Aurganic\u2019s musical vision is a challenging one, to say the least. This duo\u2019s desire to blend jazz, indie, and electronic music in one cohesive format to create beautifully elegant songs is certainly an ambitious one. The band\u2019s eponymous debut EP was sort of a disjointed cross between bigbeat and chillwave, and it seemed as if the duo was still trying to figure out its sound. With Life As A Canvas<\/i>, their full-length debut, Michael Kossov and Leo Pisaq appear to have gotten many steps closer to realizing that sound. Life As A Canvas<\/i> is clearly a huge departure from the debut EP and a huge leap forward in the maturation of their musical style.<\/p>\n
The one main difference between the two releases is the inclusion of vocalists on this record \u2013 on one half of it, at least. But even the instrumentals on Life As A Canvas <\/i>are polar opposites of the duo\u2019s completely instrumental debut EP, exhibiting no trace of the awkward bigbeat\/chillwave mishmash whatsoever. Instead, the instrumentals are artfully arranged indie jazz numbers that show that Kossov and Pisaq have truly realized their potential and have reached a level of musicianship that will surely grab attention. Starting with the less jazzy \u201cIntro\u201d and \u201cRadio Stasis,\u201d which are sweeping guitar-based pop tracks, the jazz influence and the experimentation gets more pronounced on \u201cOphiuchus I,\u201d \u201cOphiuchus II,\u201d \u201cOphiuchus III,\u201d and \u201cGrandma\u2019s Love,\u201d where the duo masterfully and seamlessly blends jazz jams with electronic music.<\/p>\n
However, the band\u2019s jazzy sound is mostly restricted to the album\u2019s instrumentals only; the tracks with vocals are a slightly different breed. In a completely dramatic contrast to the instrumentals, Aurganic\u2019s old electronica influence manifests on \u201cSystematic Vision\u201d (featuring Joel Goguen), which has an almost acid techno sound. Furthermore, \u201cSnowflake\u201d is a total trip hop track with its lazy beats and Bristol vibe, and so is \u201cPleasure Addict,\u201d on which singer Jessica Stewart gives a great sultry vocal performance. Although the duo doesn\u2019t sound all that bad as an absolute electronic music outfit, it\u2019s not as nearly as good a\u00a0 sound as their other work. <\/p>\n
\u201cLet It Go\u201d (another cut featuring Jessica Stewart) is the only track with a vocal accompaniment, where the duo tries and triumphs in incorporating the jazzy essence of the album\u2019s instrumentals. On the other hand, \u201cAnd When\u2026\u201d and \u201cFalse Accusations\u201d \u2013 both featuring the smooth vocals of Scott Carruthers \u2013 although not exactly the jazzy type, aren\u2019t full on electronic either. The combination of electronic music and dreamy guitars (in addition to the warm vocals) make these great pop songs that are on par with the instrumentals.<\/p>\n
This album finds Aurganic in a state of metamorphosis; a state of transformation from a band that is trying to find their footing, to a band that has almost found their sound. But even as a lowly stepping stone to a future spectacular work, Life As A Canvas<\/i> is a pretty incredible effort on its own accord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":31666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9228],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-43374","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-aurganic","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43374"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}