Michel, Nathan / Beast

Sonig

Few people really understand music on all its levels like Nathan Michel. He’s been working on his doctorate in music composition at Princeton, and released two brilliant glitch pop records on Tigerbeat6 to great critical success but limited exposure. The Beast is like a 10-song best friend peppered with pop-hooks - a digital and acoustic orchestra arranged into a tight pop structure. Each song has an amazing complexity and listenability. In addition to playing guitars (acoustic, electric, nylon string, and bass), bongos, computer, drum set, egg shakers, hand claps, harmonica, keyboards, leaf crunch, marimba, melodica, piano, recorder, tambourine, vibraphone, vocals, vocoder, and whistles, Michel expands and elaborates on his previous vocal work, layering his voice and harmonies, and further develops his own quirky lyricism. His music is rooted almost entirely in acoustic instruments, but all are recorded separately, edited, processed and rearranged in the computer, putting him among laptop deviants like Dat Politics and Max Tundra as well as the true masters of studio recording like Todd Rundgren, Jeff Lynne, and Brian Wilson. One is reminded of Wilson and Burt Bacharach in Michel’s intricate harmonies, dense instrumental layering, and avant-pop congeniality. The Beast should be considered the next logical step in the timeless music of humanity.  • Acoustic avant-pop virtuosity meets non-standard laptop deviations • Ph.Ds in musical composition rarely sound this good  • Tigerbeat6 releases have built loyal audience

• SHARE

  •  Twitter
  •  Stumbleupon
  •  Digg
  •  del.icio.us
  •  Facebook
  •  Mixx