The Breakdown
Naomi Yanos is a Harlem-native experimental alternative artist and “Rock in the Forest” is their third EP is entirely self produced and combines rock band instrumentation with ambient soundscapes, dissonant cello, and melodic vocal layering. Each song deals with dissociation and the high price of trying to always be in control.
‘Roll Over’ is the first track and also the track where you realise you may just have found your new favourite artist. Joining many a bluesy female vocal powerhouse Naomi Yanos brings a delicate almost fragile vocal at times that hide some serious power. Just wait till she lets loose and you will be lost to her power. A power that is light as a feather but hits like a ton of bricks. The music is minimalist in places with everything where it should be and nothing extra.
‘Look Alive’ comes with jazzy piano and vocal gymnastics, the only co-writen track with jazz pianist Lucas Scott. Great use of stereo as Yanos flies all over. You need to hear great freestyle vocals then listen to this. The rock returns with ‘Phoenix’. Luckily, the vocal acrobatics remain. Check the production on this track out, with vocals that take over. The guitars go as wild as Yanos goes, digging right into her boots for some powerhouse displays.
Slow lounge rock style blended with some stringed folk ‘September’, written while Yanos couldn’t sing for ten months while they had a vocal polyp surgically removed. The loose playing works so well here, and when Yanos steps aside and lets the guitar drop some acid freak-out solo, the track is a sealed deal as a winner.
‘Smooth Like A Rock’ finishes us off with intimate vocals, seriously so well recorded and engineered. This is one of the best-sounding albums and a treat for audiophiles out there with a proper system. The music stops and starts as Yanos wails some bluesy heartache on top.
The album is all about those vocals. So well controlled until they are not, and then the tracks blow up Yanos sounds amazing. There is some serious imagination going on with the way the tracks are presented. The use of stereo, multiple overdubbed vocals, and simple yet brilliant music make for a wonderfully varied musical journey that is sadly too short.
Check out the track Roll over, below:
Find out more via Yanos’s Website or Facebook
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