Sometimes it just feels good to listen to the sounds of nature, the wind breathing on one's neck or the pulsating noise of silence. Instrumentalist The June Rise captures the allure of nature and the stunning orchestration of plucking guitar strings mixed with finely tuned moments. At times the tracks feel jazzy and then jump into a more classical sound; at times the pieces are electronica masked in a bed of strings and percussion. All in all, the CD Of Raging Waters echoes something extraordinary.
Of Raging Waters Challenge
The challenge of reviewing an instrumental body of work versus a CD that has vocals is that this listener often finds the instrumentalist's songs seem to run into each more often than none. (This is not to say, of course, an album with vocals cannot fall into the same scenario - it quite often does!). The June Rise (guitarist/composer Mark Yodice) has some distinct sounds in the first two tracks,"Good Lion" and "Pull The Arrow," that pummel the listener with calming, almost cool mood. "Good Lion" trickles along at first like a shy animal, only to burst into an unexpected thunder of percussion and a bizarre (in a good way) jarring sound.
What makes Of Raging Waters so easy to embrace is the consistency and the unexpectedness. For example in "30 Feet Tall" (track three) the blushing acoustic guitar opens the song with a sense of calm. Just behind the sound of the breaking guitar neck is this mellow violin that has this off-shoot murmuring 'wooooooo.' The song is the opposite of daunting; it is serene. And, just when the listener thinks they have the sound down, this strange electronic burp hops through the background. It is rather strange but one can't help but enjoy the uniqueness.
Other songs to really dive into include "Orange Pink" (organic, New Age meets jazz), "Elegia" (the guitar echo is killer) and "Montauk Summer Rain" (think sitting on the porch during a summer rain storm).
Overall CD Review is B+
Overall, Of Raging Waters is a chance most music fans should take. Even if one will just use the CD as background music for a word day; that day will be embellished by the cascading sounds. For music lovers a bit standoffish at the idea of all instrumental - imagine listening to killer guitar riff or momentous orchestration on one's favorite song for 10 straight tracks. Of Raging Waters gets a solid B+ review.
Melissa Kucirek - Melissa L. Kucirek M.A. University of Nebraska - Omaha (2004) B.A. University of Nebraska - Omaha (2001) I'm a freelance writer ...
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