MATTHEW SHAW
Ghosts In The Concrete (Burning Building)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Ghosts In The Concrete is almost entirely a one man production, recorded in a home studio with just a few guests (one programming a drum machine and one reading a poem). There are literally thousands of one-man-band CDs floating around out there and many find their way to magazines for review. Most of them fall into one of two categories of failed music: either they're too busy because the musician tried to out jam him or herself on every instrument, or they're too lifeless because the musician just didn't have the skills to play every instrument convincingly. Once in a while someone comes up with something different that works extremely well, usually because of a unique way of looking at music. Matthew Shaw's music is clever, well structured, based on pop but constructed with a fair amount of electronica, which he uses to take us out into deeper waters. He'll grab you with a pop vibe built on something as minimal as a bare electronic drum beat and a distorted electric piano playing single bass notes under his vocals, and then everything will stop and melt into an exquisitely surreal wash of atmospheric sound. It's like Elevator To Hell with better vocals and a stronger pop foundation. The first song, "Constant Movement," had such a lame drum machine beat I almost tossed this in the pile with those other home recorded CDs. I'm glad I let it play on. It turned out to be a superior album by a guy who obviously knows how to do this one-man-band thing better than most.

[Information about purchasing this album can be found at bbrecordings.com/bbr/shaw.html.]

© 2004 - DJ Johnson