{"id":21,"date":"2009-08-05T12:55:19","date_gmt":"2009-08-05T17:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=21"},"modified":"2009-08-05T12:55:19","modified_gmt":"2009-08-05T17:55:19","slug":"album-review-dennis-diken-with-bell-sound-late-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2009\/08\/05\/album-review-dennis-diken-with-bell-sound-late-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Dennis Diken with Bell Sound – Late Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good music is always more than the sum of its parts. Let’s say you’re interested in making a pop record. And by pop, here I mean pop in its classic sixties sense (hell, I mean most things in their classic sixties sense, but stay with me here). Let\u2019s say, too, that you have enough cred in the biz that you own a Rolodex full of some of the genre’s finest artists.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>You phone up powerpop wunderkind Jason Falkner<\/strong> and ask him if he doesn’t mind laying down some lead guitar on one track, some bass on another. You contact the guys in the Wondermints<\/strong>–a great group on their own, but perhaps best known now as Brian Wilson<\/strong>‘s backing group for his triumphant Pet Sounds Live<\/em> and SMiLE<\/em> projects–and solicit their playing talents on several tracks. And since you’ve got Brian Wilson on the brain, you reach out to Andy Paley<\/strong>, producer of Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>‘s first solo LP (and of another unreleased Brian Wilson project) for his talents on vocals and a wide assortment of instrumentation. And then you push the Beach Boys<\/strong>\/Wilson concept even further: you get in touch with The Honeys<\/strong>, the Wilson-produced vocal trio that includes Brian’s first wife Marilyn (mom to Wendy and Carnie of Wilson Phillips<\/strong>, but there I go digressing again). And since you’re a such fan of sixties pop culture, you enlist the help of Andrew Sandoval<\/strong>, famed producer of reissue projects and author of a charming book about The Monkees<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Dennis<\/o:p>OK, so does all that guarantee you a quality product? Certainly not.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>But if you\u2019re Dennis Diken<\/strong>, drummer for the Smithereens<\/strong>, session drummer and noted pop culture author and expert, you add your own talents to the sonic stew, and you collaborate most closely with another multi-instrumentalist, Pete DiBella<\/strong>, on production, arrangement and songwriting. In fact, it’s that last item–songwriting–where you put the most effort. You write a clutch of original songs that evoke the spirit of pop and rock acts that tastemakers revere. Sure, the most obvious touchstone is there: mid-sixties<\/st1:placename> Beach<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> Boys. How could it not be, with all those people on board? Well, if the songs weren\u2019t up to snuff, no amount of poured-on talent could save them.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>But there are plenty of other sonic nods on Late Music<\/em>, the first album credited to Dennis Diken with Bell Sound. It doesn’t require an advanced degree in sixties musicology to hear strong echoes of the Who<\/strong>, the Move<\/strong>, and other punchy British acts throughout Late Music<\/em>‘s baker’s dozen of tunes. Strong, chiming guitar-driven tunes with clever little musical turns populate this disc.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>The leadoff track “The Sun’s Gonna Shine in the Morning” throws elements of “I Can See for Miles” and “(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone” into a blender and whips up a frothy new concoction guaranteed to please fans of any of the acts mentioned herein. \u201cStanding in Line\u201d turns out the unmistakable Beach Boys vibe, but since it’s the mid-period BB vibe–with its emphasis on wall-of-sound instrumentation–all is well. \u201cLong Lonely Ride\u201d evokes the Who again, and shows Diken\u2019s penchant for inside jokes: the pilled-up piano mixed into the track sounds right out of the Who\u2019s early sessions with Shel Talmy<\/strong> at the desk.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>And the album maintains that level of quality throughout. Diken and his collaborators manage the tricky feat of making music that feels timeless: though there\u2019s the clear debt to rock\u2019s lineage, the songs have a modern feel to them; this is most true on \u201cI\u2019ve Been Away,\u201d but it\u2019s true of many of the album\u2019s tracks. Even the dated-sounding ones (like the delicate, unadorned \u201cLost Bird\u201d, which sounds like an unused Pet Sounds<\/em> demo) are a delight. And the complex creation that is \u201cThe Bad Merry-Go-Round\u201d sounds like a lost cousin to Sgt. Pepper\u2019s<\/em> \u201cBeing for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.\u201d And there’s a pleasingly odd sound on “Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long” that sounds like a clavioline (see “Baby You’re a Rich Man” or “Telstar”), but isn’t.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>A near-perfect blend of sweet and strong, Late Music<\/em> is a tasty treat indeed. Catchy songs filled with hooks for most people (and subtle musical references for we obsessives) come together to create a supremely enjoyable album. And of course Diken’s drumming is top-notch throughout, giving the pop songs a good kick in the ass all the way through.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>As original as a project informed by these sensibilities could possibly be, Late Music<\/em> by Dennis Diken with Bell Sound deserves a wide hearing. Here’s hoping the disc’s success convinces Diken to continue down this musically fruitful path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good music is always more than the sum of its parts. Let’s say you’re interested in making a pop record. And by pop, here I mean pop in its classic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}