BeaVoys seems to drop new music at a rate more associated with an earlier era, which is quite pertinent given the blissed-out, 60s pop reference points often found in the music. And if you might be worried about the old clash between quality and quantity, fear not; here we have one of those rare artists who manages to tick both boxes.
‘Sabbatical SeaSon’ (I love the titular pun – and perhaps continuing the aquatic wordplay to create ‘Sub-batical SeaSon’ would have been to take it just a little too far, just a thought) is the latest collection of songs, five in all, and is the sound of BeaVoys on vacation, a sound oozing the sense of sun, sea and sand. It’s the soundtrack to relaxing and recuperating on the beach, especially if that beach was found in the late fifties and accompanied by slightly grainy, saturated Technicolor footage.
The first of these, fairly short sonic slices, ‘True Lover’ builds a bridge between Phil Spector‘s pre-Wall of Sound, girl band, doo-wop experiments on the West Coast and the Liverpool Sound that was about to take off a quarter of the globe away.
‘Natural Life’ countryfies the sound somewhat, driving a buoyant banjo through the heart of the song, adding jaunt and jive to the electric guitar’s raw rhythms. ‘Now It Feels Right’ feels musically tidal, with the sonics gently surging back and forth, while guitars eddy and spiral and vocal harmonies ebb and flow, pelagic and poised, and ‘Raw Wild Love’ is more traditionally nostalgic, sweet and serene.
The album ends with ‘Life is a Wonderful Dream,’ perhaps the summation of everything that has gone before and lyrically a self-fulfilling aquatic prophecy, describing in words the very thing the EP is musically.
But the fascinating thing here is the vocal components. Those who have been paying attention will be aware that Alan James, the captain of the SS BeaVoy, usually handles vocal duties, and indeed he does here, although the vocals were created using a more technological approach to capture a very specific and recognizable sound.
You can argue about the use of such technologies all you want, but like synths and sampling, the rise of digital recording processes and even the electrification of the guitar and the invention of the piano itself, people have argued that such enhancements will kill “real” music, yet here we are in a world where music is more vibrant, diverse, and adventurous than ever.
Another great release from BeaVoys, another artist creating fantastic music using the tools available, swerving expectations, exploring possibilities, and delivering a set of songs that, for many different reasons, is wonderfully unique and genuinely exciting. Isn’t that the job of the modern music-maker?
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