First Umpire – Windows
Nick Drake only released a few dozen songs and had his picture taken, maybe, four times in total. And while he never saw a penny from these recordings or pictures, you’d have to set aside a year, at least, in order to read all of the books, magazine articles and blog posts written about the artists. But is it just the song that people care about? Come on now!
First Umpire’s music contains the intensity of an artist who knows that the world, for the most part, simply doesn’t care about your problems. Not immediately, at least! Your best friend and your mom, likely, can barely tolerate your tales of woe. They would, however, buy a new bio about Nick Drake and then lie on the best listening to “River Man” while trying to decipher the tragedy of a man that they never met.
Great tragedies need to be great entertainment if they’re to have enough people caring about them. First Umpire understands this rule well and loads up the single “Windows,” not just with bucket loads of raw emotion, but enough dynamic musical tricks to keep the listener on their toes. Carefully produced and possessing a sound that resembles an Icelandic waterfall opening and closing up over your head, First Umpire writes tragedies worth caring about.
Ash Red – Control
The business involves getting people to shift from reality to the outer reaches of their imagination. This is what all art, and music, especially, is selling. Unlike news reporting, nobody cares about the exact facts. And, unlike public speaking, nobody is worrying about getting their white shirt wrinkled or striking a bizarre pose.
The musicians who are worth anything work with raw emotions. What a dangerous job to have! What a weird way to make your living by reminding people of their greatest regrets, or their very best moments and have them journey back to those! Bands like Ash Red are, virtually, psychologists willing to take grand risks for the benefit of their patients.
On “Control” Ash Rad do the hard job first. The band conjures up pictures of rough terrain and choppy seas. It’s only afterwards that the song’s lyrics ask the listener to consider what all of these mean to them specifically.
With a sound that brings to mind The Cult at its most goth-friendly, and an approach that brims with confidence, Ash Rad is a band playing for high stakes.
