Ball of Wax 44 Songs: Darryl Blood – Maelstrom

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Matty P

Listening to Darryl Blood‘s “Maelstrom,” I’m taken into a dark world of nightmares. So it seems, with the strange industrial-esque sounds inhabiting the background. There is a faint pulse beating every couple of seconds and occasionally what sounds to be a loud foghorn blasting its whereabouts in a darkened chamber full of mist. Occasionally the singer makes himself heard with indistinguishable words and phrases. It sounds like Roach from Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs. And so the song sounds as if it would be a fitting soundtrack to such a movie. Or one could just as easily picture this piece as an accompaniment to Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Descent into the Maelstrom.” The musical tone is sure dark enough.

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Ball of Wax 44 Songs: Velvet Grapes – El No Puede

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Matty P

This Ball of Wax has brought out more experimental sounds then in any recent edition. Listening to the mix may in fact leave you strait-jacket mad. Velvet Grapes‘ “El No Puede” walks you through a dream state. Background sounds galore. There isn’t too much to focus on for too long in this piece. There are the reoccurring themes of the radio sounding voice repeating “el no puede,” there is the sound of a girl humming in the background, sounds of running water, ghosts in the back of the house, or pipes rustling from the floor above in a hundred year old house. It’s as if the artists has picked up on some strange radio frequency which simultaneously picks up endangered whales and Latino radio. thanks to a google translation, “no can” is a refreshing rejoinder after years of hearing you can do this and you can do that. sorry, not me. No can do.

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Ball of Wax 44 Songs: Kelly Morgan – Way Down

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Jon Rooney

“Way Down” opens with an uneasy gurgling of voices that sound like the creeping nightlife in a jungle. That gurgle persists like a vamp, looping as sonic foundation underneath a handful of voices weaving around each other, singing the words “Way Down” in a multitude of phrasings. Kelly Morgan’s contribution to Ball of Wax 44 is ambitious, fascinating, and well-executed – a sort of swamp thing La Monte Young that I didn’t know how much I needed to hear until after I heard it.

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Ball of Wax 44 Songs: Amanda Winterhalter – Sugar Water

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Levi Fuller

I first met Amanda Winterhalter through the Bushwick Book Club, so it’s fitting that her first song with Ball of Wax is a Bushwick song. In fact, the night I saw her play this song – we were both performing at an event featuring music inspired by the work of different writers from the group Seattle7Writers – was the night I said to myself “yes, let’s do a voices-only Ball of Wax, and let’s have that song be part of it.” (Of course I promptly forgot/waffled on that plan and didn’t decide on it again until four months later.) Thankfully Amanda graciously acceded to my request to include her beautiful, Appalachian-style ballad – inspired, appropriately enough, by the tale of the Carter Family as presented in Frank Young and David Lasky’s graphic novel The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song.

I know, I know, there were a lot of references in that paragraph. Bushwick? Seattle7? Carter Family? But truly, you don’t need any of that background info to appreciate the sad, unadorned beauty of Amanda’s tune, lamenting a life gone wrong and a useless cure. Just click play, and then go buy your tickets so you can experience the in-person version at the BoW 44 release show June 11th at the Fremont Abbey.

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Ball of Wax 44 Songs: The Lonely Coast with Annie Ford – The Ravens’ Feast

Posted on May 25, 2016 by Jon Rooney

“The Ravens’ Feast” sounds like a timeless folk song, composed of a simple, repeated melodic figure that gives way to a soaring resolution in the last third of the minute-and-a-half or so track. As far as I can tell, however, it’s an original composition that showcases the clear, confident voices of Annie Ford along with Valerie Holt and Anne Matthews of the Lonely Coast. This is sparse, gripping Americana of the highest order, somber and ghostly and a wonderful addition to the vocals-only Ball of Wax collection.

Come see Annie Ford and the Lonely Coast perform “The Ravens’ Feast” and other songs at the Ball of Wax 44 release show on June 11th at the Fremont Abbey.

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Ball of Wax 44 Songs: Holly Small – Break

Posted on May 25, 2016 by Levi Fuller

Holly Small (last heard on Volume 42 with her take on the meaning of life) returns with another unapologetically sweet, R&B-infused tune – with, of course, no instruments but her own pipes. “Break” is another love song from Holly, and a fine entry into the canon. Backing her confident lead vocal up with a note-perfect chorus of oohs and ahhs, Holly almost turns herself into a one-woman Boyz II Men (Girl II Women?) – and I do mean that as a compliment (I mean, maybe their music isn’t for you, but there’s just no arguing with these dudes’ vocal chops). “Only you can break my heart” is just such a great line for a bittersweet love song, too. “Break” is yet another splendidly written and sung tune from Holly Small.

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Ball of Wax 44 Songs: Colin Isler – Ribbons of Sun

Posted on May 24, 2016 by Matty P

“Ribbons of Sun” plays and listens like a typewriter. Colin Isler sings a line, leaves you to ponder what he’s just said amidst hmms, ohhs, and a Friday the 13th-esque tcha tcha tcha tcha. It has an eerie effect. and then cha-ching, the carriage resets and the song’s onto the next line. And the lines end with this discord. Or, skip the typewriter analogy. Instead, picture a clock ticking in the background that’s connected to some mad scientist’s contraption consisting of industrial scraps which is distilling ancient potions which will be used to convince the listener to “believe me.” But you must make it to the climax to really appreciate what Colin Isler is doing in this song. He’s building tension from the beginning, and then stop and enter the call, “Oh please, believe me,” and then he resolves it all back to where he started. And if you miss it, shame on you.

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Ball of Wax 44 Songs: Visceral Candy – Scratching My Head (Feat. Tim Stiles)

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Levi Fuller

I am so glad Seth Swift et al. took up my all-vocals challenge to concoct this delightfully twisted hip-hop tune about insecurity, lice, and boogers. Just four tracks in we’ve seen the stark, solo vocal; the multi-tracked faux rock band; the sweet looping duo; and the straight up doo-wop barbershop quartet – and now on track five we have something completely different: Voices effected and twisted six ways to Sunday and turned into drum machines, basses, synths, and who knows what all, backing up Swift and guest vocalist Tim Stiles’s sad and ridiculous tale of woe. Every single piece that was submitted to me for this volume of Ball of Wax treated the vocals-only constraint as a challenge, but used it to create pieces that stand on their own and that I would want to keep listening to whatever the instrumentation. “Scratching My Head” is no exception.

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Ball of Wax 44 Songs: Mts. and Tunnels – Not Bad

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Jon Rooney

On “Not Bad,” Seattle’s Mts. and Tunnels go full pop doo-wop and they absolutely kill it. While the first “bum, ba bum”‘s of the barbershop quartet bass parts seem a tad hokey for a second, the lead vocal and harmony parts chase away any fears that “Not Bad” might be not that good. “Not Bad” is actually pretty great, the kind of clear-hearted, unencumbered pop goodness that one might presume would have been a feel-good radio hit at some point in the hazy past. The vocal performances are really impressive; lead Mts. and Tunneller Chris Poage lands a passionate, throaty  “This heart of mine / with that heart of yours / channels a power / that can blow off the doors” without a trace of sarcasm or pastiche.  The song then pull off bridge and turnaround before landing back in the bouncy, super satisfying verse. Just really well-written, well-arranged and well-performed stuff.

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Ball of Wax 44 Songs: Swooning – Sun & the Moon

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Matty P

[We’re proud to welcome a new writer to the  fold. You’ve probably heard Matty P on Ball of Wax and/or seen him on stage at a BoW release show, whether as a member of the Foghorns Bucket o’ Bourbon Choir or singing his own songs under the Karaoke Hottiez moniker. He’s graciously volunteered to lend his wordsmithing skills to the Blog of Wax, and we’re happy to have him. Welcome Matty!]

Floating up like the effervescence in the glass bottle of a sparkling mineral water.  Fine sounds crisp and clear coming together like baby angels singing in a little tree house cathedral.  This all-vocal song by Swooning follows a melody and lyrics which harken back to the simplicity of an early sixties pop radio hit.  the singers sound off in a childlike manner that is reminiscent of Andrea Estrella from the short lived Brooklyn project, Twin Sister, although Swooning has an edge and direction all its own.  The diction and phrasing in “Sun and the Moon” goes back and forth from predictably pleasing to the ear to playfully keeping the listener on edge and pleasantly surprised.

Catch Swooning live at the Ball of Wax 44 release show on Saturday, June 11th!

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