I love music with words, the way a songwriter intertwines melody and lyrics into a kind of sonic sculpture to be enjoyed from all angles.<\/p>\n
What might feel less obvious is that this \u201cword nerd\u201d also loves songs without<\/i> words. There is something magical about music that takes you on a journey using pure melody and emotion, without relying on words to do any of the narrative work.<\/p>\n
Terry Gomes started out nearly 20 years ago as a singer-songwriter in the Paul Simon mold, telling relatable stories while employing a familiar palette of mostly acoustic folk-rock or country-folk arrangements. Change came in 2013, when Gomes\u2019 muse convinced him to let his music to the talking on his first all-instrumental album, the winkingly named Shh<\/i>. Since then he\u2019s issued two EPs, one full album (2017\u2019s The Tropical Dream<\/i>), and a bundle of singles, all of them instrumental, each of them increasingly infused with Latin and Caribbean elements.<\/p>\n
Ottowa-based composer \/ guitarist Gomes may have grown accustomed to snowy winters, but his connection with a more tropical style of music is more than simply affectionate\u2014it\u2019s genetic. \u201cGrowing up in a Guyanese family, I was exposed to a lot of music from the Caribbean, South America and Latin America,\u201d he says, adding that \u201cthis music is indelibly stamped on me.\u201d The evidence is all over the amiably named Some Chunes<\/i>, out April 8.<\/p>\n
Kicking things off, \u201cOpen Up\u201d features island-flavored rhythm and lead guitar, vibes, bass and percussion in a playful, sunny dance. \u201cHappy Landings\u201d adds the fresh color of Nick Dyson\u2019s trumpet to the palette, along with steel drums and what feels like a samba rhythm; it\u2019s both easygoing and agile. \u201cTradewinds\u201d offers a gentler recipe of acoustic over a shaker\/percussion bed, before \u201cSomeday Castaway\u201d turns up the heat with a playful, upbeat number highlighted by Gomes\u2019 scatty guitar runs over an elastic rhythm section.<\/p>\n
First single \u201cA Recurring Thought\u201d is a lilting acoustic number that feels designed to both soothe and set your imagination adrift. By contrast, \u201cRumjaro 360\u201d asserts a sort of bossa nova sway, this time with Ed Lister adding trumpet. Then \u201cTomorrow\u201d offers a sort of interlude, a steady, thrummy piano number before \u201cLook Alive!\u201d comes busting in with buzzy, fusiony electric lead guitar.<\/p>\n
That jazzy edge takes over for \u201cA Day Of Rain,\u201d whose tasteful licks had me imagining Wes Montgomery sitting on the beach with an umbrella drink nearby. Next, there\u2019s an early-rock undertone to \u201cHey Sweet Shirley,\u201d whose bright energy feels almost Ritchie Valens-like in places. Finally, closer \u201cEeza Gomes\u201d pays loving tribute to Gomes\u2019 favorite Guyanese \u201cauntie\u201d with an upbeat strut conveying abundant joie de vivre, and Lister again featured on trumpet.<\/p>\n
The album credits are especially interesting for this liner notes junkie, as Some Chunes<\/i> was assembled in a way that might have been considered unusual as recently as a decade ago. Three tracks (\u201cOpen Up,\u201d \u201cSomeday Castaway,\u201d \u201cA Recurring Thought\u201d) are brand new recordings; two are remastered versions of standalone singles first released in 2019 (\u201cRumjaro 360\u201d) and 2024 (\u201cEeza Gomes\u201d); and six are remastered versions of previously released tracks \u00a0from Gomes\u2019 2014 EP Sand In My Shoes<\/i> (\u201cTradewinds,\u201d \u201cLook Alive!\u201d and \u201cHey Sweet Shirley\u201d) and 2018 album The Tropical Dream<\/i> (\u201cHappy Landings,\u201d \u201cTomorrow\u201d and \u201cA Day Of Rain\u201d).<\/p>\n
The magic trick Gomes pull off here is that, despite handpicking selections from different sources and timeframes, he\u2019s built an album that feels like a cohesive musical statement. The buoyant and evocative Some Chunes<\/i> offers listeners a sunny respite in warmer climes, leaving you with that inevitable, tantalizing question: why go back?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8169],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-47089","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-terry-gomes","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47089","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=47089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47089"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47089"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}