Bright Brown

No Matter How Faint There's Light In Everything 2009 CD $15.

review by Greg Howard

Musicians:
Alex Nahas: vocals, Chapman Stick, keyboards, melodica, percussion
Nick Smeraski: drums, percussion, keyboards, acoustic guitar, trumpet

For those of you who may have been wondering what Alex Nahas (Laughing Stock) has been doing for the last 10 years, this is it — writing, singing and recording some brilliant songs, full of pathos and alienation, but sweetened with strong doses of optimism. Together with fellow multi-instrumentalist Nick Smeraski (drums, percussion, keyboards), the now Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter looks to the American West for sonic and thematic influences on this new collection of cinematic originals. Singing Stickists are something of a rarity, perhaps because it would seem even more difficult to play two parts and sing simultaneously (a debatable point). True or not, Alex doesn't minimize the musical underpinnings of these songs; there's a lot of creative Stick playing going on as well.

Alex is a singer for our time. As we ponder our post-millenial and post-9/11 zeitgeist, feeling like aliens in our own society, we live out our lives waiting for something big to happen ("gray sky, make up your mind..."). Alex invites us to be more in the present, but there's a catch. He willingly pulls our cultural reference points out from under us ("There never was the 1950s...no such thing as the American Dream"), but he's kind enough not to leave us sprawled out on the floor; there is something more.

From the dessicate "Like Texas" to the plaintive and even more partched "King of Thirst", this music often broods along with us, but Bright Brown never fails to counter our collective agita with healthy doses of climactic major chords and high-arcing vocal choruses. Here are echoes of Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake, but with much more urgency ("I come to you seeking relief. Are you listening? Do you hear my plea?"). Alex's voice is immediate, dry and full of emotion, perfectly suited to these self-described "melodramatic pop songs." He's also become a father, and turns his imagination as the ultimate outsider to his infant son Aurel's new life, inside and outside of the womb ("...want to know what it was like inside"). These songs are about relationships, between father and child, individual and society, ("am I moving or just another roadside attraction?"), dreams and reality.

The musical relationship between Alex and Nick comes through loud and clear, and soft and sure. Smeraski knows how to hold back, and then rain down drums upon us at just the right moment. There's an unmistakable "band" tightness between the two. Sonically, Bright Brown is a classic rock trio of bass, guitar and drums. Together they know how to weave a quiet tale, but they also know how to "rock out." The "bass" and "guitar" are Alex's ironwood 10-string Stick, run through old tube amps, and sounding all burbly and warm, with chunky, overdriven leads, and a twangy tremolo that spaghetti western composer Ennio Morricone would be proud of. While the role The Stick occupies in this music is already clearly defined, many of the lines are unique to tapping and the interweaving between the hands that it brings. Sometimes painfully spare, and sometimes lush and clamorous, these are masterfully produced tracks - dynamic, engaging and full of heart.

Sample tracks and more info about Bright Brown at:
www.myspace.com/brightbrown

Matías Betti

Verdadero Fruto 2009 CD $15.

Musicians:
Matías Betti: Chapman Stick
Andrea Alvarez: Batería y percusión
Sergio Alvarez: Guitarra
Renzo Baltuzzi: Guitarra
Pablo Belmes: Cajón Peruano
Berro: Guitarra
Guillermo Cides: Stick ambients
Adrià Grandia: Zanfona
Lulo Isod: Batería

Argentine Stickist Matías Betti's Verdadero Fruto is a diverse and impressive debut Stick CD. These eleven instrumentals run the stylistic gamut from his own raucous composition "Tras los Pasos del Gigante," where he slaps and whacks his ten string Stick in time with the heavy rock drums of Andrea Alvarez, to romantic ballads, like the theme from Charles Chaplin's 1952 film "Limelight" ("Candilejas"), also composed by Chaplin. "Alfonsina Y El Mar" is a lilting waltz by Félix Luna and Ariel Ramirez, a tribute to Alfonsina Storni, the Argentine poet who ended her life by drowning herself in the sea. Matías shows a remarkable gift for getting inside the tune, telling it's story patiently, awash in the softly swelling zanfona (hurdy-gurdy) played by Adrià Grandia.

For anyone to attempt a recording of Ravel's "Bolero" in this day and age is remarkably brave, as it has been recorded so many times before. Matías offers a truly contemporary take on Stick with drums, guitar and percussion, and soaring electronically harmonized Stick melody lines. It's an engaging and fresh version of a widely popular piece of music.

Matías's Stick sound bridges the divide between acoustic and electric instruments. There is a real punch, edge and growl to the bass, and his melody is sometimes sweet and lyrical, and sometimes distorted and heavily processed. In his left-hand chord accompaniment I can clearly hear his fingers engage the strings. He seems perfectly at ease with the whole range of sounds at his fingertips, and uses them all with good effect.

Matías and his supporting cast of musicians perfectly complement each other. Most of the pieces are duos or trios with clearly conceived overdubs. The sound is deep but never cluttered. Cides contributes an ambient wash to "Floreciendo," providing an ambiguous tension against the broad major and minor tonality. Matías's own compositions are melodically often as sophisticated and memorable as those he choses to cover, especially "La Esencia", which lingers playfully in my head after each time I hear it.

Stylistically, Matías brings a clear and distinctive new voice as a composer and interpreter of his musical roots, capable of looking backwards into the music of the past and bringing it forward into the present. I wonder what the future holds for Matías?

David Tipton

Residue 2009 CD $15.

David Tipton's debut Stick CD, Residue, is a fresh take on what's becoming an established form: the solo Stickist tapping out original pieces live in the studio, without overdubs or a lot of effects processing, just the clean sound of the instrument with a touch of added ambience. My first attempt at this form was back in 1987, a cassette called Whispers. Since then we've heard unaccompanied solo releases from Bob Culbertson, Leo Gosselin, Michael Kollwitz, Larry Tuttle, Jeff Pearce, Hettory and several others. The Stick's great range and the Free Hands method's counterpoint capabilities make this an "obvious" concept for a record, much like a solo piano session. The trick is in the writing, the arranging, and the performing...in other words, it takes a lot of work to pull it off. David pulls it off beautifully.

David's songs are true originals, with subtle borrowings from traditional jazz, folk, new acoustic, and new age. His performing and arranging styles remind me of many Stick players. I hear melodic approaches like Tom Griesgraber's in these very straightforward and "hummable," tunes. Contraupuntal twists and "surprise chords" remind me of Larry Tuttle's Through the Gates. The precise interweaving of accompaniment parts and melody lines, a hallmark of Bob Culbertson's playing, is taken by David to a high level as a full-blown arrangement technique, with the relationship between the two hands very carefully mapped out and tightly integrated, and wonderfully impossible to "decipher" as well.

As much as this is a "Stick record" there are really strong echoes of solo guitarists. These dreamy, languid arpeggios and bright folky melodies sound as if Alex di Grassi and Leo Kottke had decided to take up the instrument. On this level and sonically, "Residue" is possibly the most guitar-like of all the solo Stick releases to date. David uses guitar techniques like strumming effectively (and not just to create an effect). Sometimes he plays the notes so "straight" that it could be a new keyboard instrument he has under his fingers. At other times the bending and vibrato are so pronounced you can't help thinking of slide guitar or Dobro.

Emmett likes to think of this kind of Stick playing as "having a piano in your hands, something you can take anywhere". And David uses the simplest of means to bring us his music, just his active ACTV-2 Block pickup plugged straight into a computer audio interface. The production is wonderfully balanced, with a strong, unified sound, reminiscent of an acoustic guitar (or two), but less edgy, and with all the extra range the Grand Stick allows.

The pace is relaxed, and relaxing, but never ponderous. With 14 tracks to get through, David doesn't hold onto things too long, and before you know it 52 minutes have passed. Residue will linger nicely on, or you can just hit play again like I did.