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Artist: Tim Segreto
Album: Populus
Released: Feb. 21, 2007
Label: reapandsow, Inc.
Online Track to Try:
"Lotus Eaters"
Tim Segreto’s music has garnered a
smattering of indie accolades lately, mostly for his seamless
melding of electronica and psychedelic pop into something
uniquely sweet and palatable to many tastes. But for me the
trick is his old-fashioned, harmonized vocal approach: Segreto
has a sterling and versatile voice (a rare enough gift in indie
circles today), and an epic, confident way of layering his
choruses to the max. Granted he strays a bit too far into
Coldplay territory every now and then. But I have little doubt
Populus has the potential to enthrall many a listener who
normally wouldn’t be caught dead in the independent record
section, and I freely recommend it as such.
The
funny thing about imitating Chris Martin is that he himself
likely takes his marching orders directly from Echo and the
Bunnymen, who were in turn influenced by the Doors and Velvet
Underground, and back it goes. Not a bad pedigree, that.
Besides, Segreto’s singing style may actually owe more to Echo’s
Ian McCulloch than anyone else, though what he lacks in
heart-stopping bombast (would anyone else have dared touch “Lips
Like Sugar”?) he makes up for with masterful studio wizardry.
Listen to the muscular “Lotus Eaters” and its hanging lead-in,
or the tightrope-without-a-net chorus of “It’s Gone,” and you
hear a joyous devotion to singing for its own sake, a devotion
(pardon the soapbox repetition) sadly lacking elsewhere in
underground music. Other well-regarded psych-drenched influences
are also evident here, namely the Lassie Foundation, while on
the down-tempo numbers one can hear unmistakable traces of the
London Suede’s more wistful moments. All in all a refreshingly
inspired recording — not without its conspicuous rock roots, but
fully worthy in its own right.
Artist: Plain Jane
Album:
Plain Jane
Released:
1969
Label:
Hobbit
Online
Track to Try:
“Who’s Drivin’ This Train”
Speaking
of rock roots, here’s a challenge for all you irrepressible
treasure hunters out there. The heady psychedelic days of the
late ’60s/early ’70s witnessed a proliferation of
indistinguishable ‘me-too’ British and American bands, most of
whom released a couple of forgettable drop-in-the-ocean records
before slithering unlamented back from whence they came. The
trick is to find the sparse handful worth disinterring. Leading
the hoary pack is 1969’s Plain Jane, a vanished
masterpiece of charming rural innocence. But good luck finding
it.
Actually,
locating these lost albums is indeed getting easier, slowly but
surely. Plain Jane was never released on CD, so it isn’t
available on any of the major (legal) music services. But
enterprising amateur hobbyists and collectors have taken the
holy cause of musical preservation upon themselves, transferring
Plain Jane to digital and posting it on Usenet and other
sharing sites. The result is an invigorating and nostalgic
listening experience, not unlike touring an audiophile museum of
late ’60s rock heavyweights. Let’s play “Name That Influence,”
shall we? Early blues-inflected Allman Brothers (“Fire
Hydrant”); crunchy Jim Morrison psych-out (“What Can You Do”);
Jefferson Airplane (“Mrs. Que”); Crosby Stills & Nash (“You
Can’t Make It Alone”); electric Byrds (“That’s How Much”); and
countrified Bob Dylan (“Num - Bird”), to mention a few. But
ironically the best song on this superbly eclectic effort is
also the most original — jaunty album-opener “Who’s Drivin’ This
Train,” whose groovy strum sets up a gorgeous stop-short
chorus guaranteed to throw you over the handlebars. It’s a soft
landing, however, and merely the first hitch on a cracking-good
trip through lost 1960s auditory alchemy.
Marc
Stephens is a Web consultant by day, writer by night. Comments?
E-mail sunpostmusic1 at bellsouth.net.
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