Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA The Dan Rumour Band - DRB
 | The Dan Rumour Band plays what you might call soft surf. The songs are relaxed and lovely, with strong emotional connections and flowing panoramic vision. Dan Rumour is the guitarist who created the sound of Australia's Cruel Sea. You may know that the Sea began as an instrumental band, which make's his new band an obvious journey home. In addition to Dan Rumour, the band includes ex-Cruel Sea member Jim Elliot , and former Wild Pumpkins At Midnight players Michael Turner and Nick Larkins. Rumour's roots are in the instrumentals of Australia's surf and rock scene of the sixties. This is a lovely CD of beautiful guitar music that emotes images of lagoons and gentle rain and sunshine. |
Picks: Sundowner, Seem's Twice '05, Get Up, Sugar, The 13th Hat, Saille, Playtime, Navigate, Four '05, F-100, Unwind, Sly Din '05, Shadder '05, Drivin' Home
Track by Track Review
Soft Surf (Instrumental)
What a lovely and flowing piece of music. "Sundowner" moves at a relaxed pace, and is very well mixed. The dual leads used in some passages create depth and delicacy that add to the panoramic beauty. The verse-to-verse arrangement changes give it an epic tale quality as well. Really nice!
Soft Surf (Instrumental)
With the feel of a light tropical rain, and delicate dual guitar balance, "Seem's Twice '05" is like a feather weight funk groove for a sunny afternoon. The sense of surreal escape is enhanced by the phone ringing in the distance and the haunted organ.
Reggae Surf (Instrumental)
"Get Up" is a slightly reggae number that's more of a progressional journey than a melodic song. It's gentle, relaxing, and engaging. It's lack of direction seems like an intentional element used to give it a timeless carefree feel. This is a lovely and fanciful track.
Reggae Surf (Instrumental)
"Sugar" is a more overtly reggae instro, with a great deal of the feeling and structure of simplified reggae where overproduction hasn't replaced structure. Not really melodic, but fluid and emotionally relaxed.
Reggae Surf (Instrumental)
There's a kind of "On Broadway" feeling to this liquid and light instro. Its surf-reggae fusion carries if through with a lovely backdrop to a rainy afternoon style. The island guitar lines are really cool.
Soft Surf (Instrumental)
On the island side of things, "Saille" is a slow and romantic song with a vacation sunset view lined with palm trees and glistening waves. It's a beautiful track with a very cool emotional hook.
Soft Surf (Instrumental)
"Playtime" is a somewhat funky track with a sort of Stax session feeling. Imagine Booker T & the MG's grooving where they could see and smell the Great Barrier Reef on a sunny midsummer afternoon. The word that comes to mind is pleasant, but it's much more soulful than that. Very cool!
Soft Surf (Instrumental)
Verging on aggressive, the loveliness of "Navigate" is spiced with a moderate pace and a grin. Its slide guitar lines and round tone ride nicely above a percussive rhythm track that suggest suburban tropics. This really grows on you over the course of listening.
Soft Surf (Instrumental)
In a rich soup of panoramic delays and spatial reverb, "Four '05" conveys a sense of adventure and play. The tropical coolness and sunny warmth couple nicely with the combo soul groove elements to create a vision of islands and lovely glassy tubes. Superb.
Soft Surf (Instrumental)
Soulful and funky, like a tropical surf reinvention of the Stax house band on vacation, "F-100" is the kind of progressional piece that gets you traveling with it without choice, yet loving it at every turn. This is really hard not to like. The break guitar lines are powerful against the island gentility of the rest of the track. The rhythm track is a flawless thing of simple beauty that is the very key element here.
Soft Surf (Instrumental)
Acoustic guitar, gentle tones, very cool bass lines, and grin-bearing percussion give this the kind of backdrop to a long surfride feel that surf video's use so effectively. Way fun.
Soft Surf (Instrumental)
With a funky grin, the kind of grin that a slowed down Travis Wammack might bring on, is an unavoidable sidebar to "Sly Din '05." Its gentle guitar exercises and bass-heavy soul are well balanced and liquid.
Soft Surf (Instrumental)
"Shadder" is a very spatial piece of music that's lushly visual. It invokes a gentle rain on a lagoon, a slightly sad feeling with a sense of being cleansed by the rain. The melody is so very gentle and peaceful. Wonderful!
Soft Surf (Instrumental)
This very slow song is drowsy, but not asleep. Slide guitar, a snail's pace, haunted keys, and very round bass move it along that lonely journey home. It's quite nice.