Written
by Mike Yoder, posted by blog admin
Thomas
Abban and his maniacal debut A Sheik’s
Legacy is the kind of album that you know if going to be great from the
very track. This multi-instrumental
prodigy (aged only 21) pulls out all of the stops on opener “Death Song,”
wandering through dreamy ballad waters of acoustic guitar, psychedelic keyboard
signals and mixed percussion sounding like tabla mixed with a standard kit
before smashing into crazed vocal histrionics and throbbing, deadly precise
guitar surgery. The motifs are many and
none of them paint a clear picture as to where Abban draws his influence;
according to the scant information online given by the artist himself, he’s
very much a classical music fan and it’s without a doubt there is a sense of
arrangement to this song and the rest of the album that transcends basic
“jamming.”
The
hard-hitting passion of Abban’s vocals and the overwhelmingly expressive of his
crazed ear for time-signatures lend “Symmetry & Black Tar” an unrelenting
barrage of emotional earworms.
Galloping, full-throttle drums are heavy on the tom/kick patterns as the
guitar work runs country music through flamenco mysticism and even an esoteric
Celtic pulse that one might find on a prime Pogues’ record. Thomas’ voice embraces wind-whipped falsetto
and grainier blues hues as Abban rips out maniacal guitar tapestries that break
stylistic barriers with a sledgehammer.
Those tempos get more harried, frantic and angular as the song races
towards a monolithic climax that proves to be a pitch perfect set-up for the
bulldozing, Clapton-esque riffing (circa Cream and Blind Faith) of “Fear.” “Fear” is riff after riff piled high atop of
a molasses-y rhythm that slowly uncoils its python-like death grip into a
lightning fang strike of increasingly complex drum/bass progression. Again, Abban who sequenced the album himself
places the most appropriate track in succession, this time manifesting in the
form of “Aladdin.” The groove is a touch
looser not QUITE as heavy as “Fear” but it’s not far removed either. His chord choices and phrasings, powerhouse
riffs and slamming rhythms still will nevertheless knock the paintings off your
wall and shake a few molars from your gumline.
If you find it odd that Abban is the only musician I reference, don’t be
surprised when you pick up the album and find out that he played every
instrument but two on the entire record.
Even crazier, he wrote, sang on, produced, mixed and arranged every
single bit of the album himself. The
magnitude of such a feat, so early in a musician’s career is nothing short of
mind-blowing.
A
smoldering, slow-burn blitz seethes through “Time to Think” and its lonely,
desolate acoustic guitars, whistling melodies, blaring organs, guest musician
played flutes and fuzzy electrified riffs deliberately stack the song up to the
sky, bit by glorious bit. “Horizons” is
a less intense, subtler take on his ambitious track layering; this time piano
and a wall of acoustic guitars providing a softer yet no less commanding
fortress of audio might. Abban’s
songwriting literally overtakes the mind, usurps the eardrums and engages the
palette, no matter what manner in which Thomas presents a song. Be it the castle conquering, riff-y black
magic of “Uh” and its snubnosed groove, the pop sensibilities of “Sinner” and
“Irene,” “Don’t You Stay the Same’s” well-travelled Dylan licks or “Echo’s”
long climb from an acoustic well to high-temple, 70s-soaked progressive rock… Abban
leaves no stone unturned on A Sheik’s
Legacy. He takes everything
wonderful about the 60s/70s and then applies his own 2017 spin on the material
which sounds like nobody else playing rock n’ roll in the current musical
climate; a highly recommended album from an artist we should keep an eagle eye
on.
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