New Music From Glass Hammer, Jack Sawyer
Glass Hammer
Chronomonaut
(Arion Records)
Today I get the honor of reviewing an album from a group that has far surpassed legendary status with its music career. Having completed now seventeen phenomenal studio albums since their beginning says an awful lot about the tenacity, endurance, and love for music that Chattanooga’s own Glass Hammer emits from its core.
On top of the multiple studio album releases, they have four live albums, and ten “other” albums, which are a mix of different projects and collaborations; with special mention of Artifact One, a techno/dance project released by the original and long-term founding members Steve Babb and Fred Schendel.
Groups do not simply make over thirty albums, and not absolutely love it. I take my hat off and salute this group of warriors for the battle of music, bleeding hearts, and royalty of Progressive Rock and Roll. It is not the longevity that makes them so impressive, it is the pouring their blood, sweat, tears, and soul into it.
Since their beginning, Glass Hammer has consistently been making music that is an extension of their heartbeat, and doing it like a group of ageless, timeless, never bland, always growing, changing, and rocking and rolling the whole way through.
Their October 2018 release of Chronomonaut marks their seventeenth studio album release since 1992, and a phenomenal accomplishment.
Throughout the years, their albums have been potent and flowing. Due to so many various factors, it is hard to compare albums, and measure them as good, better, and best; for any artist/group. Each unique album tells its own story, has its own angle, and bids for its position in the top slot, standing alone as “the best”.
With its short shelf life hot off the presses, Chronomonaut certainly has a diverse one of a kind sound, and really and truly could be their best work yet. The instruments coagulate to produce an unbelievably powerful sound and mix effortlessly with the ferocious lead vocals of Susie Bogdanowicz; the combination produces epic, howl at the moon type music.
The guitar/Sax combination on “Twilight of the Godz” is fantastic, and the guitar solo an “Fade Away” make the tracks the standout songs of the album. Honorable mention goes to “Clockwork”, “A Hole in the Sky”, and “blinding Light”.
If this album has somehow bypassed your radar, hopefully this review will lead you to it.
Calling Chronomonaut stellar would certainly be an understatement. It is a must have album for the collection of music lovers of all genres.
Jack Sawyer
All My Friends Are Chemicals
(jacksawyer.bandcamp.com)
It is a fantastic time to live in the Scenic City, for the diversity of Chattanooga’s music scene is unmeasurable. I love the fact that local musicians are branching out, and hiking through unexplored wilderness with their music creation. It certainly makes for a bustling music scene, and an assortment of blissful tunes jamming through the airwaves.
A prime example of music that is amazing, unique, and true to itself, is All My Friends Are Chemicals, by Jack Sawyer. The album is a timeless classic that is full of beautiful music, stellar vocals, and is not like any other kind of music that is currently being produced locally. It truly does stand alone, and it does so with some serious style and flair. It stands rocksteady in a league of its own, unshaken by the fact that it is not like everybody else.
Kudos to Jack Sawyer for producing music that comes from his heart and soul. The album is very well put together. The eclectic music easily flows and transitions into the next track, and each one is completely different from the next.
The Indie Pop/Rock album in genre shattering. It starts of very cool, collected, and chilled with “Uptown Kids”, and “Easy”, before it lets lose, and dives right into some righteous funk in “Good Vibe Man”.
All the songs on the album are excellent, however, the stand out tracks on the album are the trippy, electronic rock and roll track, “You Better Start Loving Me Again”, and the title track “All My Friends Are Chemicals”.
The music scene is Chattanooga is thriving because of artists like Jack Sawyer. Extraordinarily talented musicians that break molds, and that do not make music to appease the masses. They make the music because it is the music that pours from their entire being.
That is what it is all about folks, musicians rocking steady while maintaining their lane, and making meaningful, relevant music.
Support this local music man. Your eardrums will thank you.