-
SUPERMODERN REVIEW / OTTAWA XPRESS
[+ Show ]
“a sprawling pop passion play of often celestial proportions, a sort of Pet Sounds cruising in inter...“a sprawling pop passion play of often celestial proportions, a sort of Pet Sounds cruising in interstellar overdrive, wherin Bourne serves up psychedelic songs of heartbreak...Not since the late Elliott Smith's Figure 8, its lyrical pain alternately distant and direct, has bruised introspection sounded so grand, hypnotic and affecting”
-
SUPERMODERN REVIEW / DISCORDER
[+ Show ]
Calgary musician Ryan Bourne recently dropped his debut album with some of the city’s finest musicia...Calgary musician Ryan Bourne recently dropped his debut album with some of the city’s finest musicians helping to make it happen. Supermodern World of Beauty is a confident first recording that ought to take little time in becoming a favourite for those who enjoy the lighter end of psychedelic folk rock. But there’s more than folk rock going on here. A little bit of bottom-end moody stuff goes a long way in breaking the consistency of the trippy psychedelic stuff. In fact, this is a pretty diverse album all around. The opener, “Calling From Beyond” is a grabber for sure. Good full sound, crisp production and some tasty piano and horns make for a strong lead in. What follows in the next nine tracks is a winding road through trippy realms of freak folkrock, atmospheric meditations of sound. The quality that ties this music together is vintage. It’s got that ’60s folk rock revival thing going on both in the recording and music offered. There are shades of Chad Van Gaalen in many of these songs, which is sensible being that Van Gaalen’s rhythm section is also Bourne’s, but this isn’t a case of borrowing someone else’s sound. These are simply musical shadows cast respectively.
Some debuts come off as immature or lacking in a certain punch that make you take notice, but this one comes complete with punch and leftovers. Supermodern may not shake your world to the core right away, but stay with it. There is a nice warm urgency to this music that is definitely worth the time spent.
by Nathaniel Bryce
-
SUPERMODERN REVIEW / GREY OWL POINT
[+ Show ]
I’ll be completely honest with you. When I looked at this album’s title and press release, I was pre...I’ll be completely honest with you. When I looked at this album’s title and press release, I was prepared to start berating the album for being incredibly pretentious. However, Supermodern World of Beauty actually has a lot of beauty without losing listeners.
The album is the debut from Calgary’s Ryan Bourne. The album is somewhat of a concept album, and seems to be very centered around the idea of the afterlife. And the soundtrack to this afterlife is a lot of psychedelia.
It begins with “Calling From Beyond,” a song that quickly dives into something reminiscent of the sixties. The guitar riffs sound almost like something from the Beach Boys- very sunny and upbeat, while the pounding drums are the most apparent in between choruses and verses.
The next song is “Serves You Right” which is very subdued in comparison. Bourne sings a little lower in this song, and the most prominent instrument on this is the piano. The slower pace of this song is not unlike something Marcy Playground would do.
It moves onto “Love & Death” which is possibly the best track on the album. It is a return to the upbeat, sporting really fuzzy and distorted guitars and quick drums. It also has a really catchy chorus: “You just can’t stop it/You just can’t stop it/You got to let it fall.” I found myself singing the chorus to myself pretty quickly.
“Hungry Ghost/Flower Intro” is the longest song at just over six minutes. It is probably the most musically interesting. While it starts with a simple acoustic guitar and Bourne’s vocals, it starts to add in other instruments such as bells and electronics. By the three-minute mark, the instruments and Bourne’s vocals blend to create somewhat of a frenzy. The song begins to lower in intensity by the end, and smoothly transitions into “Flower in Your Garden” which is easily the most stripped-down song on the album, with just backing vocals and a xylophone.
“Plastic on My Pillow” is not unenjoyable but seems out of place on the album due to its classic-rock feel, and “Orange Skies” is a fun song of a tropical quality. It smoothly blends electronics with other background instruments like shakers and bells.
The only issue I had with this album was how it can almost be divided in half- all the odd-numbered songs are upbeat, while the even-numbered songs are more mellow and subdued. This can be partially forgiven, though, because each song shows a level of bold musicianship that artists usually reserve for an experimental second or third album.
Top Tracks: “Love & Death”; “Hungry Ghost/Flower Intro”; “Orange Skies”
3.5 Hoots (out of 4)
by Michael
-
SUPERMODERN / SCENE
[+ Show ]
On Supermodern World of Beauty pop genius Ryan Bourne takes the expansive uplift of late-Sixties sun...On Supermodern World of Beauty pop genius Ryan Bourne takes the expansive uplift of late-Sixties sunshine pop, the D.I.Y. aural aesthetic of garage music, a splash of Badfinger’s sturdy power-pop and hits the crush button on the sonic blender. It’s wonderfully infectious, blissfully so. The only problem is that Bourne also likes to do more admittedly rote singer/songwriter fare which unfortunately pales by comparison. It’s fi ne mind you but pales in proximity to stunners like ‘Life and Death,’ ‘Plastic On My Patio’ and ‘Calling From Beyond.’ If he sticks to his undeniable strength as a pop cuisinart, Bourne may one day make the classic disc he’s clearly capable of.
By Bob Klanac
-
RB FEATURE / HOUR/NATIONAL BEAT
[+ Show ]
Ryan Bourne's identity located in descriptors like "bold," "confident"
Watch your ass, Matt Damon...Ryan Bourne's identity located in descriptors like "bold," "confident"
Watch your ass, Matt Damon. Music (pop or otherwise) from Western Canada has, in recent years, shown itself to be quite remarkable and well-received on a macro level. Artists like Chad VanGaalen, The Deep Dark Woods, Rah Rah, Black Mountain, Cadence Weapon-these peeps have, to a certain degree, been defining a generation.
Calgary's Ryan Bourne may well be the next entry to that canon. A gifted pop songsmith, Bourne's latest, Supermodern World Of Beauty is bringing him to Central Canada in the next while.
Tour dates are as follows:
June 03 - Ottawa, ON @ Raw Sugar Cafe
June 04 - Montreal, QC @ Burritoville
June 06 - Kingston, ON @ The Mansion
June 08 - Toronto, ON @ Not My Dog
June 10 - London, ON @ Grooves Records (in store performance) 3-5pm
June 11 - Toronto, ON @ Rancho Relaxo
June 12 - Windsor, ON @ The Phog
Supermodern World Of Beauty, a title that seems like it should be appended to a Douglas Coupland novel circa 2002, is Bourne's debut release, and it has attracted its fair share of praise. What praise, you ask? This praise:
"On Supermodern World of Beauty pop genius Ryan Bourne takes the expansive uplift of late-Sixties sunshine pop, the D.I.Y. aural aesthetic of garage music, a splash of Badfinger's sturdy power-pop and hits the crush button on the sonic blender." [Scene]
"Supermodern World of Beauty is a confident first recording that ought to take little time in becoming a favourite. [Discorder]
"...each song shows a level of bold musicianship that artists usually reserve for an experimental second or third album." [Gray Owl Point]
With such accolades attached to Bourne's debut, could praise for its prospective sequels, which may or may not include the words "Supremacy" and "Ultimatum" in their prospective titles, be far behind?
Published May 11 2010, 10:13 PM by Dave Jaffer
-
RB FEATURE / FFWD
[+ Show ]
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY
After two years, Ryan Bourne finally unleashes solo debut
Ryan Bourne fondl...THE BOURNE SUPREMACY
After two years, Ryan Bourne finally unleashes solo debut
Ryan Bourne fondly remembers mining the Calgary Public Library’s vinyl collection. The young guitarist bonded musically with his younger brother, keyboardist Darren, by playing along to ’60s classics, “jamming on whatever we could figure out,” he says. The brothers would later form Interstellar Root Cellar, one of the dominant bands in Calgary’s ’90s bar scene. They had a good run at it, before going their separate ways. Darren hooked up with local party favourites Mocking Shadows to make a living playing classic R&B and funk for corporate shindigs. Ryan followed his muse. “I just have too much music in me,” he explains. “I’m really curious and I really love experimental music, psychedelic music.”
Like many artists, Bourne is a tad uncomfortable discussing this muse and his writing process, although he admits that a lot of the songs on his long time-coming debut, Supermodern World of Beauty, were inspired by good old-fashioned pain and heartbreak. The time in which the album was written “was sort of a difficult period, emotionally, but there was also the positive side of countering the crushing defeat with a kind of defiant optimism,” Bourne explains. “Even though it ripped my heart out, I look back on it kind of fondly. There’s something about life teaching you that.”
After a long apprenticeship and incubation period, Bourne set about turning a stack of great songs into a great album. Happily, Supermodern World of Beauty is just that. Opener “Calling From Beyond” sets the mood with a serious ’60s vibe, channelling Harry Nilsson and reinforcing the retro element with a classic horn section, but from there, the album quickly edges away into more cosmopolitan and more personal territory. There’s a delicate balancing of modern and retro sounds and styles with pop, psychedelic and experimental elements rendered deliciously palatable by standout musicianship and seamless arrangements.
Bourne is not the least bit uncomfortable describing the recording process and offering effusive praise for Supermodern’s producer, musical mad scientist Jay Crocker. Bourne and Crocker had been acquaintances since their teenage years. “Jay approached me at a show and said that he thought I needed to be recorded more raw and more psychedelic, and that was exactly how I felt,” Bourne says.
Somewhat surprisingly, this was Crocker’s first full-on production, and it came together in just two weeks of long days and intense work.
“He’s not the least bit pretentious or egotistical about his talent,” Bourne says of Crocker. “If he’s really passionate about a project, he will work his ass off and he will draw the best out of you. He kicked my ass sometimes just to get me to do the best I could do. It was like just descending into creative madness. It was beautiful, and I really needed that. I realized I hadn’t experienced that since I was doing a lot of four-track recordings by myself.”
Crocker took some of the ideas sketched out in Bourne’s old demos and took them “way beyond that.” But even with the progress they were making, money considerations forced Bourne to delay the finished product’s release by two years. Was it hard to sit on it that long? “Yes!” says Bourne with enormous emphasis.
It may have been worth the wait, though. With help from Calgary’s Saved By Radio, Supermodern is now available on disc, download and, yes, glorious slabs of vinyl.
Perhaps one day in the future, when CDs have gone the way of the dodo, a couple of young siblings will discover the LP and begin their own musical apprenticeship playing along. In a way, things have come full circle for Bourne, with the new album bringing back the days of listening to records at his parents’ house: “The records are at my mom’s house, actually, because I don’t have room to store them.”
Published May 13, 2010 by M.D. Stewart in Music Previews
