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It's 5:59 AM and I am not a morning person (*understatement*).
Nay, diehard scenester that I am, I keep the rock-star hours.
"Gee…what better time to review this 'Lay Awake',
while I am doing just that", I think crabbily to myself
…
But that was before I had a listen.
With today's horde of factory-issued posable Bratz dolls (male
and female) and pseudo-thugs with purposely misspelled monikers
roaming the musical landscape…and Shania Twain seen
blasphemously sporting her new Ramones t-shirt-'Now
that's the last straw!!'-it is very easy to feel cynical
about the current state of musical affairs.
Even Hail to the Thief, the latest release from my beloved
Radiohead (as IF ya didn't know) felt disappointingly
recycled and hum-drum…
If it was a let-down for you too, give Roomtone's Lay
Awake a try. Really. (I'm not being sacrilegious, I promise.)
Compelling and entrancing, this album immediately hooks you
into a listen-I was pleasantly surprised and amazed! It would
be considered "experimental" and "emo" and
yet is refreshingly lacking in those genres' typical traits
of pretentiousness and self-indulgence. Not background music,
this will have you keyed in and truly listening, instead
of just hearing…
Which brings me to an important *WARNING*: Do not play this
anytime you need to be focusing on something else one hundred
percent! Seriously, it is that sumptuous - every Elysian
copy of Lay Awake should be marked with a label that
says: "Do not take this aurally while driving a car or
operating heavy machinery"! It's a choice headphone listen,
too - I'm not exaggerating when I say that several times, I
suddenly became aware that I was forgetting to breathe.
Like the layers in a good Merlot-and with a similar effect
on the brain-Lay Awake is full of lush textural and tonal
depth, with nice subtle harmonies and segues. It feels familiar
and new all at once, with definite flavors of Radiohead, Pink
Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (especially in the
guitars), and the vocals in Jane's Addiction (particularly
on Track 2, "Radio" and Track 3, "Fool's Gold"),
but without Perry Farrell's sometimes gratingly straining
vocal qualities…
In other words, like Mr. Farrell if he wore looser pants while
singing instead of those "narble-huggers", to quote
my younger sister.
The lyrics are as cryptic and ethereal as anything by the Stone
Roses or DeVotchKa; yet like the aforementioned bands,
still manage to feel intensely earnest and desperately romantic.
It's blissfully melancholic without being overly morose; pop-y
morphine for a worried mind... If Roomtone were a tangible color,
I'd paint these four walls with it and surely sleep better!
As smoky and multilayered as a Rembrandt or a Godard, their
music has a nearly *visual* quality about it-the band's backgrounds
in painting and film are evident.
The songs often follow a bell curve of slowly peaking and then
winding down again, but are interspersed with jagged, intense
blasts of guitar and primal drums to keep one's heart beating
and one's mind fully present. The effect is exciting, even sexy-not
jarring. The percussion is used to particularly interesting
effect, ranging from jazz snare to East Indian hand drums and
all tones in between... even the sound of a record rotating
on a turntable, hitting a snag with every turn, is effectively
used as a beat in Track 10, "Why Should I Stay".
The album is consistently good (a rarity, no?), but standout
tracks are: "Laugh in the Dark"; "Radio";
"Captain" (imagine a watery sea chanty done Emo-style
- really), and "Let Time Stand Still", with its charming
little Japonesque exit. Unselfconsciously touching and chillingly
lovely, you may get goose bumps while listening...this album
is mesmerizing! I haven't been this enthusiastic about a debut
CD in quite a while.
Based in Los Angeles, Roomtone is Singer/songwriter Mr. Nico
Chiotellis, guitarist/keyboardist Brendan Crich,
bassist Sebastian O'Brien, and drummer Dave Mcfarland.
Lay Awake is their debut release but it feels tight,
like all the band members are old friends who get together to
passionately hone their craft, which is true: Roomtone is the
current incarnation of founding members Nico and Dave's The
Choice of Tragic Wives out of Boston.
This is notable, as "The Choice of Tragic Wives" is
from a passage of Visions of Cody, rumored to be the first
draft of Kerouac's On the Road: "Telephone
poles toothpick time, 'dotting immensity' the crazed voyageur
of the lone automobile presses forth his eager insignificance
in nose plates and licenses into the vast promises of life…the
choice of tragic wives, moons." Printed on the album's
inside cover, the quote is appropriate, as Lay Awake has
the rambling, introspective feel of a post-heartbreak road trip
peppered with blurry-yet-enticing bits of scenery glimpsed while
gliding along a coastal highway.
Lay Awake could be the sleeper of the season-if one
is lucky enough to discover it. Roomtone doesn't tour much outside
of Los Angeles (though I sure wish they did). If only more folks
knew about these four fine fellows! It's incredible that they
haven't yet been snatched up by a label. Until they are, visit
www.Roomtone.net to purchase
the CD.
When the album ends, there's that sense of sitting in a darkened
theatre as the end credits roll, thinking, "Aww…it's
over already?? WOW-that was fabulous-let's hide in here and
watch it again…"
And so I did.
To Lay Awake is an experience that should not be missed.
(Who knew?)
-- Dee Vinyl
Track Listing:
1. Laugh in the Dark
2. Radio
3. Fool's Gold
4. Forget
5. Premonitions
6. Lost Gunner
7. Lay Awake
8. Blind
9. Captain
10. Why Should I Stay
11. Let Time Stand Still
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