Peter Adams
The Spiral Eyes
( Peter Adams ) 2004

"Pretty soon we'll pave the stars. We can turn Mars into a parking lot."

Rarely do I get this excited about an album. Peter Adams breathes new life into self-made music - or rather - he has created a new space entirely. Somewhere in between the endless capabilities of John Vanderslice and the mystic folklore of Patrick Wolf you would find Peter Adams. Did you hear what I said? Peter Adams breathes new life into self-made music - or rather - he has created a new space entirely.

An artist by degree, Adams is responsible for every note, sweep, beat and vocal that appears on the 12 compositions (one hidden before the first listed track) on his self-released LP The Spiral Eyes. For some reason that I have yet to find in moderate research this album is only now getting proper circulation in the press circuit, and it honestly deserves all the exposure it can get. (footnote¹: The Spiral Eyes was mostly done over the summer of 2004, and includes songs that had been written and recorded as much as 3 years earlier.)

Using the home recording program Sonar 3, Adams has sonically modified a one man project to honestly sound like a fully blossomed percussion & strings group. Now may be a good time to introduce the fact that Peter plays the violin (his music is tagged as "violin-soaked punk folk rock"² ) and has been doing so for nearly 20 years. Thanks due to Peter's father, a music professor at (the) College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. Best of luck catching up with this young man.. . unless you're Patrick Wolf (who is still a few years behind).

The Spiral Eyes holds so much hope for what musicians are capable of producing all alone, no swollen budget or suits to answer upon. It begins with more than a minute of multi-layered waves, fuzz & static before twinkling into "Centralism", an opener that will lock your interest in and not let up for the entire record. Adams' vocals brilliantly rise and fall atop this sonic blitzkrieg of strings, acoustic guitar and machined drums. Following that with "I evolve", a track name that fits the skill of its maker to exact prime, you are allowed to view the more patterned songwriting of Adams. 4 minutes of superior guitar and voice, there is also an indistinct guitar buried deep in the belly of the song that begs for recognition. Lyrically Adams hints at the importance of love ("I evolve"), the Sun ("More Than You Know", "Cementalisque") and procrastination ("Spiraling"). The Spiral Eyes' one instrumental, "The Invention of Nuclear Power", holds nothing back in its attempt to amaze you. Descriptives would do the track little benefit, but imagine if you will a set of electric guitars racing towards the Earth on a mission to destroy Halliburton. Along this downward travel, the 2 instruments compose & perform their own heroic anthem - that being "The Invention of Nuclear Power".

I've kept you well longer than I should, and the year is very young - do seek out what will absolutely be one of my favorite albums for 2006. This in a year of Horses, Built to Spills and predicted Radiohead. The Spiral Eyes is unfathomablerrific - a term as unique as the product itself.

"As the waters rise to meet the trees, the sweetest breeze will wash over me. I'll shoot the Moon and watch the sky fall." - Shoot The Moon

: kaleb :: January 24, 2006