BEACH CONNECTION'S MUSIC CENTER
Covering NW music in Portland, Oregon and the I-5 Corridor, as well as 160 miles of Oregon coast: Seaside, Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler, Rockaway, Garibaldi, Tillamook, Oceanside, Pacific City, Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, Newport, Wadport, Yachats & Florence.

CD Review: Oregon's Element57 Sizzles w/ First Album

By Andre' Hagestedt

(Portland, Oregon) - Once called 4th Plane Jaiant, element57 has relaunched themselves under a new name and a brand new sound that is powerful, sleek, gigantic and yet thoroughly filled with hooks. Gone are the slightly jam band vibes of 4th Plane Jaiant. With the new album, “Radiate,” element57 has reinvented itself in a poppy yet intelligent, arty manner, creating a sound that is highly distinctive, even difficult to describe.

At the center of the new sound is a giant wall of fuzzy guitar, like some rumbling colossus that comes out of a guitar amp. It’s slightly surreal and even a little alien, but always massive and thoroughly setting the band apart from just about everything out there.

Picture the harder edges of Bush, Stone Temple Pilots or Audioslave, with the linear, single-minded, fuzzy lines of Morphine (without that band’s dreary, psychotropic blues elements, however). Bits of funk or straight ahead rock are given this blurry, hazy treatment, while the songwriting is poppy yet sophisticated, in a style not too dissimilar to Peter Gabriel’s “So” period or The Police’s “Synchronicity” era.

Singer Chris Galyon even sometimes sounds like Gabriel or Bush’s Gavin Rossdale, emotive the whole time and mysteriously blending in (almost too well) with the fuzzy wall of guitar.

The album opens with “Woke Up Late,” with a driving, grinding kind of disjointed funk, as Galyon’s melodies soar above the roar of their signature sound.

“All Remaining Pieces” has a pleading, plaintive quality in a more straight ahead rock vein, where Gabriel’s “so” aesthetic really comes into light.

“Speak So Loud” has a slower grind, is slightly dreamy with that enormous guitar sound lumbering in a pleasant way. “Swept Away” has a poppy quality, a little like Semisonic with much bigger balls. On “Too Close, the fuzziness gets a little mellow and quiet for this somewhat somber tune, and the album closes with the memorable “Freedom,” which brings on Bush just a bit.

“Radiate” is a nifty debut for a new band built from an old one, showcasing a truly unique and innovative sound. With a mere six songs, it’ll be more than a little interesting to see where element57 goes next.

Band members are: Galyon (guitar, vocals); Jason Wilbur (Wind synthesizer, saxophone); Andy Kallenberger (bass) Jim Sanders (keys); and Joe Gardner (drums). Find more at www.element57.net.

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