of his home recordings. He also embraced the textural possibilities of his reedy-yet-soaring vocals, allowing them to take center stage as a powerful instrument that seems to evoke sunny days and lonely nights, windswept vis Ǥ ϐ ǡ given that Hutchens simultaneously left Pan and struck out on the road solo, maintaining the grueling grind of life on the road sans his bandmates. All of this leads to Welcome to Mt. Pleasant, ϐ Ǧ ǡ incidentally, also likely one of the best local albums that will be released this year. Again recording with Alex McCollum of Stagbriar and backed by a small group of sympathetic session musicians (Cameron Powell—bass, Michael Crawford—drums, and McCollum— lead guitar), the album embraces a full-bodied indie folk-rock sound reminiscent of Water Liars or early Band of Horses that more ϐ ǯ Ǥ These songs feel like wizened travelogues that give way to moments of pure catharsis, and singer and band know just the right moment to lift off or return to ground. Credit goes both to Hutchens, who has penned his best collection of songs to-date and smartly Ǧϐ ǡ well as McCollum and company, who seem to know intuitively how to alternate between a necessary sense of space and longing and the anthemic indie rock grandeur that these tunes demand. -KP
JOSEF DREAMZ BROKEN DREAMZ
While far from a household name on the local scene, USC student and rapper Josef Dreamz—self-proclaimed as “South Carolina’s most relevant rapper”—has a large social media following and has maintained a steady output of recorded material. Broken Dreamz seems to consolidate the style that he’s been perfecting over the last few years though—backed by soft-hewed production
(provided by Fiyah Burns) with wandering keyboard lines, Josef alternates between a ϐ ing voice that feels like Antony Johnson doing his best Frank Ocean impression. It’s a beguiling combination, and the fact that Josef writes forthrightly about his struggles as a young gay black man, both implicitly and explicitly, as well as his naked ambition to succeed, makes Broken Dreamz a pleasant and winning collection, and Josef as an MC worth keeping an eye on. KP
the singer’s voice at its most heartbreaking, he utters the line “I would trade the whole damn revolution for a kiss / None of this is right without you telling me it is” and you can almost feel the world slowing down to a crawl. KP
THE LOVELY FEW THE GEMINIDS
MUSCLE MEMORY YES! ALWAYS!
It’s been seven years since we’ve heard from singer/songwriter David Adedokun, who in 2007 released an excellent collection of pop-leaning alt-country under the name The Daylight Hours. That record established Adedokun as a songwriter with a gift for storytelling and a sharp lyrical eye belied by catchy choruses and silky smooth vocals. Since then, he’s mainly been seen playing around town on the covers circuit, although the occasional new song or two would surface at open mic nights. Finally, however, we have a new collection from the songwriter, albeit under a new moniker and new modus operandi. This time the acoustic guitar is absent or buried in the mix in favor of active guitar and synth lines that keep these songs propulsive even when they seem like they might lean too far into dour territory. Elsewhere, this new approach complements the swinging motion of the lyrics, something particularly in the one-two punch of “severance pay” and “ball & chain.” While his voice and lyrics are buried a bit to his detriment, the energy on record is still nice to see after such a long absence. Still, when we get to the acoustic weeper on the record, “holes,” it’s hard not to pine for the Adedokun of old a bit. An elegantly ϐ and a warm keyboard line that wrap around
It’s almost a shame how easily it is to pi ϐ ϐ Mike Mewbourne’s electro-folk-pop project The Lovely Few, given how singular of a voice Mewbourne and his wife Kate, along with Alan Davis, have crafted over a series of celestial-themed recordings. The three, along with the help of a few of the big names in the Charleston music scene (Dan McCurry, Nick Jenkins) and Columbia (Kenny McWilliams), have become adept at creating minimalist pocket symphonies for spare songs that are cryptic and allusive, distant yet warm. While the project’s tendencies towards ambient, mid-tempo numbers and Mewbourne’s plaintive vocals can occasionally make the listening experience a bit sleepy, the conceptual power of connecting the language of the stars with interpersonal relationships, and connecting ambient electronics with the human heart that is so central to ǡ ϐ Ǥ One of these days it might be nice to The Lovely Few rock out a bit (they get close on “Tyndarids”), but for now we should be satisϐ heavens. -KP
13