Welcome to the town of Big Pleasant! He is an artist from Catskill, New York. As far as I can tell, this is the artist’s debut album. Consisting of fourteen tracks/songs, accompanied by a cute footnote: “This album would not be possible without the diligent efforts of the techno wizards who make digital instruments.”
Being a musician and a music producer myself, sometimes I forget how grateful Indeed we should be, as usually we take all this AWESOME technology for granted, personally, even when I have just finished a massive orchestral track in my small studio.
But this is not to say that this album is electronic; on the contrary, this is the sound of an indie band with shoegazy elements.
Actually my first impressions were that this is somewhere between Bob Dylan (mainly because of the vocal style), R.E.M (I am old, I know, but it does sound like them), but also The Smiths and even some Nirvana/The Smashing Pumpkins moments when it gets a bit grungier, like in ‘Daniel saw an angel’ which also reminds me of early Muse.
This album is definitely diverse enough for my taste (I have listened to tons of albums of 14 and 15 tracks where I genuinely end up believing that some songs are just doubled up, and that perhaps the album could just be 8 tracks long) and very well balanced!
For every “ballad”, semi-acoustic or folky moment, there is a heavier or fuller-sounding and more upbeat song to bring equilibrium, and that makes the album very enjoyable. Also, there is no “a-side, b-side” feel to this release, as the songs are very well distributed and track-listed.
The guitars and the vocals are the main elements here. The “band” is there to accompany the main ideas, as well as all the synth elements. That is not to say that the electronic parts in the arrangements are basically “furniture”. On the contrary, they are very strategically used to provide texture, atmosphere, and soundscapes, as well as add to the overall emotional substance of the album.
I loved that, because this way the guitars didn’t have to be very much on the shoegaze side (even though a fair amount of reverbs and delays have been used here!), but they can stick to being guitars and work in unison perfectly with all the synth sounds that are used.
There is mention of a Shane Stanton, in a very Tim Burtonesque way which you can read on bandcamp (and you should!), and as I did some digging and found someone who is a producer and looks very much like the person in the artist page, I am assuming that is the mastermind behind the Big Pleasant concept and project, as the album was written, mixed and mastered by Big Pleasant.
If I am wrong, then blame the interdimensional and probably benevolent beings from big pleasant!
Written by Spiros Maus
