MUSIC
Reviews . . ....of Bring Back The Real Don Steele"One of the more unusual and intimate Los Angeles-themed albums in many a year . . . an ambivalent valentine to Los Angeles in all its slippery seismic serenity. Yet it's a Southern California album that doesn't sound like a typical regional album. This is less the rockin' Los Angeles of the Doors, X and Red Hot Chili Peppers than the city of understated intimacies and fractured realities heard between the grooves of Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle, Tom Waits' Nighthawks at the Diner, Randy Newman's non-"I Love L.A." L.A. material, and in the Negro Problem albums helmed by Smolin's longtime mono-monikered friend and sometime producer, Stew . . The delicious grooves . . . the strong melodies, heady lyrics and seat-of-the-pants performances suggest Steely Dan on a Grateful Dead binge." --Richard Gehr, L.A. Weekly "I don't know what he's smoking but I'd be happy to buy him a pack. Singing from the folk side of the fence, Mr. Smolin is a joyous companion to the voices in your head." Ron English, Lost At E Minor ...of The Crumbling Empire Of White People"The Crumbling Empire Of White People by Mr. Smolin is a work of pop genius."--Simon Lewis, Terrascope "Barry Smolin has a knack for writing earnest-sounding songs that, in fact, are small subversive masterpieces. Not unlike the work of his producer, Stew, the words in these songs mean a lot more than what they say. Stew helps to keep a light feel to things, which makes the darker import of some of these songs that much more cutting. Cool stuff."--Jon Worley, Aiding & Abetting "Well as if the album's amazingly provocative name wasn't enough, once you dive into the genius poetry of Mr. Smolin's latest you'll be totally blown away . . . Following up on the tremendous 'At Apogee', which I personally totally adored, Mr. Smolin has somehow captured off-Broadway magic and ingenious writing all at once. Illuminating tales from this host of a psychedelic radio show in Southern California have easily placed him among the finest in the underground art-pop scene."--J-Sin, Smother.net "a sense of whimsy mixed with biting wit . . . If you like your postmodern juxtapositions served with liberal doses of humor, Mr. Smolin is your man." -Christian Carey, The Daily Copper Crumbling Empire sounds very much like the sort of album Thomas Pynchon (or someone who's read him very carefully) might create . . . Produced (exquisitely) by Stew, Smolin . . . mixes cosmic conundrums with grassroots grievance. It's not for everyone, nor would he want it to be.--Richard Gehr, Music For Grownups ...of At Apogee"I think [Smolin has] invented psychedelic cabaret music. What impresses me most is how little it sounds like anything else. There's mainly a heap o' pure Smolinesque personality pulsing through. And what more does one want from an album?" -Richard Gehr, Village Voice "What an album! Great melodies, gorgeous lush arrangements, hooky tunes you can't get out of your head, and very appealing warm psychedelicized production punctuated with super-hip horns and touches by Stew, who is a genius on his own records . . . and the lyrics are geeky transcendental poetry . . . A marvelous, weird, brilliant album." -Steve Silberman, Wired Magazine "When the word 'genius' is thrown around, names like Brian Wilson, Randy Newman, and Harry Nilsson come to mind . . . I would like to include [Mr. Smolin] in that heady company. Sometimes a CD comes along that defies categorization; Mr. Smolin's debut album, At Apogee, is one such album. This lush, slightly psychedelic, slightly symphonic work is . . . an ultra-melodic melting pot of Tin Pan Alley sophistication, Broadway show tunes, and eccentric singer/songwriters both old (the aforementioned Newman and Gilbert O'Sullivan) and new (Rufus Wainwright and Beck) that sounds familiar and completely new at the same time. The thing that went through my mind while listening to this album is how much it reminds me of the great records of the early 70's--like Nilsson Schmilsson and the Beach Boys' Surf's Up--records that were so well written, produced and performed that they will never sound dated. At Apogee is a hell of a debut album, and Mr. Smolin is an artist that means business and is here to stay." -Gina Morris, E.O.M. "[Smolin] might be best described as a modern psychedelic minimalist with a poet's bent . . . With Stew of The Negro Problem as producer, At Apogee finds a nice musical foil for Smolin's wandering mind. Never intruding, the musical backdrop is nonetheless strong with wah-wah guitars, piano and horn sections providing calculated embellishment at the right moments. It's a winning equation of intellect and instrumentation . . . a surprising and assured debut." --Ray Hogan, Jambands.com " . . . melodically complex but invariably accessible, with enough hooks to outfit a fishing fleet, tap-your-toe beats and singalong choruses aplenty . . . This is a repeat button special, with each song revealing new secrets and joys as you listen again and again. With At Apogee, Barry Smolin kicks off his recording career at an appropriately high point." -Shaun Dale, Cosmik Debris "Mr. Smolin delivers a delicious psychologicadelic journey through chamber pop, Appalachian afrobeat, spooky Sondheim-meets-Mahler-Gilmour-and-Waters dirges, Byrds/Beatles summertime jangles, quasi-Broadway Bowie crooning, acid tinged r&b slow jams and other genre-blending subspecies... all wrapped fastidiously in a lexicon of asymmetrical puns, heartfelt monologues, James Joyce meets Robert Hunter wordplay, and tricky multi-layered narrative imagery. I would recommend it to anyone who has a hard time answering the question 'What kind of music do you listen to?'"-Craig Judkins, Jambase "This is lounge music for the psychedelic generation. Lyrically it's absolute genius, and when you combine that with the help of Stew, [Smolin] has produced a pop gem that's well off the beaten path. Perhaps in the vein of They Might Be Giants or maybe even David Byrne's non-Latin-based music, At Apogee will even take The Beatles for a run at the money with tunes like 'Angels.' You'll be pinching your arm, for surely you're dreaming: music can't be this good, or can it?"--J-sin, Smother.net "Great lyrics . . . Piano based orchestration with a singer who sounds like '70s pop. He leads us on some bizarre adventures with great characters. From getting his ass kicked by angels, to the inner psyche of Casper the young ghost who doesn't yet know he's a ghost . . . The super chill melodies are sometimes spooky, sometimes funny, but always very good." -(H)ear!, The SleepyHouse Records newsletter "Mr. Smolin is a brilliant lyricist and an artful musician. Reading some great poetry is reason enough to check out the liner notes of his debut album At Apogee. Something new catches the listener's attention with each replay. On tracks such as 'Angels' and 'Casper,' Mr. Smolin humanizes our fears. He wants us to expect the unexpected, or simply cast all expectations aside, when dealing with the unknown. In 'Dad is Dead,' Mr. Smolin explores the concept of death and fills the song with poetic statements on loss. 'The Rodeo' sounds like a hoedown of cowboys stuck on an island full of natives with a jazz musician watching from high in a palm tree. Yeah, it is pretty weird stuff. Still, aspiring songwriters might find At Apogee to be a key to unlocking their creativity."--Eva Dameron, The Daily Lobo "The songs seem to emerge out of nowhere, flow together like a song cycle, and resonate more and more with each repeated listen. The vocals sound unaffected, the melodies haunt, and the lyrics are laced with existentialism, juxtaposition, allusion, and metaphor. The arrangements are spellbinding. Barry's 'everyman' style lead vocals on At Apogee are part of what makes this recording so special & contrast nicely with the more sophisticated subject matter and arrangements. Mr. Smolin has created a musical masterpiece that should provoke & challenge all those who aspire to express themselves via pop music."--Dave Beringer, CD Baby Review "Something different . . . something great! . . . It's spacy, a bit psychedelic, more than impressive as a debut album given the sophistication and his arresting melodies and lush arrangements. Want something different? This is it!"-Tony Mastrianni, The Reidsville Review "Bravo! Shockingly Good! Each piece is different, yet the whole hangs together like connected parts . . . Great poignant and heartfelt words, though the farthest thing from maudlin . . . An absolute and utter lack of irony, which is this century's (and generation's) great cancerous blighted plague upon the human spirit . . . Great attuned backing tracks as well. Again, I say BRAVO!" -Joe Gallant, Black Mirror |