New Dialectic

Colorado-based group New Dialectic are on a roll and riding a wave of momentum that has seen good airplay on local radios and strong support among the college crowds. With a style that can swing between raucous rock to intimate jazz sessions, New Dialectic plays for the crowd and the venue. Samana could well be the perfect place to catch them as the small venue in the village has been known to go off when the right band stops off for a jam.
- Ben Quirk, Vail Daily, 2006 - Vail Daily

Whether serving up a funky rendition of a Bill Withers favorite, garnishing a sultry Portishead song or dishing out their own jazz rock grooves, New Dialectic (performing at Loaded Joe's Friday Night, December 9th) cooks up a variety of melodic flavors that will tantalize your musical palate. The two lead vocalists play snaking guitar and piano lines while singing to the trip-rock beat of their drummer creating a unique blend of indie rock and jazz stylings. New Dialectic is touring the Colorado mountain range this winter to garner support for their new album to be released in 2006. - Vail Daily, 2005 - Vail Daily

"Dialectic," as defined by vocalist and keyboardist Joanna Pane of Denver's New Dialectic, is "the coming together of two opposing ideas," an apt moniker for the band.

New Dialectic is the merging of Pane's piano-based songstress style, á la Tori Amos or Fiona Apple, and guitarist/saxophone player Thomas DeLong's indie-rock-meets-jazz leanings. On New Dialectic's self-titled debut EP, it's clear who wrote what, but on the follow-up EP, Get in the Way, to be released in April, they say they've finally reached a true dialectic.

"I think this new album is a lot more edgy; it's a lot more lively because there are two of us coming at it," Pane says.

But wait! There's more dialectic. New Dialectic also combines emotional force with dance; it's like Coldplay at a wedding. With an increased interest in varying time signatures on the new EP, the two also had to ensure that revelers' feet could follow the beat.

"We want to make them still danceable, not too weird," says DeLong. "But different enough so somebody might perk their ears up."

And if it does get too weird, the band, which also includes Juli Royster on bass and Jim Johanson on drums, has an impressive stock of cover songs to salt their set of originals.

— Josh Johnson

- Colorado Springs Independent

Although New Dialectic is named for a form of polemics, Get in the Way eschews heated exchanges for a more intellectually stimulating brand of discourse. The EP, which receives the release-party treatment on Saturday, May 12, at a Walnut Room show also featuring Tifah and the Heyday, proves that smarts and subtlety are more than capable of trumping hysteria.

Vocalist/keyboardist Joanna Pane and singer/guitarist Thomas DeLong, who front the band, have similar attributes. They're both clear-eyed and straightforward, whether they're trading lines, as they do in "Like I Said," or holding down center-stage solo in "What I Wanted," a strong showcase for Pane, or "What Is There," a DeLong-crooned number that sports angular riffing and a notably hooky chorus. The duo is ably assisted by bassist Juli Royster and drummer John Willhoite, whose nimble rhythms help the unexpectedly propulsive "Let's Go" reach the finish line.

In the end, Way presents an argument too logical to overlook. - Westword - Michael Roberts - May 10, 2007