Track of the week: People Will Never Stop Being Crazy by Benjamin Wesley

I saw that this guy, Benjamin Wesley, was performing a free concert at Walter's on Washington this coming Wednesday and since you never get any more for your money than when something is free I decided to check him out; maybe it's just the cheapskate in me. I saw that he had an album on iTunes called Geschichte (which basically means story, in German) and went out on a limb as I often do, after hearing a couple thirty second samples that I liked, and bought the entire six song EP (or it could be an LP, you'd have to ask Ben). Well at any rate, it definitely feels organized enough to be an LP and upon listening a few times I was very impressed.

Songs like "intro" take cold, jerky, electronic samples and inject into them new life as Wesley sings behind them in a tortured, gruff, and passionate voice. In other songs he uses what at first sounds like wonky, overly-stiff, electronic drum samples against traditional guitar driven rock but after some listening you'll realize that these samples are extremely carefully placed and are probably even more calculated than the playing of a normal drummer. He integrates tasteful, subtly placed, synths in the background of his guitar playing and dramatic drumming in most songs. The effect is a bricolage of different sounds that work together beautifully. I think the song that best illustrates this process on the album is "People Will Never Stop Being Crazy". The words sound like details from the life of a dysfunctional yet optimistic person trying to make it through the day with lyrics like "staring at the clouds not best while you're driving...but neither is that whiskey in your coffee".

The overall effect reminds me of the acts Slow Runner and Mobius Band. I'm sure most of you have never heard of those guys but they employ the same mix of traditional and electronic music that Wesley does but that's another review for another day. . .

Unfortunately, I just realized that this show was on the 24th of March and I missed it. Oh well, he's local. I'm sure I can catch him again and when I do I'll let y'all know.

Here's his myspace