Canon

Canon's music is unique. While frequently conjuring dreamscapes, calling to the listener with ethereal harmonies, the pieces are immediate and personal. Canon takes you to new territory that is foreign yet familiar, strange yet inviting. Great and bold writing and execution are found here. Step inside!"


- Jeff Avrin (Heart Dance, Sack O ' Woe, Dave Shepard and Blues Rider,Walker Smith Group)

I was sitting around the gas-n-sip last night boozin and going through twenty dollars worth of scratch off tickets. I was thinking how sweet it would be if I won a couple grand and how I really wanted a burrito. all in all, it was a mildly successful evening despite not winning any money. my point is that we're all just sitting around waiting to die. despite this admittedly grim realization, I'm still pretty impressed by life sometimes. there are those rare occasions when the sun falls delicately on a young girl's face and her hair is blowing wildly about, or when your floating in the ocean and the water is so warm you feel amniotic and content. possibly you feel that way while watching a giant flock of birds all changing direction in unison mid flight or eating a really good cheeseburger-whatever floats your boat. CANON is this neat synthesis of Radiohead, the Velvet Teen, and Jethro Tull that will make killing all the time before you die a bit more pleasant.
- Transworld Skateboard Mag

From Los Angeles comes this interesting new act Canon, whose debut Wide Awake is extremely modern sounding, yet owes a lot to vintage progressive rock. Shades of Radiohead, Muse, Explosions in the Sky, Porcupine Tree, and U2 can be heard throughout the album, as well as nods to Yes, King Crimson, and Genesis. Comprised of Jason Turbin on vocals & keyboards, Tieg Johnson on guitars, Benji Pope on bass, and Cassidy Turbin on drums, Canon have a bold yet atmospheric style that comes across as highly emotional. The title track is one hell of a powerful song, with Turbin's yearning vocals paving the way above bubbling bass lines, shards of dissonant guitar, and majestic piano. Imagine Robert Fripp jamming with The Edge & Bono with Radiohead plinking away in the background. Deft acoustic guitar and keyboard orchestrations permeate the lush No One Speaks, and symphonic prog rock rears its head on the clever Rennaissance. The band mixes jazz, prog, and metallic hard rock on the upbeat Running As Fast As We Can, a song that contains some excellent keyboard work from Jason Turbin, and plow into driving AOR/pomp/ prog on the quirky, Hammond drenched The Golden Mean, sounding like a combination of Yes, Deep Purple, Aviary, and Styx. Equally as compelling are the more ethereal pieces like Alive, Master, and the moody Euromatic, which will easily appeal to fans of Radiohead with their atmospheric keyboards and haunting vocals.

Wide Awake has all the elements that make a solid, progressive tinged modern rock record. Bands like The Mars Volta, Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, and Coheed & Cambria, have all been mentioned as spearheading a movement of modern progressive rock. Once fans get a listen to this CD, you might be able to add another name to that list. - Pete Pardo featured In Sea of Tranquility Webzine. http://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=s

The band Canon has come along and delivered a pretty well fortified progressive rock album...Wide Awake explores the outer limits and boundaries of alternative and classic rock soundscapes without wandering off the map. From the composition of the melodies and layering of sounds to Jason Turbin’s vocals, most of the tracks flow with noticeable influences that blend to create an experience somewhere between Radiohead and the Mozez-lead Zero 7 works. The production quality is pretty high, as evidenced by the clarity of the recording.

Wide Awake has a bass line and melodic structure that you’d expect to find on a Vast album, but without the raging vocals or angelic chorus. “SOS” has the strongest Zero 7 influences but never mimics the band directly. I’d call this one a keeper. There’s a good deal of intelligence to the structure of the lyrics and how they flow with the music. This is an album that may take more than one sitting to be fully appreciated but it will get to you in time. Scoop it up. I think you’ll be very pleased. -Baron has been a writer for Shakefire.com since 2006. Contact him at baron@shakefire.com - http://www.shakefire.com/reviews/canonwideawake.html

Los Angeles based CANON was influenced by 70s rock titans like King Crimson, Yes and Jethro Tull, yet their sound is also reminiscent of contemporary trailblazers such as Radiohead, Muse and Explosions in the Sky. Throughout their debut album, “Wide Awake,” released in February 2007 by Mercy Records, the listener hears this wide range of influences, but should enjoy the fact the band doesn't come off sounding like another copycat. Instead, they bring their own original sound ranging from slow and smooth, almost eerie, to vibrant and upbeat tempos that listeners sometimes find all in the same song.

For example, track two's “Don't Trust the Teachers” is reminiscent of Pink Floyd's “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” but Canon has their own unique edge with tempo shifting throughout the song's authority-defying message. From their haunting title track, “Wide Awake” to “SOS” with its hard, robotic groove, the album should not disappoint anyone looking for something a little off the beaten track.

Produced by Justin Meldal-Johnson (Beck, Ima Robot, Medicine), “Wide Awake” is touted as ethereal and atmospheric one moment, and abrasive and vibrant the next; which, makes for a wild ride. They lure you in slowly, build you up with a crescendo tempo and then bring you back down to earth, leaving you fully satisfied with the result. Each song tells a story, usually in five minutes or less, but you never feel like something is missing.

Lyrically, each musical mini-saga isn't made up of the street-toughened words one might expect from the new generation of rockers. Instead, they truly reflect the band's uniquely mixed influence of the 70s rock scene and Renaissance poets, but in a fresh blend. Call them progressive, alternative, experimental or any number of other adjectives, the band is definitely making waves.

CANON is made up of Jason Turbin (vocals, keyboard), Tieg Johnson (guitars), Benji Pope (bass) and Cassidy Turbin (drums). With a large fan base already established and their obvious fearlessness in trying new and original aspects in their music, it could very well give their budding career a chance at greatness. Their debut album is available in stores now and for more information about the band visit one of their websites at www.canontheband.com or www.myspace.com/canon. - By Moira K. Wiley of Crave Magazine

Blindfold test: The new Coldplay album? Keane perhaps? No! Wait! Are these the lost Thom Yorke solo demos everyone was buzzing about a few years back? Nope, but it sure sounds like all of the above. Most of the elements required for an enjoyable post-Brit-pop shoe-gazing orgasm are in abundance on the seductively somnambulant Wide Awake. The pleasantly self-indulgent lyrics overflowing with adolescent angst, the moderate yet effective orchestral backdrop, the soaring falsetto vocals bolstering deeply personal revelations, the overt references to death and suicide, the sweeping dynamic changes in tempo and timbre, and the obligatory oblique instrumental interludes are made-to-order in all ten anthemic mini-operas. No need to go into a track-by track descriptive. Sometimes a Xerox copy is just as good as the original. In Canon's case, who can tell?

~ Tom Semioli


- Tom Semioli of Amplifier Mag

California's Canon adds its own bit of progress to progressive rock.

The Los Angeles quartet (three of them transplants from Florida) follows enough prog-rock signatures on "Wide Awake" to pique the interest of fans of Pink Floyd and/or Jethro Tull. Canon plays with textures and time signatures, dabbles in avant-garde form, follows high-minded concepts, pits noisy stretches and dissonance against quiet interludes and blends classical and jazz motifs into the mix.

But in a twist, Canon dispatches its songs in quick, ADD-friendly packages for the 21st century, most tracks clocking in from about 2 minutes to about 4 minutes in length.

In doing so, Canon eliminates the tedium of classic prog-rock, though its conciseness more acutely exposes the hokum inherent in the form. "Wide Awake" is like CliffsNotes Shakespeare: It's graciously less taxing than the original but inescapably less effective.

That's not to say it doesn't work on some level.

Singer/keyboardist Jason Turbin adds a stirringly emotional voice to "Wide Awake," his delivery akin to Radiohead's Thom Yorke shaded with a little Morrissey croon and some Gothic punch. (Yeah, it's a bit cheesy.)

Turbin is at his best adding just enough drama to the sometimes-funereal "Euromatic" and the delicate closer, "Master."

Meanwhile, "Wide Awake," is stately and subversive, baroque orchestrations sliding around and bouncing off old-school electronica and heavy rock. Bass lines tend to be thick, beats are prone to get chunky and the layers pile on and peel away with regularity.

So with all the juggling and switching, it's something of a surprise that the most rewarding song on "Wide Awake" is the shortest, most conventional cut, "SOS." Here Turbin is draped in the warm energy of a focused cadence as he sings repetitions of "Who will save us all?"

The track ends in just under two minutes, which begs the question: Should Canon's short songs be abbreviated even more?

Rating: 3-1/2

~Chuck Campbell - San Francisco Chronicle, Scripps News, Knoxnews, and others. A lot of places published this one.

"For those who discovered Coldplay before their coming of age, and cherished the sounds of their Blue Room EP could very easily fall for Canon.

Led by the haunting delivery of vocalist Jason Turbin (think Thom Yorke and King Crimson's Adrian Belew) and rounded out by the fine craftmanship of bassist Benji Pope, drummer Cassidy Turbin, and guitarist Tieg Johnson, Canon adds a welcomed twist to indie rock's current Neutral Milk Hotel/Bright Eyes homage.

Canon's meticulous touch is pristine in song and production, thus the Hollywood foursome create some of the most elegant songs heard ("Alive," "Don't Trust the Teachers") since Radiohead's earliest b-sides.

Produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, Ima Robot), It's time to take a magical trip with Canon."
- review from mackenzieland.com - Mackenzieland.com