Flicker EP<\/i><\/a> with its sad\/sunny other half, the Ray EP<\/i>. Here the ever-playful, occasionally inscrutable Doyon guides us through a dream landscape full of portent and promise, innocence and guilt, one that\u2019s characteristically both challenging to parse and steadily compelling.<\/p>\nDoyon is first and foremost a storyteller. While he\u2019s chosen to hold back the precise source of inspiration for the series of character studies laid out in this five-song set, he acknowledges that the circumstance residing at its center\u2014a kidnapping\u2014is based on a real event. That caginess is both charming and essential, requiring listeners to supply our own answers to the questions Doyon asks in the course of this narrative arc.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cLunchbox\u201d is rich with looming atmosphere, using a repeating acoustic guitar figure, evocative fiddle and lush background vocals to conjure up a subtly haunted soundscape, as Doyon sings of a child boarding a school bus, contemplating deep questions about their life (\u201cwhy does it get lonely \/ when the world is awake \/ why does a dream feel real \/ when it\u2019s fake\u201d) and then realizing they\u2019ve forgotten their lunchbox. Returning guest Dan Hochhalter\u2019s fiddle lends the whole exercise a yearning, elegiac quality.<\/p>\n
The second track introduces us to school bus driver \u201cFrank Ed Ray\u201d with sparkling acoustic guitar and mandolin, a brief, rather sing-songy sketch of a simple character who seems to radiate positivity (\u201call I want to do each day \/ is make this loop with you\u201d). <\/p>\n
Turmoil and conflict arrive with third track \u201cNegative Space\u201d as a stately piano melody introduces an unfulfilled soul who\u2019s \u201cat war with myself \/ and everybody else \/ starving at the banquet \/ bleeding, no tourniquet.\u201d Initially somber, at 1:43 the song takes a left turn, with drums and multi-tracked background vocals erupting into the brief chorus, then falling back. It\u2019s theater-of-the-mind stuff, the disjointed thoughts of a narrator losing his sense of self and possibly his mind. Audrey Karrasch\u2019s harmony vocals lend pathos, making the narrator feel like a tragic figure, though clearly damaged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Dream Of Open Skies\u201d finds an imprisoned person \u201cstraining at these shackles \/ wilting in the heat\u201d; it\u2019s a pretty dirge, almost funereal, that cultivates a claustrophobic feel while dropping religious allusions, until we catch the muffled murmur of a police radio in the final moments. Closer \u201cUnderdogs\u201d manages to be playful and eerie all at once, an initially airy number that eventually features layers of acoustic guitar, piano, synthesizers, bass, and drums, as Doyon asks \u201cif a body catch a body \/ coming through the rye \/ do they hold a patch of open sky?\u201d <\/p>\n
While the Ray EP<\/i> opens with an almost linear narrative, \u201cUnderdogs\u201d offers more questions than answers about how the scenario resolves (for example: is the strategically named school bus driver Mr. Ray the hero here\u2014a literal ray of light shining down\u2014or something else?). And maybe that\u2019s the point; how do we, the audience, want the story to end, and why? What does our perspective on that eternal dance between the dark and the light say about us<\/i>? <\/p>\n
To the extent that songwriting (and poetry) have rules, the principal one is that you want to be precise enough in the words you choose to draw your audience fully inside a moment, while remaining impressionistic enough to allow the audience to fill in the blanks with their own imagination. It\u2019s something Mark Doyon once again achieves here: there are striking ideas and images and moments, but the meat of the story is left up to the listener to construct in our own minds. <\/p>\n
In short, Waterslide\u2019s Ray EP<\/i> is art\u2014five songs, 18 minutes, and an entire world rich with innocence and danger, mystery and revelation, the dark and the light. Go on, climb on board that bus and see where it takes you. You might be surprised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8853],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46478","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-waterslide","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46478","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46478"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}