myspace musc monday: After the Ground and You

If you are able to recall several weeks ago, I wrote about a young man by the name of Nick McKerl whose music showed promise, but was still lacking severely. Well, Nick has been kind enough to keep in contact with Audio Overflow, and has introduced me to some new music that he's created.

After the Ground and You

Genre: Electro/Lounge
Location: Ile-de-France, France
Band Members: Nick
Influences: Phasmophobia and Scotomaphobia

The Short of It: Instrumental, electronic music that can be both soothing and invigorating.

Songs
"Jumping Ghost Runways" - A very relaxing electro song that mixes glitch production with very rich guitars and other instrumentation. There are smatterings of Jimmy Tamborello all over the place on this one and Nick mixes things up consistently to where the song never gets too boring or repetitive.

"Mercury Fields" - This one sounds like something that Chris Walla could've worked up had be been chosen to produce a Sigur Ros album. The guitars are especially reminiscent of the band's sound from the "( )" record. There is a moment at about the 3:30 mark where the melody comes back in from a haunting piano "solo" where I felt that it would've just been best to leave it as is. But it's still an impressive number.

"Curtain Call" (Sample) - As the name would suggest, this is just a short sample of a longer song (perhaps it's not finished yet?). So far things are looking good, but I'm not making a definitive judgment until I can hear the entire thing.

"A Copper Film" - Again very reminiscent of Sigur Ros, this one sounds a lot like Song No. 3 from th "( )" album, especially the pianos. It's a short, solemn song that doesn't really go anywhere, but the musicality of it is enough to make me somewhat appreciative of it.

"For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti" - I can't honestly give this one an unbiased opinion seeing as how Sufjan Stevens is one of my favorite artists, and this is one of his best songs. The cover doesn't come anywhere close to doing the original justice, but do they ever?

"Olson Read" - There's a really annoying vocal track that talks over the entire song, which is a huge disappointment. The production and music is actually very impressive, but I can't think of a song where a person talks through its entirety that I've ever been totally into.

The Long of It: Nick, I'm sorry to say that I enjoy your music a whole lot more when you're not singing. That's not a mean-spirited comment either, just an honest one. Your work in composing all of these songs proves your talent and leaves me entirely impressed. If you want my honest opinion, I'd focus on this aspect of your work and really aim to make it better than it already is. If you do need to add vocals (some songs just need vocals, you know?), don't let them overpower the music. Let them be complementary and subtle. Good luck to you in your musical endeavors and keep me, and the Audio Overflow readers, posted on your new stuff.

Links:
After the Ground and You myspace Page