STEVE GILMORE’S MUSIC REVIEWS: FLUIDITY – SOCIAL LEASH

You can listen to this artist on Soundclick

In a very short space of time indeed, New Zealand’s Fluidity (aka John Paul Carrol, or jp23 on Soundclick’s forums) and his rock muse has gained a lot of earholes around here – in a mere three months or so. Mind you, he is worth the effort, especially if you have a liking for strong, melodic rock music with a distinctly English tinge to it. Out of the three tracks I have reviewed so far – This Time (January 2006), Prediction=Presumption (February 2006) and New Direction (April 2006) – point to Fluidity being a very strong presence this coming year.

Still, you are only as good as your last track, right?

One of the first things that hits you about any of this artist’s work is the attention to detail, both in production and arrangement, music with finesse. Another fine artist who knows exactly how to make a track situp and beg. Believe me, some of the strokes JP pulls in this track are gonna have a few ‘guitar gods’ around here feeling a bit sick. I make a big deal of the early English rock scene because – above anything else – this is what Fluidity’s music suggests to me, time after time. That holds true whether you were talking about the instrumentation, production, songwriting style, vocal intonations and any other element you care to name. I’ve mentioned before a reference to the early Pink Floyd (with Syd Barrett) and Social Leash at least reinforces the Pink Floyd connection.

Not from the musical style, because if anything it is definitely Syd Barrett whimsical rather than Pink Floydian pomposity. It’s in the structure of the music itself that the reference becomes evident, chord progressions and melodies that will definitely harken back to earlier musical times. My only quibble, and it’s so pretty it hardly needs saying, is that I found the vocal treatment a bit dry when taken with the lushness and quality of the music. Nonetheless, it is such a small quibble and although I have to say you might need a taste for this kind of material to really get off on it, I think even a casual listener would be surprised at how cool, slick and professional indie music can sound.

Recommended.

Written by Steve Gilmore