"[Adam] paints portraits of drama and high tension with his art rock that is part apartment indie and part Americana honest - each tune is as genuine as the last and nothing seems forced.." - J-Sin of Smother.net

11 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Americana, FOLK: Alternative Folk



Details:
"Wow. Ok, I need to preface this review by saying that I've shuttled this demo CD-R of 11 tracks by Adam Bianchi in and out of my CD player for what must be about 2 months now. I listened to it again today and finally decided I was ready to talk about it. See, I need to explain something about how reviewing goes for me. You'd all think that I would be eagerly penning the requisite fawning quips only about the received albums that I really liked. In fact, it's often MORE difficult for me to write about things I really, really like. It's actually ten times easier to dismiss something that doesn't sound good. Almost like I'm afraid I'll jinx it or write gobbledygook mush about it. Score one for peculiarities I guess.
This "fear of reviewing" goes doubly so for really good CD-R demos. I don't know why. In any case, Adam's demo CD is just amazing. It just blows my mind that this isn't released out on CD already somewhere. These are pensive and haunting little folk tunes, compact storytelling at its best. I wouldn't even call them demos really; the songs on the album are sequenced in such a way that it feels so natural. You can tell he thought about the directions in which he wanted the progression of the work to flow. The musical bookends of this document are the orchestra string beginning "Intro" and the reverb drenched harmonica of "Guitar Harmonica". And within these pages you find hints of Badly Drawn Boy, Wilco, Bill Ricchini, and perhaps another great semi-unknown folk artist, James Mason. (Mason's "Carnival Sky" was one of the best folk albums we got here in 2003.)
"People Blues" starts out with a sad piano repetition and a plaintive voice leads along like a lonely drive through the countryside. The graceful addition and subtraction of instrument layers is meticulous and skillful. "Silent Streets" plays out slightly more country-folkish while "Midnight Moon", with it's playful bongos and 60s flavored tinge harkens back to Nick Drake's more uptempo stuff, like from Bryter Layter. "Dead Star" mixes up the formula with strange modulated drumbeats backing a single piano riff played over and over again. There's a depth of presence here that's often missing from other demo stuff I've gotten. "Waiting At The Station" is so tender with it's soft chorused vocals and gently fingerpicked acoustic guitar that you can almost picture the immense sadness of the guy in the song who finds out the girl was waiting for someone else. "Life On The Moon" sort of reminds me of the Beatles' "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" if you replaced the french horn with harmonica. "I Hear Your Name" is deceptive in the simplicity of its structure with quiet strings hovering in the background. Like the majority of the album, this is such a great subtle and understated song.
When I looked on the internet there was absolutely no information on this guy. I hope that will change. Look, I know that in this day and age we're all jaded about music, so blanket proclamations like this often fall on deaf ears. Like, everyone has a damn 4-track, everyone has Protools, everyone uses Shure 57 mics (or better condenser ones) and everyone has the ability to burn CDs of their work. There's nothing amazing that someone made a great demo and no one knows about it. But I can't help but wax poetic when my ears tell me something really good is afoot and I hope that we hear more from Adam Bianchi and home recordists like him."

- BY of Shmat.com