Dan Smolla
"Swimming In Wind"
"Under The Rainbow"
by Johanna J. Bodde
| DAN SMOLLA "Swimming In Wind"
Self-Released www.dansmolla.com "I think I'll go walking straight down the fields of hope", a line like that comes along within two minutes of the opening track. Over a dirty blues-riff. Early Stones meet Nikki Sudden in an alt-country landscape. The multi-track vocal sounding like an awkward little choir. We've again discovered a new hero! Dan Smolla, singer-songwriter from Bloomingdale near Chicago sent us the wittiest promo-kit of all times, to start with. The white CD-carton is lettered by himself, complete with friendly Smiley, the disc comes already with a marker-penned autograph and Dan explains with much humor why this is the "limited edition" of "Swimming In Wind". The two bonus-tracks bring the total to thirteen, or close to 74 minutes of music. The roughly computer-printed picture next to the song titles needs to be turned around before you understand that Dan is standing up to his knees in a muddy river..., looks like a perfect cover. This album is not right for lovers of polished work, you just need to listen here with your warm music-heart, those technical ears switched off, as little to not much fits in, actually. But Dan has DEFINITELY that hard to define "something", just like Jolie Holland for instance. Maybe he did something with punk- or garage-rock in the past, there is energy and enthusiasm in the music, just like the Paisley Underground-scene had. Darned, he plays EVERYTHING himself! Not only acoustic and electric guitars, bass and drum machine, also saxophone, flute, some trumpet and keyboards. Every song has another feeling, the titletrack makes you think of Tom Waits, further on you hear something sounding like Van Morrison in "Shining", while "Popul Vuh" contains a hypnotizing chant: "Can you listen or are you just running like a fool". I can't resist, just another brilliant line: "They got that cheap restaurant sadness in their eyes". Rock on, Dan! --- Written by Johanna J. Bodde, Dutch original of this review previously published on Real Roots Cafe, The Netherlands ===== |
DAN SMOLLA "Under The Rainbow"
Self-Released www.dansmolla.com Dan Smolla does everything by himself: composing, writing lyrics, singing, playing a wide variety of instruments and recording all the results at home. Look at "my messy little studio" on the backcover of the CD. Dan had made up his mind to make something of this third CD he could be proud of, including the (boarded out) mastering, the quality of the disc and the looks. He succeeded in doing that, although his "Indie = cutting costs"-joke was very funny, with the Smileys on those hand-lettered covers of "Swimming In Wind". The music is also a bit more polished, the tracks are picked out with great care, as from the original demo containing nineteen try-outs only two were used in the end, thirteen other tracks were added. There aren't as many winks as on the previous album, except maybe at Beck, so we hear more of Dan's own - often multi-tracked - sound. These are complex recordings anyway, roots orientated but experimenting with jazz, psychedelic and trance at the same time. Dan has a powerful trump in his hands with his intelligent, existentialistic lyrics. There are little stories, like "Prison Letter", "Remember Me" and "The Drive", reminiscent of Earle and Springsteen, but listening to the more abstract poetry you can find your own explanation. So revel in Smolla's lines: "I met what we already said the first time with our eyes" or "By the way, in my dream you're beautiful". Wonderful to hear a person who isn't corrupt ("My soul can't be bought"), but full of hope ("We're all under the rainbow") and peace-loving ("Try not to judge each other for fortyfive seconds")! --- Written by Johanna J. Bodde, Dutch original of this review previously published on Real Roots Cafe, The Netherlands =====  |