Charlie Sztyk
Photography by Earl Maldoun
Just three verses in and I was inside a stripped down Mumford/IronWine acoustic set. Just one person, but he pulls an excellenty awkward humor persona to mix against his sorrowful ballads.
"I, am funny, and my music is sad", his own words, and they ring true. I do want to see him playing behind a full set of support; there's always a nice intimacy whenever acoustic sets are involved and especially at a SoFar show but there's a power along with his recorded sound that matches his own look on his persona that I want to capture live that couldn't be there stripped to the bare essentials. Strong lyrical structures and beautiful pickups with various instruments inbetween strong guitar foundations, keeping the rythm moving quickly.
Good, strong performance. Want to see even more from the words, the style and him, I feel like there's alot more to get from Charlie.
Song to Start With; Holy War
CeezetheWorld
Photography by Earl Maldoun
Had doubts from the beginning song, forcing the chrous and refrains almost like he didn't have the confidence to sing them, they fell offbeat. His hooks the weakest on the whole, but you can see the ideas he's dropping in them and his recorded stuff hits it perfectly.
Looked like a performance issue, which thankfully didn't translate over to the meat of the song wherein he quickly became a proper wordsmith. You saw the flow become smooth and he postured and flew strong. And ontop of that, I gotta give out respect for someone with such a strong connection to where he lived, evident in the music, and a good change of pace in so much hip-hop forcing how great and unique each rapper gotta be, instead of how great their art be.
Definitely rising, defintely needs work with his live persona, but not no hopeless case, not even close. A humble rapper is a true rapper.
Song to start With; I'm Leaving You
Half Waif
Photography by Earl Maldoun
First off, I want to just state this now, but I'll know I'll be repeat this down the line; I watch life as a photographer, 24/7. Whatever I look at, talk about and think about is first and foremost on a visual aspect, everything. With/without my camera I judge things on their visual aspect, at least primarily, though not soley by that factor. This isn't some book cover judging nonsense, but just my out take on life. I say this to add context to the statement that I can't really cover a band, photo-wise, that just stands there the whole set.
And really, just like their Next Sound + Vision Live show, Half Waif should have been paired with a visual artist to complement their music to engage that performance factor.
Regardless, the moment you hear them sing, your lost in the melodic bops and waves and sooths that build up each track with soft lyrical focus to keep it from blending away into zonked-out background instrumentation. I'm constantly hearing elements of more mainstream, more straight-forward songs but thrown into this soup of sounds and drive that balance so well and stick so much better
Good atmosphere and ambience alongside soothing vocals. Really want to see them adjacent to an equally skilled visual artist to bring their stage game to the next level.
Song to Start With; All My Armor