Nostalgia – Ben Eastman (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

There is a wonderful twist to the way that Ben Eastman makes music, actually, and, taken together, it is these elements that not only make him stand out from the pack but also enable him to create a unique, signature sound that always makes me wonder why we haven’t heard more artists plough such a sonic furrow. A certain amount of his music is clearly drawn from the rock realms, but it is what he threads through this familiar form that creates the Ben Eastman sound.

For a start, like Badlands before it, Nostalgia is made up only of instrumental tracks, but this album is more than rock music without the lyrics. The music is truly cinematic, something that owes itself, no doubt, to his work in those mediums and uses the music’s dynamic, connective and aesthetic qualities to paint scenes and scenarios, rather than anything as drab as merely spelling out the story in words. How mundane would that be?

Instead, he threads all manner of music through this guitar-driven sound to create a voice. Ebbs and flows of intriguing electronica, touches of classical grace, epic blasts of guitar-driven grandeur, occasional dance grooves, deep dives into synth-pop infusions and even some funky vibes all create the narrative in place of more direct communication.

And if the opener, Stranger Times, is a brooding pop-rock piece, there are tracks such as Swift Kick which explore more electronic climes; the gently funky title track, which indulges in some cinematic eighties soundscaping and the muscular moodiness of Bodied, which helps showcase the wide-spectrum Ben can create along.

As with all his music, there is a sense that he has written a soundtrack that is looking for a film. But it works on so many other levels too. It is deep and meaningful music, songs that feel like mini-operas in their own right, or short stories in collected works that use cascading chords for words and understated beats for metre.

This is a fantastic place to start exploring Ben Eastman’s music. And when you have played Nostalgia to death, turn around and work your way through his back catalogue; there is, after all, rather a lot of it, so it should keep you rewardingly occupied for months to come.