RYAN HANIFL SOURPUSS OX BLOOD MUSIC (2007) Straddling the line between an orchestral composer and a modern pop/rock performer with a sense of history, Ryan Hanifl delivers a sophisticated, moody and elegant record that at turns ratchets up the volume and velocity in the name of Rock, back when painting the pop landscape as a somewhat progressive and multi-dimensional recording artist was embraced. Formerly of the up-and-coming Los Angeles band, Your Horrible Smile, Hanifl left the group at the end of 2005 and traveled to a destination as far removed as one can get from the vacuous energy of L.A. and the coldness of its demons: Minnesota. A remote place of solitude to get some bearings and write the songs that collectively would become Sourpuss was the genesis, but as seconds turned to minutes and became hours shadowed by days, weeks, then months, and following a return to the city where so many happenings rise and shatter, an ever faster traveling year and a half was put into the making of Sourpuss. Where time warps the past and ventures into the present, bearing traces of former lives from a nostalgia for an embittered yet beautiful existence never experienced, Sourpuss at the same time moves with precision into the future. It’s not the happiest future, but it’s there. “Crazy” opens the record with a gorgeous string quartet arrangement and a vocal that laments from a disconnected realm of loss and confusion, both of which harbor irony in their ability to connect and hold onto the vestiges of what is no longer true. “Look in your eyes for something I once knew; but everything’s changed now and I’m not the same as I was before.” Acting as a bookend, the intro as “Crazy” sets the tone for a record that veers from heartache for what can never be to the kind of loneliness that could only arise from a place of solitude on the album’s second cut. An impression of hazy sunshine and isolation, “Staring In Mirrors” has a mysticism about it that doesn’t forego momentum, nor does the production rely on standard gimmickry for its aesthetic appeal. Anchored by electric piano and colored with textures of strings and guitars for the chorus, the rhythm section delivers the subtlety of Jazz with a seasoned Rock ‘n Roll sensibility of abstract accents that neither a musician committed to one complex idiom or another, Classical or Jazz, could pull off. Given the evocative, black & white matinee feature of “Crazy” and the almost modern vaudeville and modal Jazz mixture of “Staring In Mirrors,” Sourpuss is off to a remarkably cinematic start when its character transitions into the theatricality of the Glam-inspired Mott The Hoople-meets-Bowie rocker, “Hypnotized.” Giving the listener its first dose of bona fide Rock ‘n Roll, Sourpuss reflects the genre by different sides and sonic landscapes in cuts such as “The Brave,” “Sullen Girl,” “Walls,” “Never Say Never,” and the Blues-based Rock of the dark, somewhat Iggy Pop inflected “Little Girl.” The aesthetic of Sourpuss proves to be advanced yet accessible. Beyond original sounding modern rock that doesn’t try to hide what influences are in evidence, otherworldly environments permeate the track sequence in the exotic nature of songs such as “Blindsided” and “Precious,” while an innate theatrical pedigree returns itself in “Pity” to the listening audience. Sourpuss closes with the finality of “Crazy.” A complete version of a reprise that opens the record in different form, “Crazy” features a precariously tuned upright piano, pedal steel guitar, and an unpretentious lead vocal that nonetheless strives for arresting performance value. What’s evident in the emotional tones of Sourpuss’ swansong are common threads disguised in other settings on the record. What those tones are can only be found in a fantastic abstraction by each unsuspecting listener. Sometimes they move in a pack; sometimes they travel solo. And sometimes the emotions conflict with one another in a symbiosis of opposing yet indescribable sentiments; but Sourpuss is surely the work of a complex musician rife with depression, infused with enough light to bring about an internal freedom that had to have been present in the making of what amounts to a record of high art. Exceptional and highly recommended. -- Greg Debonne Sourpuss is available at iTunes Music Store and http://www.cdbaby.com Ryan Hanifl online: http://www.myspace.com/ryanhanifl http://www.myspace.com/ryanhaniflhttp://www.cdbaby.comhttp://www.myspace.com/ryanhaniflshapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2
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