Restoring Poetry in Music

The DC local music scene offered up a heaping portion of eclectic
musical styles last Sunday at the 9:30 Club for the Emergenza Finals. Some of the areas best bands came out to show 1800 Washingtonians what the city's got hiding just below the surface of button-down shirts and
never-ending filibusters. I've been all around North America, and
witnessed some great local music, but never in my life have I seen
such an amazing array of different styles come together on one night.
......They played the first show of the season in DC... and they played the last. Restoring Poetry in Music took home the grand prize of the night, a trip to the regionals, as well as a hat-trick of individual
musicianship awards. RPM's bassist Drew stepped up and held it down
on the choruses assisting MC Raw Poetic, the best vocalist of the
night, and helped catapult them on to the next round, and a shot at
the national finals. RPM puts on one of the most undeniably amazing shows around. They can't be classified, and if the music business has a brain in it's skull, they won't be stopped. Good luck in the regionals. Represent it for all of DC.

Cru Jones
(6/5/05)

www.emergenza.net/document/news/eng.asp?id=1541 - www.emergenza.net

"Dream Awake" by Restoring Poetry in Music, from Falls Church, Va.; played Dragonfly in Harrisburg yesterday.

One of the more interesting discs and artists to perform at Millennium. A cool mix of hip-hop, jazz and samples with sometimes dreamy, sometimes orchestral production elements. A sensory overload of synth, percussion, horns, voices and strings in a tightly played and recorded package. Raw Poetic, the group's emcee, unloads his rhymes with both a hammer and a feather for a fascinatingly diverse body of work with texture, mood and undeniable groove.

Find this disc or this band when it plays live in northern Virginia. You will NOT be disappointed. On the web: www.rpmband.com

Barry Fox - The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, PA)

In this day and age, it seems that controversy, negativity, sexually explicit lyrics and violence are being adopted by more and more hip-hop artists in order to sell their product; choosing to gain attention with shock and awe tactics, rather than with true musical talent. During its 30+ year history, hip-hop has grown beyond the stigma of only being a voice of the inner city during the 70’s and 80's, and has since broken social, racial and economic boundaries, proving itself as a viable genre of musical expression.
So why is it that nowadays one has to search beyond the commercial "Hip-Pop" that permeates the radio dials in order to hear musically talented artists reminiscent of hip-hop's golden era of the early 90's? Similar to how disco dumbed down jazz and funk music, the current state of mainstream hip-hop is lacking in substance, both musically and lyrically, and is in dire need of a makeover.

With that said, it's refreshing to introduce the talented music of R.P.M. (Restoring Poetry In Music).

R.P.M., like many of its predecessors, incorporates samples and drum breaks from rare-groove and funk albums of the past, while incorporating talented musicians to their own sound. However, they are not just a studio band. They can also deliver their live show, which is forceful and further cements their validity.

On their debut album, Dream Awake, R.P.M. demonstrates how the syncopated sounds of hip-hop can also embody the human feel of live instrumentation. Consisting of lyricist Raw Poetic, whose flow is passionate and expressive, R.P.M. is backed by the talented guitarist P-Fritz, bassist Drew Thomas, keyboardist and trumpeter Aaron Gause, and Marlon Vann who provides the crafty samples and beats.

This album represents the progress that hip-hop music has achieved by merely being expressive without concern for stardom or profits.

www.rpmband.com

Brett Ericson – February, 18, 2005

http://www.kaffeinebuzz.com/musicreviews-rpm.php
- Kaffeine Buzz

By Michael Acker
Broadside Correspondent

Jason “Raw Poetry” Moore, lead rap vocalist of Northern Virginia band Restoring Poetry in Music, is a George Mason University student working towards a B.A. in English. A resident of Falls Church, Moore’s vocal delivery is matched only by his lyrical wit, which will have you replaying tracks in disbelief. He is consistently energetic; maintaining a rapid fire rhyme flow with few breaks in each song. He also shows versatility on tracks like “In Love In Lust,” where he eases his tone for a slower R&B sound.


RPM open their debut album, Dream Awake, with a sample that lays out the band’s purpose: to merge poetry and music to create art. They accomplished this goal exceedingly well with this recording, creating music that is enjoyable for hip-hop aficionados, poets, party goers, and a multitude of other audiences.


Moore’s rhyme mastery is accompanied by the rest of this six-piece crew, who share an appreciation for everything from funk rock to jazz. Aaron “Enron” Gause plays the keys with a skill that evokes the moody and textured playing of Roots keyboardist, Kamal. Guitarist Patrick Fritz takes an experimental approach to his craft that enriches the band’s overall sound. Will Bobbitt and Marlon Vann’s arresting percussion is answered by Drew Thomas’ smooth and unobtrusive bass lines.

These guys know how to inspire and highlight one another’s strengths; watch out for them at the State Theater March 1 and at the Battle of the Bands April 29.


They move on to do a performance at the 9:30 Club if they win the competition.

http://www.broadsideonline.com/article.php?date=02-28-2005&section=style&article=poetrymusic.txt - The Broadside

For those of you who got sick off the Crunk Juice, and felt a disturbingly hot flash when you watched the media dupe American Idol worshippers into purchasing their briefly marketed hacks, you may have found yourself where I am: on a treasure hunt. Scouring the club and bar scene, copping demo CDs, digging into record bins, Internet sound stations and online radio. Searching for something more to satisfy a demanding musical taste. Finding good music is rarely as easy as checking the top forty. Its an actual treasure hunt, with the brightest gold often hidden deep within the island of the unsigned, unloved but untainted by commercial influence.


In December I caught wind of a band I’d never heard of before: RPM, and decided it was time to go hunting once again.


Stepping in from the near arctic streets on Wilson Boulevard, I was greeted by the warm red brick den of Arlington’s Iota. Comfortable heat, comforting brew, a crowd has gathered around the modest stage. Having been told this is a hip-hop group, I was bit surprised to see a band setting up - drums, keyboard, trumpet, bass, guitar, and a sampler. I wondered if I’d come on the right night.


“This is hip-hop?”


All questions were answered in time. MC Jason Moore (Raw Poetic) blast into the microphone, “Check my DJ.” With this cue, lead guitarist Pat Fritz lit up in short riffs like I’d never heard from a guitar before. If you closed your eyes, you couldn’t have been able to tell the difference between him and a DJ scratching records on a turntable, it was amazing.


“Is this hip-hop? – Hell yeah.”


I grabbed a beer and joined the crowd by the stage thrilled that I may have found one of the many gems the D.C. music scene keeps hidden in these frozen months. What I’d discovered was the unique musical richness and energy of RPM (Restoring Poetry in Music).


The real benefit of seeing RPM live is the live musical compositions fueling Jason Moore’s rhymes. The music covers several ranges including jazz, funk, hip-hop, and even rock. Several or even all of these elements can form a seamless integration into a single song. Most often the music is strongly laced with a smooth jazz sound. Fans of hip-hop artists such as MF Doom, The Roots or acid-jazz artists like Wax Poetic and DJ Spooky would likely feel the sounds of RPM: though I won’t say that RPM sounds entirely like any of them. Go check them out live for the full experience, you won’t be disappointed.

Damien Bell
www.plethora-mag.com/RPM.html
- Plethora

I have been waiting for a hip-hop CD like this for ten years.
Now I have nothing against early 21st century hip-hop. On occasion, I hit 92.3 FM in my six year old Malibu on the semi-regular, blasting Kanye West or that new Ludacris jam or one or two terribly lame yet catchy Jay-Z cuts that catch my ear from time to time. But I am a fan of old skool diversity 90's styles like Tribe, Pac, Black Moon, Nine, Wu, Black Sheep, Eric B. and Rakim, Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth, Nas, Digable Planetsand labels called Frrrrrrrrrr and 4th and Broadway. You remember that pre-radio-to-the-video-to-the-television-series/Revlon-commercial-era? You know when hip-hop represented a culture, before being showcased in sneaker comertials and clothing designs Jeb and the rest of his farm boy buddies in Iowa spend TONS of money on daily? I have nothing against money. The brothas and sistas are getting paid and building an empire. But they are doing so at the price of selling the true meaning of creative hip-hop for a vodka brand contract. I was despondent over the years, watching hip-hop dissolve into a wasteland of uncreativity, marred with listener friendly ornaments and dull hooks, into a bland soup of crossover predictability and assembly line monotany. It was like 1942 all over again, watching jazz get raped by the onset of Benny Goodman and his "Swing."
So I waited. Ten years.
And out from the D.C. area comes this group R.P.M. (Restoring Poetry in Music) with a CD with an ethereal title called Dream Awake. It is a musical exercise of diverse and eclectic sounding hip-hop I swore was long forgotten. I put on their CD and heard jazz sampling with real instruments, mixing in with the flow Philadelphia native rapper and group co-founder Jason Moore, 25 talking about real emotions and real feelings, not to just get some girl to go to bed with him or a cry out to making some quick money. The poetry in his technique is not one of vibrato or self-boosting. Neither is it a stle of anger and self-loathing. His flow is one of articulate inner thoughts, contemplating his environment and passions. It is far from preachy and pretentious. The flow is about self-awareness. The flow is about self-love. The flow is a thank you conversation with God for making his poetry poignant and powerful. R.P.M.'s Dream Awake commands for us to feel and remember the essence of hip-hop, with a large dose of Art Blakey, Joni Mitchell, Nas and a splash of Jimi Hendrix and Enigma. It is a superb CD representing the four corners of modern music - Jazz, Folk, Rap, R&B - carefully rolled into an insence that lingers long after it finishes.
"Poetry Bum" is the most memorable. I have never heard such beautifully balanced acoustic waterfall-like guitar under a rap of self-contemplation and day dream, along with an old-school hip-hop beat, P-Fritz's incredible guitar groove in the ball park of Jimi Hendrix's, Are You Experienced, along with a meditative harmonic chant and Aaron Gause's talented trumpet playing. It is by no way a slow meandering cut. It moves with a fast but not too fast pace, that will have your head nodding. I've listened to it with my morning coffee, I've listened to it in a cloud of Jamaican forestry, I have played it for friends and I am strongly convinced, it is by far some intense creative hip-hop that needs to be heard. I dare 92.3 or WPGC FM to take a chance on spinning these talented guys.
R.P.M. members Drew Thomas, 26 - bass - and Kyle Murdock, 25 - production and sampling are Roanoke and Silver Spring. They are dedicated to, as Drew says, "Ushering in a new progression of hip-hop."
However, as always with innovations, they have some difficulty getting heard in some venues in the area, dedicated to riding the same ol' Acme brand of hip-hop untill the wheels fall off finally. "Sometimes we go into a club an let them hear us and they usually say 'well, you guys are hip-hop but not really' so as a result they let us go," says Drew. But you know, a lot of daring stuff like Dave Matthews Band, R.E.M. even Luther Vandross had similar beginnings. I hope R.P.M. holds out. I would hate to wait another ten years for another genius band to come cross my path.

By Preston Arnold - Music Monthly