Evanescent by Gary Rees

Evanescent is an instant classic in Gary Rees' ever expanding body of work. Rees raises the bar previously set by last year's excellent 'Southwest Passage' LP in terms of ambition, musicianship and general likeability. Every track on this record is tight, well constructed and charming. Charming to the extent that the listener will constantly be able to feel how much fun Rees was having constructing these compositions, spinning the notes floating around his head into gold.

****************
INTERVIEW
****************
George Ernst: Why are you so good? This is already my favourite record of the year.

Gary Rees: That's quite a nice thing to say, so thanks for that. There are really so many good artists bringing out music with Triplicate Records. I predict it won't be long before you have a number of favorites in 2022.

GE: Have Reese's Pieces been in touch about a sponsorship given that your surname is almost the same as their candy?

GR: Not as yet.

GE: Is solitude really so sweet?

GR: It's all relative, no? I walked away from Twitter and SoundCloud last year because I found, again, that I just couldn't adapt successfully to social media. (I left Facebook in 2010.) Solitude is much less complicated.

GE: What was the creative progress like this time around? Did you have a definite vision for the sequence and theming right from the start? Were a lot of tracks rejected?

GR: I wasn't working to a theme or vision while writing the tracks. But there are definitely some musical elements that resonate through this collection. And the album and track titles fit an overall theme. I generally have 20 or 30 pieces in progress at any time. I picked 10 songs for Evanescent but left many more than that on the drawing board. This is my sixth release and it feels to me like my most coherent offering to date.

GE: Would you consider changing your name to 'Gary Bees', and putting out some kind of pollination-themed project?

GR: There's a track called Pollinator on my debut album, ?! (aka Interrobang). I think it's safe to say "mission accomplished" on this one.

GE: I can't let you go without having you explain the title of the final track 'Something Tells Me I Better Deactivate My Prayer Capsule'

GR: This is a lyric from the epic 1972 Genesis song, Supper's Ready. For Evanescent I've changed Peter Gabriel's "activate" to "deactivate". The track title means whatever you think it means. Thus is art. Or so my wife, the visual artist, likes to tell me.

****************
REVIEW
****************

Gary Rees immediately informs you that he's not screwing around on his new Evanescent LP by opening with the sassiest, murkiest and punch-you-in-the-schnozziest beat in his roster. Pouring out through the speakers in shades of techno and funk and the trademark Reesian magic. There's an instant sense of immediacy, similar to the stellar opening track from last year's excellent Triplicate Records debut 'Southwest Passage'.

His music never fails to hit the pleasure centre of the brain. Rees tells simple, relatable aural tales, but does so with gusto and a fabulous knack for musicianship and clever and concise composition. A prime example would be the title track; one of the shorter numbers found on the record, but fit to burst with exotic and ever-morphing arpeggios, giving the tune an instant classical air. Marginalia achieves a similar effect with its opening high octave synthetic flutey stabs setting the stage for gorgeous piano-work. Then Rees flips your classical preconceptions on their head, and mixes everything up with a skittering post-modern beat. The result is simultaneously beautiful, and a little unnervingly claustrophobic, especially when you listen closely and start to feel like the track is actually breathing.

'Palimpsest' initially ups the ethereal factor cultivated on the previous two tracks with its Arabian Nights swells and moody string section, marrying them with punchy percussion and a fun bouncy synth line. Elsewhere, 'Free Fall' sounds like something's being lamented in the piano motif and slower, trudging beat. It feels as though someone turned up the artificial gravity, or the hangover from the giddiness of the earlier tunes has started to materialize. That's not to say it isn't an enjoyable listen. Far from it. Its just that here you're sipping on fine wine rather than coffee.

The first track on the second side, 'Dust to Dust' brims with unsettling energy right from the off. There really isn't a lot of room for levity with a funereal title like that, though the track never languishes in despair. The strangeness is fresh and lively, especially around the midpoint, where the bare-bones Twin Peaks-esque percussion gives way to proud rising swells and a tastefully danceable jazzy drum kit. 'Jaded' continues the album's darker streak with haunting graveyard bells and liberally scattered Earthbound-ish detuned samples laid against some fun and funky percussive passages and Sega Genesis-reminiscent melodies.

'Sweet Solitude', the longest track on the record, clocking in at just over four minutes is a fitting standard-bearer for the overall listening experience, and indeed Mr. Rees' overall body of work. It features everything that we appreciate about his music. The laid-back beat; the blissed out synthwork; the occasional throb of foreboding; it's all here, and it's all added together tightly and precisely to make one of his finest musical moments yet.

It's perfectly complimented by the brief, strange and longing 'Dematerialize' track, which segues into the bizarrely titled 'Something Tells Me I Better Deactivate My Prayer Capsule' (never has a tune sounded so much like it's name). Both tunes last no longer than a couple of minutes, but they do a stellar job at tying things together. They achieve the effect of ending on a weird note, rather than one of forced grandiosity or pomposity; Gary Rees has made a fantastic and compelling record to be enjoyed, not pondered over for hidden meaning. It's a straightforward project that delivers on expectations raised from the last one, and then some.

Rees' skill is always evident; go listen to Southwest Passage, or any of his aural oeuvre and you'll hear that. What's utterly charming here though is the unmistakable sense you get that he's having fun with these compositions, and that must surely be the key to spinning the notes floating around his head into gold.

George Ernst
Triplicate Records

Evanescent, a Bandcamp New and Notable album, now available at Name Your Price. Click on my banner to open my label releases.