Review of Chinese Music Paste

By Matt "Gersh" Goacher

Chinese Music Paste is an album of exceptional variety with a clean but well-layered sound. The album is rich in mathematical attention to tonality and composition while riddled with emotional distraction in Everett's syncopation and performance.

The album is well composed with deliberate instrumentation which carries us from brilliant introductions through to the end of each song, usually bringing us several climaxes and their denouements along the way. There are no drums on the album, but there is a wide use of particular and effective percussion. The incorporation of some piano and 'electric' guitar is very effective.

It is clear that Everett has given his vocal work on this album a lot of attention. He has created so much variety in character and effect that one wonders how many people are singing and talking in the album. The vocals are creative and innovative, and his voice is an important instrument in his compositions. But it is not the cohesive star that shines through the whole album.

Everett's accoustic guitar is the star of the album. He plays it with great ease in a range of styles. Its pure tones never cease to satisfy, and it's their quality and regularity that holds the variety of this album together. While the guitar parts are well written as they layer and play in the songs, it is the beautiful performance of the guitar which brings us the soul of the performer.

In Chinese Music Paste you will find complexity and simplicity, sobriety and humour, speed and lethargy, weight and flight, the conventional and the absurd. You will find songs about Martin Luther King and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, about California and about sailors, about Galileo and Arabian Nights. You will feel stuffed at the end of this album and find it hard to get up from the table.