VAN HUB: Babe Rainbow
Cameron Reed (aka. Babe Rainbow), is one of the most active musicians in the music scene in Vancouver. He is involved with many different projects and works with many people to bring to life amazing local festivals to Vancouver. I have special respect for the man for such dedication.
The new album is interesting. Every song is in itself a different genre. He tries to get away from the concept of sticking to a certain theme in the whole album. The only thing is that the theme is Endlessness. I love how the traditional concept of rhythm in this album is questioned from time to time. And the type of space the music produces. In Chains for instance, you may get a sense that the song is in 4/4, but the song tricks you. It plays with your perception. The spacing in the song is also quiet impressive, the pan of a ‘wow pedal esqu sound’ that starts from your right side and goes to the left while the voice is affirmatively in the center produces a great sense of space.
Bounty, written in 3/4, with drumming that have lots of echo and reverb effect, is another great song in the album. The melody is very simple. The play is on space creation and rhythm. I highly recommend this song to be listened on either really good speakers or a flat headphone. As I said, the rhythm is in 3/4 (the rhythm of the heartbeat). Trust me, it feels like your heart is beating when you listen to it. The high-pitched dissonant notes that are constantly playing in the background produce a space of horror/unknown to the ear. Definitely something to tune the ears to. Again, the space is definitely a jepy element of the album and it runs with the theme of endlessness regardless of the shift in the mood and sometime genre of the musicin the album.
Most of the songs in the album don’t have a definitive ending, which also conforms to the endlessness theme, the major theme of the album. Overall, I really like the album and think Cameron did a fantastic job.
Can’t wait to see him playing the music live on Saturday, September 17th at the Astoria
This is a very nice review of my new record.
