Jason Anthony Harris

After a long stint as guitarist in the instrumental rock group The Grand March, Jason Anthony Harris' solo debut "A Record" is a return to the concise pop songcraft he explored once as leader of Brooklyn's Checkbook Biography. But the songs are more personal now, more lived in. Taking place somewhere between rock and folk, between the jazzy meditations of David Sylvian and the blunt burrowing of Lee Hazelwood or of Beck's "Sea Change."

Recorded in a basement in Brooklyn by Ruben Sindo Acosta (of Afuche), Harris brought in several musicians to contribute their own interpretation of the songs, lending harmonium and backing vocals (Paige Lipari), piano and clarinet (Jihyae Ham), electric guitars (Zach Ryalls of Afuche), drums (Aaron Farinelli), and bass (Denny Tek, also Afuche).

"A Record" varies from the enveloping drone of opener "End Up" to the hushed paranoia of "Walls," from pop-swinger "Offers" to the stripped acoustic and piano of "Sons." The claustrophobic voice and electric guitar intro in "Early" gives way to a blossom of beat and full instrumentation in it's middle section before collapsing once again into the intro's box. The album also features an almost countried rock number, a soundscapish clarinet and harmonium duet, as well as a cluster of mannequin heads rolling down the basement stairs. All the while, "A Record" maintains a singular identity, feeling like a complete album, a series of pieces to be taken in as a whole, one vast and teeming frame.