Human Brother “Vision Days on the Life Ride”
The human is a very complex animal. Aside from the usual cliché tool using metaphors, let’s speak of commonality for a change. All animals share attributes, but two of the most profound are song and dreams. Everything that lives, surely resonates with sound, one way or another, be it of the minutest fashion, say the scraping of a squirming worm, or the most magnificent, booming whale song. Then even the most insomniac amidst us slip into dreams, no matter what the animal. What is pertinent about contrasting the two is just how mysterious they still are to our culture. Human Brother walks the edge of scientific mystery and folklore mythology with transcendental lyrics and electrofunkadelic sound. By creating new musical synergies with synthesizers colliding into classical instrumentals, natural, sometimes howling, vocals sing from the essence of humanity; raw yet focused, wild with purpose, blending harmonies reminiscent of a vibrant rainforest canopy. Vision Days on the Life Ride is the essence currently missing from what’s left of alternative rock: natural experiential truth. “Wake up. You’re not sleeping, but you’re dreaming.”
“Stars Are Ours to Name” is far and away my favorite. It deserves the two versions on the album, one studio cut and another live performance dedicated to Joe Strummer (of The Clash and shortly of The Pogues) “Who’s alive in all of us” evokes JD Shultz, a.k.a. Human Brother. The song has an incredible retro feel that infuses more postmodern alternative drive. The harmonies in the chorus are especially powerful, and this is one of the few albums one finds himself singing along to (while writing, in my case). For the most part, the alterna-rock scene these days is missing the heart and soul of those whom cleared the way through the musical jungle, cutting away at the disco-machines and doo-wop boy/girl bands. Vision Days on the Life Ride is homage to the trailblazers, and even going beyond exploring musical wilderness where some of the best bands of all time left off. Surely, Human Brother deserves all the comparisons and praise they are currently receiving and then some. The variety of both instrumental style, and vocal range is technically impressive and somehow always pleasing to the ear, always funky yet with all the new electro beeps and hums one would expect from ambience, bass and synthesizer provide a beautiful canvas for the seemingly never-ending creativity of Shultz’s vocals and instrumentals so they have lots of room for expression.
One can’t say enough about the harmonic sensibility. Sometimes Human Brother gets very intricate. At one point in “Behind You Now”, the vocals split in three parts, a synth lies on top of it, a wah-wah pedal bends up into perfect resolution, and that’s not even counting the ethnic instrumentals, drums, bass, and possibly more synth layers! This sort of complexity is woven in with such care that it may progress a measure or two, and then we’re back to a more simplistic (yet no less pleasing) verse. It is overwhelming to try and discuss the level of production going on here. Not only is JD Shultz an impeccable artist, but and unbelievable producer. Shultz has enough experience growing up with musical legends, on stage with the pulse of the Hollywood music scene, and now a phenomenal fusion album dubbed a new genre, “Hu-manilectro,” that the up-and-coming artist may be a performing producer capable of greater things still, such as organizing a record label. Similar beginnings that come to mind, though cross-genre, are like the careers of Dr. Dre going from N.W.A. to forming Aftermath, or perhaps like DJ Tiesto going from producer to DJ to forming Black Hole Records in the Netherlands. It seems that the biggest problem for musicians these days in the wake of the collapse of the record industry is cooperation. We are in need of great humble minds that can organize artists in a meaningful way. As Human Brother says in “Step to the Side”, “It’s what you’re dreamin’ of, it’s what I’m afraid of… if we don’t pave the way, prepare us for the fall.” Vision Days of the Life Ride is a spectacular remembrance of what was important about the musical past, but dually and intrepidly, a divine interpretation as history mimics itself this age. Will we have time to step to the side? Will we be able to ride the transcendental? It is only possible if we embrace the natural animalistic, Hu-manilectro, if you will, origins of music and dreams. Creativity for the sake of preserving the beauty of earth; these songs are prophetic and speak in dreams. Human Brother’s poetry has insight that most artists are missing: tribal visionary clarity.
Review by Julian Gorman
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