Customer Reviews

Dynamico

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great cd. If you have been waiting 20 years for Mitch Easter to release new material like I have, wait no more. Good clean rock and roll. Mature release from a mature artist. I hope he pulls more from the vault to release...

If you are like me, you were in college in the 80's thinking that Mitch Easter was God (at least to us southerners). Let's Active was incredible, drawing prog rock influences into country-ish music. Easter was and is a phenomenal producer as well. It took seeing Easter as a solo artist perform at Janus Landing (St, Petersburg, FL) to an audience of me and my buddy to realize that, unfortunately, many people did not know who he was. This was the pre-grunge era, and Tampa was refute with industrial-goth-metal bands. I never liked him more that at that concert where he soldiered on and did a great show. Nearly 20 years later we encounter his newest release, and it just as great as ever. He has played on his wife Shalini's solo stuff, and she appears here to repay the favor (great bass playing). If you ever see the band "Gravel Truck" playing check them out as they are the husband wife duo as a band covering Lets Active songs.

Classic Mitch Easter in the vein of the best Let's Active stuff from years ago

Fans of Mitch Easter's great 80's outfit Let's Active will feel right at home listening to this recent solo work by the man. Guitar-driven power pop, each song is meticulously crafted and warrants repeated listening. Great stuff!

Ok, so he's a little older, but this dog can still do tricks (not necessarily learn new ones, but perform pretty good ones). Mitch Easter's new CD "Dynamico" rocks out with a solid collection of music that will brighten up anyone's sound system. The one-two punch of, "1 1/2 Half Way Street" and "Break Through" offer up the same melodic/sonic guitar filled pop gems not heard since Let's Active's "Cypress" album. The CD doesn't bog down and keeps up a fairly good rockin pace. The only question I have for Mr. Easter is, "What took you so long"?

_Dynamico_ is terrific, at least as good as anything by Let's Active, and certainly more consistently buoyant: as the title suggests, this is a loud, fun record. The rocking "1 1/2 Way Street" kicks things off with a bang; that and tracks such as "Time Warping," "You/Me," "Ton of Bricks," and "Sights Set on Heaven" give the album's first half a harder edge than most of Easter's earlier work. But he heads into gentler (and in some ways more interesting) territory in the second half, with songs such as "To Be, Cool Thing," "The Phantoms of Ephemera," and the appropriately titled "Glazed." Musically, the songs are all insidiously catchy; lyrically, they range from straightforward sentiment (as in the built-for-radio "I Want a New Scene") to dazzling word salad (as in "Sudden Crown Drop").

It really is a solo record. Eric Marshall plays drums on one song, and Shalini Chatterjee plays bass on another (in addition to singing backup here and there), but Easter does everything else. And he does it very, very well: of course his guitar work is fantastic, but he's also an exciting bassist and drummer, unlike other guitarists-turned-one-man-bands. Then there's the sitar on "Glazed"; in his hands the instrument really shimmers the way it ought to. Add the saxophones, the organs, the synthesizers.... In the Let's Active days Easter was obviously a gifted musician, but now he really seems like an alt-rock Mozart.

The notable North Carolina power-popster and producer's previous album was Let's Active's Every Dog Has his Day (1988). His return could be dubbed You Can't Keep a Good Dog Down. Dynamic it is, although just for starters I'm too nervous to compare it with the sonic peaks of the Let's Active catalogue.

Australian admirer Stuart Coupe co-produced the 2003 Let's Active tribute album. As a few of his contributors sighed, Easter's peaks are as simple and as hard as inimitable lyrics, melodies, chord progressions and guitar solos.

Budding rockers from Athens GA to Perth WA have cut their teeth sussing out those chords. Easter is like some entropy theorist of transatlantic rock, still inventing great originals from unstable amalgams of words and riffs.

He channels Let's Active itself in the melodic grunge of Sudden Crown Drop and Dusky Lair. The Byrds-like elation of Why is it So Hard? goes up against the intricate Badfinger-styled quaverings of To Be, Cool Thing. A simpler one vying for best song is Sights Set on Heaven, set off by purposeful lyrics and driving riff.

This is a great return to form for Mitch Easter. All you Let's Active fans, your new album is finally here. We all knew Let's Active was a Mitch Easter solo project anyway (although he had excellent taste in side women/men). All I can say is keep going, Mitch.

I'm too old to spend repeated listens to "get" any certain kind of music, and at the same time I've listened to too much "classic" rock too many times to never get something new. Good news, over 50 crowd-- Mitch Easter has made an album that is crunchy and melodic and has a groove and has smart but not overly clever lyrics. Rock's not dead yet!

Though this album wouldnt stand up to "Big Plans For Everbody", it still has the playful elements going on that made Let's Active "active". The cd starts out slow in my opinion until the 7th track, only then did I feel it was gaining any traction. the last 5 tracks rank right up there with the best of what he's done. "Glazed" being my favorite.