Producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Jon Chesbro is someone you might already be familiar with if you dig what Derek Smith & The Cosmic Vultures collectively conjure. As the guitarist in that outfit, Chesbro regularly brings the soulful riffs to fuel Smith’s brand of Alternative Rawk but left to his own devices? The results go far beyond anything you’d expect.
The results in question culminate on Chesbro’s solo effort Dryas, an album that the artist produced, mastered, and mixed every note of in addition to performing all its instrumentation, which reveals a multi-faceted and deeply layered body of work that is a far cry from the work in The Cosmic Vultures. For the record, we tend to stay away from reviewing instrumental records not because we don’t like them (Karma To Burn and Pelican are easily two of our most favorite vocalist deficient bands) but mostly because the art of properly putting into words what kind of sounds you’re about to hear escapes us. That said, the trip that Dryas took us on was such a wild and wonderful one that we couldn’t imagine not reviewing it.
“BlackHole” starts the journey and is Bowie-eque in both its’ boldness and bravado, bringing forth a sort of discordant noise that has echoes of Blackstar or Outside and metamorphosizes into this beautiful butterfly of a song you have before you that echoes and meanders but never overstays its’ welcome.
“MarchToVictory” is brilliant with glorious, shimmering synthetic tones exquisitely delivered to your earholes like a hymnal while “ICantF******gLogin” is straight out of some ’80’s neon-soaked hour long drama having to do with Don Johnson or Glenn Frey. “CherryBlossum” is a somber atmospheric piece with strings and piano lines intertwined throughout, “SpeedOfLight” accents Chesbro’s guitar prowess on this little number that’d have all the bodies movin’ and groovin’ at a Berklee College of Music caf show or on any stage for that matter, and “ILikeThis” mixes synths, serene shreds, and beats for something akin to an Eric Serra score (The Professional, The Fifth Element).
“HereItIs” is a spaced out trip that traverses the universe with haunting ornamentation and little synthetic bursts that put to sound what a twinkling star might be interpreted as by our ears and then a swell of strings and percussion ebb and flow through the closing party called “IntoTheMirror”.
Dryas releases on February 23rd. You can pre-save the album now by heading here. For more from Jon Chesbro, follow the trail of socials when you click here, or here.