"'Sun Song & Toy Tunes' is an experience you will not likely forget..."
The time traveling folk fusion hallucinations of "Woodpecker", by Phoenix- Arizona based Avant-American guitarist Alex Oliverio (and his collaborators), and from his experimental album "Sun Song & Toy Tunes", is an inspired sonic dive, an instrumental dip into Oliverio's psyche and your own. As I write this long overdone review that was literally supposed to come out years ago I realize that Oliverio's creations, songwriting on "Sun Song & Toy Tunes" is so trippy and unique as if to feel sort of genre agnostic. Let's just say that the musical tropicalia here, that in Oliverio's words, is supposed to "realize the 'imaginational anthems' that early American Guitar & Banjo stylings evoke", and as composed by Oliverio himself, feel so surprising and diverse that while folk or Americana roots music starts off as the initial jumping off point, the realized songs are anything but. They all feel like adventures into the unknown and incorporate art rock, broad pop type orchestrations, baroque pop and rock and even rather feral versions of gypsy punk, ambient rock and more all floating through experimental filters. Whether Oliverio employed improvisational aesthetics or firmly structured writing sessions, the feeling is freeform and utterly unhinged in the best possible way.
The vastness of "Woodpecker" is apparent from the first downbeat. The crystalline guitar sounds seem to daydream as tightly would drums and ultra active winding upright bass notes descend, a mix of jazz fusion against sounds that at times feel Asian and bluegrass at the very same time (seriously, not kidding) and that is before it transcends into a boisterous lead guitar church stomp meets gypsy punk passage. I can only imagine seeing this played live with my eyes bouncing from player to player which would be an undertaking as Oliverio, on the album plays a multi-tude of instruments from guitars, banjos, bass, synths and percussion. "Woodpecker" finishes with an outro that has you believing you are riding the rails in prior times.
Whether you are slow soul shuffling to the Tex Mex meets R&B "Verde" with the sultry tenor sax or shimming down shiny we Harlem streets on the raucous intricate progressive jam of "Yonder" or sauntering lazily through stately cavernous vintage store in rural Georgia via the sounds of "Cottontail" or staring at sunsets on the Ohio River in Louisiana having your imagination turned inside out and upside down on "Clear West" and back upright or the joyful shape and time signature shifting "Sunshine at my Backdoor", "Sun Song & Toy Tunes" is an experience you will not likely forget. If it were a film, it would most surely be co-directed by Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson and David Robert Mitchell.
HOPE you check out "Woodpecker" and maybe even listen to it within the context of dipping into the entire experimental album which was mixed and mastered by the amazing John Dieterich (Deerhoof).
-Robb Donker Curtius
LINER NOTES (bracketed):
[Sun Song & Toy Tunes is an attempt to realize the “imaginational anthems” that early American Guitar & Banjo stylings evoke. Each song was written for solo guitar or banjo, then orchestrated with a modern ensemble in mind. That ensemble includes acoustic/electric guitars, banjos, pedal steel, synthesizers, keyboards, horns, and drum set all glued together by modern production.
credits
released November 25, 2023
Alex Oliverio - guitars, banjos, bass, synths, percussion, composition
Neil Welch - tenor saxophone (tracks 3,6,8,9,)
Matt Williams - rhodes (track 5)
Bailey Zick - upright bass, pedal steel
Jonathan Starks - drums, percussion
Sam Yontz - engineering, production, guitars/synths, composition
John Dieterich - mixing, mastering
license
all rights reserved]
+ + +
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
Alex Oliverio is an Avant-American Guitarist from Phoenix, AZ. His playing can be found on a wide variety of records, from Folk to Pop to Improvised Music and everywhere in-between.
Alex Oliverio, Alex Oliverio's Sunshine Ensemble, roots music, experimental music, folk fusion, alt rock, indie rock, baroque pop, orchestrated music, Arizona, "Woodpecker", instrumental album "Sun Song & Toy Tunes",
No comments:
Post a Comment