Featured: Babe Lewis authenticity that cuts through the bullshit
I stumbled across Babe Lewis whilst mining Submit Hub for some free premium credits using their Hot or Not feature. Hot or Not works by asking it's most wallet shy artist users to instil a Zen-like calm whilst they give "feedback" (of 10 words or more) to a succession of the most bland, insipid, cookie-cutter turds-rolled-in-glitter possible, without threatening, abusing, ridiculing them or offering any remotely useful advice. Sometimes, there isn't even any glitter. For this "service" (Yes, Submithub actually charges premium credits for this as well!) you are rewarded with a single premium credit per 20 tracks to use for submitting your music to be sneered at by curators. (Yes, this is the depressing reality for indie musicians).
Once in a while, you can also be rewarded with an actual music discovery. Ironically, in this case it was perhaps the least technical and worst produced track of that session that stood out an absolute mile over all the glossier, more lacquered turds of normal. Babe Lewis was asking for some feedback about his "Cassette Sketch" track Origami Man. It was quietly recorded, there was lots of background noise, the vocal was basically being whispered out, but there was a hell of a lot of what really matters... talent and charm. This track was a handful of glitter being presented buried in a turd, and the glitter still managed to cut through shining.
The guitar riff was super simple, catchy and effective, the composition was brilliant - authentic, sincere and relatable without trying to be anything clever. Whilst it would be great to hear this as a finished production, there is enough charm in this simple demo version to stand-up on it's own because of the under-lying charm and I was duly impressed enough to go and leave the only feedback that you can actually bank - hitting up the artist profiles, following, saving the song and having a root around his discography.
The Cassette Sketch demos were there as a nice little EP release, and there were also some finished tracks to get my teeth into, and they totally lived up to, in fact well-exceeded the expectation set by the demos. It does prove that authenticity and sincerity are the most reliable indicators of the value of a music artist - even when they are presented to you scraped off the bottom of someone's shoe.
Butterfly is a masterful blend of laid back indietronica backing, simple acoustic songs, simple beats and killer melody. There are hints of sixties folk music in the song-writing, there are lots of nineties lo-fi references in how the tracks are produced and presented - Granddady, Beck and Mercury Rev came to my mind.
Transitions adds some more interesting instruments to the recipe - some subtle distorted guitar licks, some keys, some pads/synths and the track builds from whisper cool to soaring epic in under three and a half minutes.
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