Transcendence

Hot on the heels of their genre-defying Rise and Shine, released in 2002, which garnered the band international media and fan attention with its unique blending of multiple styles tucked into a tasty alterna-rock all their own -- along with the two college radio hits Better luck next time and Do you know who you are -- the band then released Sleep with you, turning the musical tables with a Brit rock swagger reminiscent of Radiohead, early David Bowie, or Lou Reed. Sleep With You featured the college radio favorites Minnie Driver, Vicodin, and Girls. The controversial new CD was produced by Fred Freeman of Dungeon Recording Studios, who had just recently completed work on other South Florida break-out bands, New Found Glory, Dashboard Confessional, Diecast, AAA, Secret French Kissing Society, etc.

The CD was filled with over the top rock guitar and soaring vocals, pounding bass and drums, and sex and drug allusions galore, keenly observed by the closing statements of the CD's review in All Music Guide which gave the CD 4 out of 5 stars, "rock & roll from the Paris Hilton set, out to lunch, out of time, and unconcerned about anything but their own vanity. So yes, it's deluded and occluded, but it still rocks like nothing else out there. Get it." (Thom Jureck)
The more straight-ahead modern rock of Sleep With You earned the album regular rotation on college radio stations nationwide, top ten status on XM radio (I'm not the only one), best indie band in Florida status from the Bigtime talent awards, national distribution, then management, then booking contracts, and charted for weeks on the Specialty Show charts throughout 2003.
But it was the single Superhero girl released to commercial alternative-rock radio in the summer of 2004 that pushed the group over the edge. The song was added to regular rotation on stations all over the country charting as high as #5 in some cities. It also guaranteed the band feature slots in the music festival circuit including the NEMO Music Festival in Boston and the CMJ Music Festival in New York and a tour of Europe during the summer.

A flurry of buzz continues to surround their latest CD, released in late 2004, entitled Nothing is Cohesive, a bold and beautiful collection of post-modern garage rockers and lush seventies-style piano ballads that the band recorded in their garage studio. The album has received rave reviews across the board, earning the band enormous street-cred with critics. Five-star and A+ reviews, and being lauded as one of the most important breakthrough albums of the year by Hellfire Promotions in 2005, it is easy to understand why some call it their best effort to date, which says a lot coming from the very prolific group.

Nothing is Cohesive is raw, unrefined, and surges with an honest musical sensuality that gloriously demonstrates how much the band loves making music together. It mixes a variety of classic and modern rock styles in a surprisingly cohesive listen -- despite its title-- for how far out the band was willing to travel in their sonic explorations to achieve something completely different from last years Sleep with you.
Besides the critical attention, Nothing is cohesive topped the charts on many college radio stations across the country and hit the top forty of many more upon its release.

In November the band released their first live DVD, Transcendence: Live at Jazid.

There is also the new one-hour public television documentary by Asheville, NC based Journey of Dreams Productions about the band and the making of their new CD entitled Transcendence: Everything is Cohesive, that can be viewed on youtube.com or google video. - Ariel Publicity, NY

“Nothing Is Cohesive is a great album. This is art here, folks -- diverse, challenging, reckless, and brilliant. So after that build-up, what does Transcendence actually sound like? Imagine Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, Frank Zappa, Roger Waters, Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), Dan Wilson (Semisonic) and Bono partying all night and then cutting an album with Beatles producer George Martin manning the boards, and you might be in the neighborhood. It's an erratic, ecstatic kaleidoscope of tones, textures, voices and attitudes that takes all the right lessons from '70s rock and employs them with imagination and flair, and it adds up to utter shambling magnificence. They find another way to turn your expectations inside out. It's musical anarchy, beautiful chaos. It's art. It's Transcendence. Do not miss it. RATING: A
--Jason Warburg, www.dailyvault.com - The Daily Vault

“The mind boggling mix summed up by the title of their new opus, Nothing is cohesive, is a stunning collision of anthems that cull from Pink Floyd and Supertramp to U2, Coldplay, and Radiohead.”
--Lee Zimmerman, New Times Magazine



“Tapping power pop's greatest sounds, the group combines Jellyfish's innate melodicism, Queen's layers of orchestral glitz and enough synthesizers to make John Hughes grin. "Somebody Kill The DJ" (perhaps a lyrical nod to the Smiths), has the best synthesized Star Trek music bed this side of Paramount Pictures. On "Tomorrow," they play bouncy Paul McCartney-like pianisms that would make Matthew Sweet jealous, including a leg-kicking outro suitable for any Abbey Road knockoff.”
-- Kory Grow, CMJ New Music Monthly



"’Somebody Killed the DJ' makes me want to walk right down the hall into the studio, and throw this thing on the air IMMEDIATELY! What a great song."
—Richard Sands, Live 105, The Sands Report



“Transcendence’s Nothing is cohesive bring to mind the pomp and glitter sounds that may collide if you merged classic Love `n Rockets, Matthew Sweet and Iggy Pop with David Bowie, T. Rex, World Party, The Thrills, Frank Zappa, even U2 and White Stripes. While that sounds all over the place, it works because the band here has control of its self-made manifesto and the confidence and talent to pull off the disparate sound. A true original and a most appropriate band name for these ears.”
-- Not Lame Recording [www.notlame.com]




“Ooooo!!! I'm liking this stuff!!!! "Somebody Kill The DJ" has been played almost to death in my office now, which is always a good sign!!!! A great, poppy song, massively commercial with superb instrumentation. A really wicked blend of modern / retro / chart-topping rock!!! I love it!!!! One of the best and hottest new worldwide bands. It’s going to be MASSIVE!”

A&R Manager - Will Sherman
Matchbox Recordings LTD, Matchbox Radio 24





”Vocalist Ed Hale filters it all through his socially conscious and cerebral lyrics. A track like “Somebody Kill the DJ” will get honorable mention as New Wave retro-track of 2005, while “Caetano” is every bit as Radiohead as it gets. These guys sound like they pulled out some old Bowie tracks, did a bunch of drugs, and hit record, playing until the sun came up the next day.”
--- www.smother.net

- New Times Magazine and various

"Softening" will fuck with your head. It would be interesting to know what was
going on in the recording studio when they recorded this? One thing I've learned from listening to their albums, is that Ed Hale has a freaking great control of his vocals. Two final observations. "Somebody Kill the DJ" could be tweaked into the single. The other is that you have to credit a band that can somehow fall in-between Zappa and Wings and get away with it.
--- Jonathan Rosen, JLRADIO.COM



"While all that glitters is typically far from gold, the modern rock
group Transcendence gleams a luminescent shade of platinum!" -Steve English, SPLENDID MAGAZINE



4 out of 5 stars!
"Rock & roll from the Paris Hilton set out to lunch, out of time, and
unconcerned about anything but their own vanity. So yes it may be deluded and occluded, but it rocks like nothing else out there. Get it." -ALL MUSIC GUIDE






Indie-Music.com

Reviews: Transcendence ~ Nothing Is Cohesive
Posted on Saturday, July 01, 2006 @ 06:02:18 EST
Topic: Reviews


Artist: Transcendence
CD: Nothing is Cohesive
Home: New York City, Miami
Style: Modern Rock

Quote: "This group knows how to transcend musical boundaries."

By Dan MacIntosh

Transcendence is a rock band driven primarily by Ed Hale’s distinctively emotive vocals. Hale sings with an urgency that may remind you of World Party’s Karl Wallinger (anybody still remember him/them?) at times, and he often comes across like he’s overwhelmed by all of his inner feelings. The CD’s title is more of a commentary on the scattered nature of life itself, instead of the music this group makes, because the songs on this disc hold together relatively well.

This group knows how to transcend musical boundaries, as these songs range from a cover of Paul McCartney’s “Tomorrow,” to one called “Caetano,” which is most likely about the Brazilian singer/social commentator Caetano Veloso. On “Caetano,” Hale’s voice tones fall somewhere between Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, and “Space Oddity”-era David Bowie. To his credit, Hale is never afraid to play the vocal chameleon if the direction of the song requires it.

There is a likeable sense of spontaneity running through these recordings, including plenty of controlled instrumental chaos (or simply put, feedback) at the end of some tracks. There is also plenty of stylistic variation here. For instance, “I Wanna Know Ya” chugs along with garage-y fervor, yet “Softening,” where the song title also describes the sound of the track, is a gentle, Todd Rundgren-y piano ballad. “If Your Baby Could” is also especially sweet, and plays out like a lullaby. Adding to the fun of this listening experience is the sexy sound of a women speaking in French between a few tracks.

It should be noted that Hale does have a bit of potty mouth at times. Never more so than on “Bored,” which – though profane – still succinctly sums up a few of entertainment business’s more harsh realities. “I’m such a f-ing whore, prostituting my integrity to secure this false celebrity,” Hale blurts out at one point.

Hale may have transformed his boredom into a notable song, but chances are you’ll never be bored by Transcendence. It may even help you transcend a few of the duller moments of your day.

- INDIE-MUSIC.COM

It wouldn't be too hard to guess what Ed Hale listened to as a young man, and what influenced him. As the band's singer/guitarist, his vocals weave through shades of David Bowie, Jim Carroll, Lou Reed and others. His songwriting favors a mix of glam rock and hook-heavy street rock. This is, of course, good news for the listener, as each cut begs to be played again and again. Hale seems to take a playful approach to his vocal work, sneering and drawling out words, twisting syllables, ranging through emotions as the band drapes a wall of sound and sheen behind him. Lyrically, he's funny too, as in the title track, where he implores, "I don't want to go out with you, 'cause I don't think that we'd last too long," then with the chorus, "what can I do to sleep with you, what can I do?" Hale is equally at home with ballads, as a song like "Veronica" shows. Dynamically astute, the music rises and falls, and Hale's voice matches the dynamics emotionally, wavering yet authentic. This is a fine disc that deserves a home in your collection. www.transcendence.com
www.nyrock.com June 1, 2004, by Bill Ribas - New York Rock

Simply put, this is train-wreck music, music by and for ambulance chasers. Ed Hale and Transcendence don't seem to know what year it is musically. Imagine Sleep With You as the place where raw, inelegant lyrical confessionalism and irony (think a stoned-out, linguistically restricted Rufus Wainwright meeting an Andrew W.K.) employ the razor-wire guitars and synths of Billy Squier and the catchy hooks and amped-up drums of Cheap Trick and you get an idea of this luxuriantly wasted slab's sound. On top of this, there are songs that aren't so much songs as reports from the front of post-'90s decadence as proffered by rock & rollers who wish they were Bob Welch on the cover of French Kiss. Half the fun of listening to Sleep With You is trying to figure out if Hale is serious in his macho-tinged foppishness, which would make him _______ (fill in the blank), or if he's just laying the bad jokes out hot and heavy like Bill Nighy's character Billy Mack in Love Actually trying to cash in and get laid. From the overblown volume and lyrical minimalism of "Vicodin" to the completely dunderheaded fluff of "Superhero Girl," to "Minnie Driver," this feels like rock & roll from the Paris Hilton set out to lunch, out of time, and unconcerned about anything but their own vanity. So yes, it's deluded and occluded, but it still rocks like nothing else out there. Four out of five stars. Get it. — Thom Jurek
Transcendence, Sleep with You (© 2003 TMG Records) - All Music Guide