhythm; I like the drums. In this song the new version is slightly less stark; there's a little more fuzz in the instrumentals. The main character in the song is awakening to "static", and is experiencing loss, which leads him to feel invalidated. Here are the lyrics to the song as well as the remastered audio of "Burst Lethargic".

Lost my shape this morning / woke up to the static / immersed, my heart sank slow / when it was just a dream / relief swallowed me / I had trouble letting go / cut and watch and back away / another layer is peeled away / the more you see the more you need / melt into the sheets / every fading smile / every whispered word / absorbed into the guilt / everything i was / you know, i used to be someone

The Silence Kit · Burst Lethargic (2021 Remastered)

And, for an overall, broad brushstroke view of what he wanted to accomplish with the remastering, Pat says: I've been recording music for the 15 years since "In Regulated Measure" and I've learned a good bit since those first days of recording, so it was a really interesting exercise to now go back through the old recordings and remix them. ... I did want to retain the lo-fi charm of the original. But I do feel the changes made in the remix resulted in a clearer, more dynamic and bracing mix, and yet it's still pretty gritty and hypnotic, which are some of the things I liked about the original.

What's a remastering? Maybe it's not just a technical exercise but also takes a fresh look at stories previously told, maybe to see them a little differently. A perspective can change over fifteen years. For example, in one of the band's more popular songs, "Sea Of My Discretion", the vocals and instrumentals in the new version seem a little more unified, not as separate as they were in the original. There's a little more cohesiveness. And, while there's more clarity in the new versions, there is also more texture and nuance. The stories and characters are still dark, troubled, and desperate, and the relationships still heavy (to the extent that they still can exist), but maybe we're not seeing them as harshly as we did fifteen years ago.

That being said, the last track on the original (and next to the last track on the remastered version) is "Trying Not To", presents one of the most dire situations any character in the album faces. He's talking to someone close; he says he feels like he's been getting "murdered every night", and "I've been beaten down". He talks gratefully about their relationship saying, remarkably, "You introduced me to myself". Find out how this encounter turns out. Here is the 2021 remastered version of "Trying Not To" :

The Silence Kit · Trying Not To (2021 Remastered)

The Silence Kit's characters talk about many emotional issues where others won't go. You should definitely check out this album. If you would like to hear more songs from either the remastered or other albums, here is the click to the band's Bandcamp page: The Silence Kit on Bandcamp (CLICK HERE) .The Silence Kit doesn't have any live shows lined up in the immediate future, but here is the click to their Facebook page where you can keep up with what they're doing: The Silence Kit on Facebook (CLICK HERE). (Pic below is from the band's web page.)

May 19 : "Out of Medication" & "Smashed Teeth" - Depression (Philly)

New Music / Freshly Written & Soon to Be Released

Philly Music!

INNER STRENGTH

I met Jason Elliss at a recent Panophonic show. Tom Lugo of Panophonic had introduced us. Here's a shout out to Tom "Hey Tom"

Jason has asked me to do a review of his two new soon-to-be-released albums, "Out of Medication" and "Smashed Teeth". Both albums are performed by Jason's solo project, "Depression".

Jason and Tom started working together only a few months ago on a joint project, "Under the Wire", which seems to be taking off nicely. However, as much as Jason enjoys the work with Tom, there are a lot of things that Jason felt he had to express, things he had to get out there, that were too dark, and, frankly, too personal for the joint project. Jason's recent life has had a number of bad rough spots. But more about that a little later.

jason started playing music in his mid teens when he and a bunch of friends formed a band, "Standin for Nothin". Jason's first venture into music was playing the drums. The band played together regularly, but never did any shows.

When Jason was 17, he joined a metal band, "Another Common Tragedy", as a vocalist. This band did do shows, including some of the big venues, such as the Troc!

Always impatient to expand his horizons, Jason later learned guitar and keys and synth.

Jason's music outfit, Depression, started more recently as an outlet for some dark experiences … … Jason confides, "Depression is my little journal I keep in my back pocket."

Some years back Jason had some extremely bad experiences with drugs, including later going into a rehab that turned out to be a problem in itself. Jason lost his father which added more tumult to his life. And, beyond that, there was an unfortunate circumstance when some of his teeth were knocked out. And that's the background behind the album title, "Smashed Teeth". And, during all this, when one would expect to have the trust and support of those close to you, he found that people were pulling away from him. So the track "Withdrawl" is not about him pulling away from others, but others pulling away from him.

When you listen to his music, you'll hear some harsh sounds that relate some of these bad experiences..

But music contains a lot of emotions, some expressed as a main focus, and some that are underlying and might go almost unnoticed. When I listen to "Withdrawl" and "Shattered", I find them to be not all bad characterizations. I hear small glimmers of hope, and I hear small glimmers of strength and fortitude. Maybe its the particular harmonies that he uses. The tempo shows a determination to move forward in spite of the odds.

Jason's got the strength to move forward in spite of all that has happened to him. Not letting these other people drag him down. He's a devoted father to his young daughter.

Jason's work has a unique design in terms of its themes. Each piece seems to focus on one individual emotion or one characteristic and is an expression of that one dynamic. Most of the songs have no beginnings, they have no ends, but evoke present existential states of being.

Of the two albums of I've been hearing, "Out of Medication" is the earlier of the two (although both are current) and was done on a computer keyboard, while "Smashed Teeth" was done with a synthesizer.

The song "Withdrawl" is on the "Smashed Teeth" album and is playing right here on my blog page.

Jason has two shows coming up, both the same night, June 26 at Kung Fu Necktie. One of the shows will be as his solo act, Depression, and the other will be with Tom as a member of Under the Wire.

If you want to visit Jason in the meantime, here is the click to his Facebook page. There you can see pictures of Depression's first show which Jason did yesterday at the Brewerytown Spring Festival ((which unfortunately I did not get to see; I was working at our Farmstand)). … Depression (CLICK HERE)

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.