R - Guitarist / Singer @ SUBSET

EP REVIEW: TERRORIST by Ryan Prazer March 2017

Click here for music:  www.soundcloud.com/rprazer

Ryan Frazer has proven to be a tenacious talented hardworking solo artist writing songs right from the heart in the most possible honest way for at least five years as I can remember. Him and I first met on the gigging circuit in Dunstable, Hertfordshire England back in 2010. We stayed in touch and I was very glad to read he was about to write something new. He’s releasing a new album effort this Spring and listening to it I could see Ryan’s steps in the world and long roads walked on in the midlands in the UK we all live in now, lined up in front of me. I am well impressed by Ryan’s work ability to be contained in a simple voice and guitar combo holding together comparable performance powers one could find in much larger instrumental acts.

‘Home’ a country acoustic guitar track defines what the tough life of a solo modern equivalent to Dylan, Cash or Turner look like in 2017: a world plagued with housing problems, commuting hours, sheltering from the cold and the rain, with a positive authentic tone. It tastes like happiness all found again after tough times. Ryan has energy, his voice is even better than in the past. This is a song you could hear in the street played by a busker or in an arena full of connected fans. The song has two sections, gaps leaving space to move from one thought to another, a few flamenco accents. To be honest this is about hope as best as it gets.

‘Blue’ comes in after ‘Home’ and explores the sadness overcome as a result, a piece missing, maybe about mental health. Again Ryan is with you in the room, you are not lonely anymore despite him knowing about isolation. I love the fact the chords are left ringing, the vocals aren’t over done, it’s a sober confession agitated with emotions. It is incredibly convincing. The intensity goes up and down like an orchestra performed by one man with a guitar, the voice is extraordinary.

‘Terrorist’ opens with flows of poetry, the definition of who Ryan is today. He sees the world through the analysis of Greed, Hatred, The Power of Words, the Revolution. This is almost a threat.

‘Role models’ starts with ‘Theresa’ with money and links to the children of this nation, or at least we think the theme is. Again Ryan uses one guitar with the dynamic growing as you would find in a folk orchestra. His voice reminds me a bit of System of a Down’s guitarist side project, and the influences of ska, popular, folk, punk all coming together. His guitar is a rhythm section too.

‘In your world’ makes you feel you are at the theatre watching someone on stage with a guitar: it’s poetry, politics, talks on Freedom, it’s acted. I love how the guitar is being used as a performance stage element rather than a complex source of instrumentation. Ryan sings, recites, repeats, touches, vindicates, threatens softly using the ‘Big Brother’s character. Ryan doesn’t want to be spied on. Listening to this track you realise some one out there demands absolute freedom. The song goes straight to the point, no back vocals, no complex instruments, very stripped down but still rich, full, and gripping.

Ryan ‘Frisky Dreams’ cover originally from Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet dream’ offers a modern take on the song: Ryan goes through several tempos and intensities: it’s very catchy, it complements greatly the collection of covers made of this song. Ryan uses his style on a song we all know to precisely expand its reach and prove his singing and guitar together with his background and attitude form a unique remarkable, recognisable voice amongst his peer in England in 2017.

#New music #fresh for new year #2017, thought I would give you the most up-to-date selection, all new albums from these last days/weeks (link at bottom):

1-MALL WALK - 'Pale comparison' & 'Patches'. Oakland USA. The #best discovery made since whatever tbh. Think the most marvellous unpretentious calm voice on an inviting walking bass with on top guiding chords marking such a print on your brain you will sing these until you die, whether you are newly in love, or trying to put your heart's pieces back together. Smallest band in the world, honestly cannot see this continuing for long. Discovered thanks to a friend who sent me a link. #poprock

2-Arbor Labor Union - 'Radiant Mountain Road'. Georgia USA. Profoundly psyched noise rock, punk stoner whatever. Excellent openings. Discovered on a random playlist somewhere online sitting in the dark.

3-Preoccupations - 'Bunker Buster'. Insane rock. Calgary. Canada. Best guitars work over the last months, hypnotising and slapping at same time. Very admirable. Discovered on a random playlist somewhere online sitting in the dark.

4-Dead! - 'Something more original'. London. UK. An assault of chords on the chorus with that moulded jam aftertaste and surprising heavy guitar tuning. Discovered on a random playlist somewhere online sitting in the dark.

5-Arrows of Love - 'Beast'. Psych noise prog, activist dance rock. Mind blowing strings arrangements deeply under-tuned. London UK. Discovered on a random playlist somewhere online sitting in the dark.

6-The Black Queen - 'Now when I'm this'. New wave. L.A. USA. Tastefully crafted and tormented waves of haunted echoey keyboards. Discovered on a random playlist somewhere online sitting in the dark.

7-Vomitface - 'Chew Toy'. Noise bleach rock. NYC. USA. Very blond long haired dirt rock, yeah thats right totally seattle-esque sad popness, incredibly well suited on a 'oh whatever' playlist. Discovered on a random playlist somewhere online sitting in the dark.

8-Knocked Loose - 'Deadringer'. Ghent-core. Kentucky. USA. Insultingly backbone crushing slow groove with very long gravity-shifting strings. Discovered on a random playlist somewhere online sitting in the dark.

9-Kowloon Walled City - 'The Pressure...'. Nugaze sludge rock. San Fran. USA. Odd yet intuitive signatures with crispy realistic strings on slow-mo kicks, reflective, in-room seated. Discovered on a random playlist somewhere online sitting in the dark.

10-Cloud Nothings - 'Internal world'. LA. USA. Naive surf garage pop with proper distortion well aligned to sincerely bashed cymbals. Been following them for a while.

11-METZ - 'Spit it out'. Raging rock. Toronto. Canada. Punishing drunk loud desperate screaming with ultra solid drums, your voice inside, your total decadence when you fall through a hole of furious frustration. Been following them for a while.

12-Perfect Hair Forever - 'Girls'. Puke rock. Auckland. New Zealand. Ground breaking shit-gazers singing through a tube of vomit with melting chords decomposing before the end of the chorus. Discovered on a random playlist somewhere online sitting in the dark.

13-RED FANG - 'Cut it short'. Dark meth-rock. Portland. USA. Authoritative guitars drenched in dripping guitars feedbacks and tasteful modern heaviness. We all know them anyway. Been following them since day 1.

14-The Story So Far - 'Quick sand'. Speed punk. Walnut Creek. USA. Excellently sung proper fast 'pu-tak pupu-tak' californianism holding one of the best voices leading at the moment, melo-crispy clear, straight. Makes you feel great. Friend recommendation.

15-Flume - 'Ezra'. New wave. Sydney. Australia. Delectable sesh-pop with red eyes across a comforting ganja fog of electro nonsense. Brighton friend played it to me during a get-together.

16-Gojira - 'Stranded'. Death Metal. Bayonne. France. Mid-tempo whammy infused bridge cables entangled in a satisfying hammering blend of drum mastery. Saw it live.

Please leave comments, spent ages putting that shit together. Thanks.

I am now at home and have time to write stuff down. It’s December, almost time to look back at 2016. A calendar year is not really appropriate. I would almost start from end of 2013 when @subsetband line up changed and ‘Please don’t feel’ was recorded with 22 tracks on the list. At the time I knew big changes were on the go. 

2014 was a year we used to shred our skins of amateurish drunk over excited musos and all the nonsense accumulated after 120 shows, 2 albums and 4 eps. We wanted a new double album and our first European tour. It took me the whole of 2014 to find the fundings, the logistics and the teams. Forced marching mode again. Maybe we should have cared a bit more about stability and pace. It never crossed our minds. We regrouped a new line up in Feb 2015, rehearsed in March and April, and hit the road again for a month to promote ‘Loverdose’. In July the band’s backbone was broken again. Too much energy, too many miles, too many gigs. We hated staying at home. We hated sitting and reading social medias. In October 2015 we hit the road again. And finally the backbone says ‘no more’. Four shows cancelled in a row. Big lesson learned here: we will now know how to control better the ‘tour withdrawal syndrome’. Another replacement, then on the road again: Worthing, Leamington, Salisbury, Southampton, Manchester, Nottingham, Cambridge. We quickly discover very promising new territories but also learned we weren’t prepared enough on the promo and more saddening cancellations: Exeter, Bristol (one of our big spots), Worthing and Brighton (another HQ for us). Crawling to the finishing line we manage to get good numbers in Paris, London and Venice, and an extra surprise one in Bedford.  Loads of lessons learned and people met. But behind my pc right now i can feel this rising feeling of relentlessness. That I struggle to be happy at home, idle, motionless, copying days one onto the next without seeing the difference.

It is so hard to stay at home.