Local Review: Summerhead – Liberation

Summerhead
Liberation

Eden’s Watchtower
Summerhead = German EBM + A Different Drum Records

 

Mostly instrumental Summerhead ranges from new-age electronica to synthpop to hip-hop to DJ dub trance to reggae, Enya to Natalie Merchant to Massive Attack. The coherency lies in the smooth production, the peaceful, slow beat structures that are one web holding together contrasting musical ideas. It works very well. The production is very clean, maybe too clean. I like it best when the music gets darker and more meaningful, as in “Deer Hunter” and “Solar Systems,” not “Cold Hug.”