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Chris Murray Serves it Raw : Lo-Fi Album Raises Eyebrows
By Dan Greenman
The name says it all. From the album's opening, which features Murray
tuning his guitar, to the cover art, which is a simple cartoon drawing
of Murray with the album's title hand-written, this solo ska musician's
latest release is utterly raw.
Murray was a member of King Apparatus, the popular early 90's Canadian
ska band. After putting out the solo 4-Track Adventures Of Venice Shoreline,
Chris, he released 4-Trackaganza under his own name in 2001 on California
indie label Asian Man Records. That record, also very low-budget, was
made on a four-track recorder.
Raw, released last month on Asian Man, features thirteen Jamaican-style
ska songs recorded on a walkman, mainly featuring just Murray and his
acoustic. There is no fooling anyone; this album was recorded in a basement,
and is raw in the truest sense of the word. The listener is kept waiting
for the vocals to fade and get drowned out like they would in any homemade
bootleg, but they never do.
Murray starts almost every track by calling out the song title and giving
a story of how he wrote it, which adds to the spontaneous feel. Neville
Staple of the legendary ska band The Specials sings along with Murray
on "Make the Best," and Deston Berry and Alex Desert lend
their voices to "The Higher The Monkey Climb." Somebody coughs
during the first verse of this song and later one of the performers
chuckles in the background. But rather than scrap the recording and
try again, Murray keeps these imperfections, which give the album an
extremely live, gritty feel.
The songwriting is clearly very well-prepared, and the talent is evident.
Murray's voice is soft and sweet as he sings, "Seduced by desire,
burned by the fire/tortured by heat, but cleansed by the flame"
in the slow-tempo "I'm Ready For Love" and then in "Rastaman"
he chants in his best Jamaican accent, "You can't keep I down/
Babylon/ I am a Rastaman."
Without any backing musicians to complement Murray's playing, he is
forced to get a little creative at times. On "Since I've Had You"
Murray hums what would be the bass line, if there were a bass. During
"Make The Best" he slaps the guitar's strings after every
off-beat strum - in true ska or reggae style - to create somewhat of
a drum effect.
The fourteenth and final song is a live recording of "Rock Steady,"
the most popular song from Murray's last album. Recorded in a San Francisco
club on a DAT, it is ironically the highest quality of any track on
the album.
In an era when music is becoming so overproduced, and poor singing and
musicianship is often concealed by fancy recording studio tools, Raw
is a refreshing change.
Dan Greenman is a senior journalism major. Email him at dgreenm1@ithaca.edu
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