Artist Name: Typhoon Jr Title: Center Court Genre: Alternative Rock / Indie Rating:
Equipment
Fostex reel-to-reel, Sennheiser, Blue, and Shure mics, Mackie mixer, Alesis monitors.
Music
‘Center Court’ is a rock track. Kyle Hodgkin played guitar and sang lead vocals, Joe Tellmann supplied bass, guitar and backing vocals, Liam Scott played drums and tambourine, and Lee Sullivan played sax. The band members all share the writing, production, and recording credits.
Reviewed By Marty Peters
Typhoon Jr. have submitted a beautifully written tune here. Recorded on honest to goodness analog tape and mixed analog as well, the overall sounds are somewhat dark through our monitors, with copious amounts of processing on board. Starting with the rhythm section, the drums have an organic live feel with a fat snare and round kick tone. Those of you used to hearing modern beater head-dominated kicks will not hear it on this track; Liam’s tones are much more aligned with 60s and early 70s sounds—a time when limited track counts ruled the day. Moving on to its partner, the bass guitar is equally dusky and placed unconventionally wide in the mix. On the left side of the stereo field resides a very active and heavily reverbed sax, along with the electric guitars. While the sax performance is quite good, we found the super active part to be somewhat distracting at times, competing for attention with the lead vocal. The ethereal backing vocals create a good deal of tension and drama in the track and again are presented with a heavy dose of processing. Lastly, Kyle’s strong lead vocal is given quite a wide lane in the center of the mix and it comes across as quite present through our speakers and headphones.
Suggestions
The band has created a strong effort here, not a throwback per se, but certainly leaning in that direction. As for suggestions, the panning of the bass is a bit of a mystery to us. If it was done in an effort to emulate a recording from a different era, then so be it. If it was done in order to accentuate the lead vocal presence, we would urge the group to center it with the kick drum and then experiment with EQ and ambience in order to define a space for all in the middle of the stereo field. Moving on to the sax, we would enjoy a bit drier presentation and a little less activity during the lead vocal sections.
Summary
Much to like!
Contact
Kyle Hodgkin, [email protected]