Bryan Mangieri
Seahorse Blues (CD-R)
 Another interesting disc from Oklahoma. The Shmat may just have to make a trip out there one of these days to see just what's going on in the panhandle state. Maybe it's something in the water. Also, having grandeur delusions and thinking you are a prophet or the King of Judah (or something, as indicated on his press sheet) apparently puts no damper on creating lo-fi indie music as Bryan Mangieri has so ably demonstrated here. Seahorse Blues is 12 songs of slowish to midtempo folk songs featuring mostly voice and guitar. Certain songs like "So-called Suicide" contain distorted guitar and "For The Kids" and "One-Sided" seem to have some sort of violin or strings on them but for the most part the formula stays the same. Although the Shmat is no stranger to "slightly tune challenged" vocals, there are a few times when it became difficult to listen to. He thinks it's especially because in this type of music the vocals are the focal point and extremely prominent in the mix... so there's not much else to focus on.
Just how off are the vocals? Well, imagine mr. king of out of tune Bob Dylan, then imagine Lou Reed and Jad Fair singing duets really high, then imagine The Shaggs doing Bright Eyes covers. That's an extreme approximation but you get the picture. The singing isn't really monotonic though, he's making a great effort to convey himself emotionally which gets props, but many of the songs do blend together. After about the sixth song, the Shmat was ready for something else. But the Shmat liked "Sparrow's Voice & White Noise", "Fairweather Friend", "For The Kids" and "In My Sleep". There are many good tracks on here but maybe there needs to be some sort of selective editing in the next album, or at least a little changeup in the structures of the songs so that they are more distinct from each other. Fairly promising stuff though.
- review by SHMAT (2.10.04)
Bryan Mangieri
sonichole@aol.com
www.nextdoormusic.net/bryan
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