Julia Conny
03/07/09, 12:13 AM
Winston Audio - The Red Rhythm
Release Date: February 10, 2009
Record Label: Favorite Gentlemen
The Red Rhythm is the first full-length from Winston Audio, a Georgia quintet that’s a updating the best parts of 90’s alternative rock. You get the loud, wailing guitar infrastructures and huge choruses and verses, but you also get the confidence of major alternative rock groups that made music to make music and, which has nearly all been forgotten, make a statement (even though I don’t think Winston Audio aimed to make a “statement record”, know what I mean?). Coming in spills from vocalist and bass player Daniel Dewitt, who sounds giftedly similar to Chris Cornell, there are themes of religion, social un-grace, human nature and rebellion.
But these guys aren’t just creating grungy tour de forces with your standard mix of distortion and a frontman’s brawny cry. “Keeping It Down” features background vocals from Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra, stirring up a well-meshed holler on holler sauce for the roaring percussion and speedy melody. On track four, titled “Hey Ann”, trumpet parts are adding a whole other layer of grime (the good kind, the alternative kind). Between the paths where the guitars ride their mini cusps and this surprising twist of a horn, the song takes on an intensity that weeps and moans. But hey, we’re still manly here.
And that’s what’s magnetic about the strength of Winston Audio. On “Devil’s Bed”, one of the heaviest and most power-hungry tracks on the album, lyrics like “I’ve got a chip on my shoulder that’s bigger than / The mountains you said my belief could move / Far be it from me to question your methods / But how could you save me from drowning asleep on the shore?” are so much more than a reaction to the song’s handsome masculinity. Following “Devil’s Bed” is “Action Reaction”, a softer number. It’s one of the most unforgettable of the album; Dewitt croons the line - “if you push, we’ll push back / violence is the only way we react” - that after many, many listens remains one of the most golden passes on the entire release.
Even so, there are still more moments where The Red Rhythm requires a step back, or at least a quick rewind. Dewitt’s curvature of notes and words is instinctual and so natural that no verse or phrase on the album is without a bit of that aforementioned confidence. His lyrics, his delivery, and the rest of the band, with their streamlined ferocity and proper bits of flair, are doing it right. But they knew that already.
Audioslave, Incubus, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Colour Revolt, Manchester OrchestraAP.net Profile (http://www.absolutepunk.net/winstonaudio) | Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/winstonaudio) | iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=299347285&s=143441) | Amazon MP3 (http://www.amazon.com/The-Red-Rhythm/dp/B001N84E50/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1236412844&sr=8-1) | Last.fm (http://www.last.fm/music/Winston+Audio)
Release Date: February 10, 2009
Record Label: Favorite Gentlemen
The Red Rhythm is the first full-length from Winston Audio, a Georgia quintet that’s a updating the best parts of 90’s alternative rock. You get the loud, wailing guitar infrastructures and huge choruses and verses, but you also get the confidence of major alternative rock groups that made music to make music and, which has nearly all been forgotten, make a statement (even though I don’t think Winston Audio aimed to make a “statement record”, know what I mean?). Coming in spills from vocalist and bass player Daniel Dewitt, who sounds giftedly similar to Chris Cornell, there are themes of religion, social un-grace, human nature and rebellion.
But these guys aren’t just creating grungy tour de forces with your standard mix of distortion and a frontman’s brawny cry. “Keeping It Down” features background vocals from Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra, stirring up a well-meshed holler on holler sauce for the roaring percussion and speedy melody. On track four, titled “Hey Ann”, trumpet parts are adding a whole other layer of grime (the good kind, the alternative kind). Between the paths where the guitars ride their mini cusps and this surprising twist of a horn, the song takes on an intensity that weeps and moans. But hey, we’re still manly here.
And that’s what’s magnetic about the strength of Winston Audio. On “Devil’s Bed”, one of the heaviest and most power-hungry tracks on the album, lyrics like “I’ve got a chip on my shoulder that’s bigger than / The mountains you said my belief could move / Far be it from me to question your methods / But how could you save me from drowning asleep on the shore?” are so much more than a reaction to the song’s handsome masculinity. Following “Devil’s Bed” is “Action Reaction”, a softer number. It’s one of the most unforgettable of the album; Dewitt croons the line - “if you push, we’ll push back / violence is the only way we react” - that after many, many listens remains one of the most golden passes on the entire release.
Even so, there are still more moments where The Red Rhythm requires a step back, or at least a quick rewind. Dewitt’s curvature of notes and words is instinctual and so natural that no verse or phrase on the album is without a bit of that aforementioned confidence. His lyrics, his delivery, and the rest of the band, with their streamlined ferocity and proper bits of flair, are doing it right. But they knew that already.
Audioslave, Incubus, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Colour Revolt, Manchester OrchestraAP.net Profile (http://www.absolutepunk.net/winstonaudio) | Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/winstonaudio) | iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=299347285&s=143441) | Amazon MP3 (http://www.amazon.com/The-Red-Rhythm/dp/B001N84E50/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1236412844&sr=8-1) | Last.fm (http://www.last.fm/music/Winston+Audio)