Daniel
Higgs and Michael Zerang have an individual and combined sound that crosses
three genres flawlessly, thus creating an unique sound all its own while also
maintaining these fundamentals.
At
first- and at other points on this cassette- there is this guitar maestro quality
to the sound. It is a virtuoso, if you
will, as someone who is trained in the classical guitar styling. There is a decent amount of percussion mixed
in as well and I used the term concerto to describe it and I feel that third of
the picture being painted here is pretty accurate. On some levels, it reminds me of “When the
Saints Go Marching In” only perhaps without all of the marching.
The
second element you might hear come out is something less patriotic in the sense
that it is from another country. I
believe there to be some sitar in here, which gives off that Indian vibe and
even at one point gets some vocal sounds.
The pace can remain steady and become almost head-bobbing with the steel
drums providing a certain rhythm, but this is what I like to think of as the “other
continent” portion of the cassette.
With
these two already at the front you have to wonder what else might happen and
thus we enter the world of the banjo.
It’s somewhere between country and folk, but it should be noted that the
vibe tends to be closer to that of John Denver than say Kermit the Frog in the
swamp. There is a certain twang to it
and keeping with the instrumental vibe of the cassette it doesn’t sound even
remotely like any of the radio bands trying to live out the folk revival.
What I
like most about this cassette is that it is truly an exploration of
strings. The journey isn’t overdone in
the sense that they feel the need to play every string ever made (I’m pretty
sure there is no harp, violin or even electric guitar), as much as maybe
different variations of the same one.
The demonstration is also executed in such a manner that you can’t
really find fault in it no matter what their intent might be.
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