My Review: Julian ShahTayler - Elysium

 Julian Shah Tayler - Elysium

I like people who love Suede and Mansun, whatever. If this is then augmented by a sublime musical culture, by an avalanche of compositions, by an addiction, always steeped in quality, by the writing of music that knows how to be a photographic shot of its place of origin, while preserving its identity, then we are talking about the intelligence of a chameleonic artist.

 Effervescent, with over-the-top tastes, likeable and dynamic, schizoid without being holder of curses to show but only of a voracious need to compose songs. Powerful is his ability to bring the rough nerves of our passions towards those we listened to in an earlier time, almost forcing us to consider only what was perfect, functional about those artists, in order to restart from there.

A very difficult challenge, for which the scribe has all his gratitude and sincere applause. One could imagine this wrong scenario: you are telling us that he started from the top musicians, from their best tunes and then put something of his own into them, right, old man?

No, much more than that (in any case, all confirmed): we are in front of a procession, perfectly held together, of musical styles, of intense veins of dance rhythms in which all the quality of passionate decades finds a meeting point in his songs, to give the sense of a mighty performance of class that lines up splendour and beauty. And the whole electronic part acts as a cloak, protects, puts the sounds on a highly generous level, in order to synthesise the development of ideas and their power. The 70's and 80's never got along so perfectly, without any offence which screams and goes crazy about this combination. A magnificent album, a lesson in cohesion: Julian likes to love the idea that by working he can make the passion for those years coexist in what for him is a very serious affair, giving us the sweetest of smiles. His passion is in every beat, in every keyboard, in the rhythm that goes from funky to the perfect geometry of synth-Pop, to the dark zones of an always demanding electronic music, a Glam Rock attitude without necessarily presenting its trappings. It is Brit-Pop with make-up, it is rock with guitars that occasionally scratch and take us into the Inxs zone, into the sensual poetry of David Bowie, into the labyrinths of Roxy Music. He also continues in the erotic bubbles of T-Rex and in the lighter ones of Rammstein, where everything, however, reveals his intuitions, his creative flairs, his looking even to the East, his never shutting off his curiosity, to open his interested motions even towards lesser known artists. And here we have Mansun, with whom he shares the same aesthetic taste for the essential transitions between verse and certain sudden changes (Kula Shaker were also masters in this respect).

But again, this is not a compilation.

I would sadly say a miraculous example of how he does not deny the evidence, and ends up feeding on it to reinvigorate his undeniable talent, the main building block of songs that know how to conquer, make you dream, smile, bring good cheer: we need more albums like this, at a time when music is experiencing devastating signs of dispersion. He preserves and amplifies, he becomes a memory, creating a bridge to the future, a diamond to which we must turn our gaze and that we must thank with much esteem, certainly also with affection. 

Among his skills is that of creating catchy sound bands, with a spectacular voice, well built, filled with colour, that is able to attract the listener and take him into the zone of comfort, of joy, of a light-heartedness but also of reflections given by lyrics full of strength, with courage, with images imbued with suggestions. All seasoned with a vocabulary that slips well into our need to bring together simplicity and concepts that can give us food for deep thought. Evident are the signs of a remarkable growth, of a musical background that has made him precise and light, without fatigue. All the compositions are beneficial and you can also see that the musical part is perfectly laid on his vocals. You listen to them and immerse yourself in a warm liquid, with an emotional breeze that envelops our senses, aligned and exposed to feed us with songs that have the power to make us dream, which is among the things we expect to find when we have a record within reach.

A child of American culture, the talented Julian has no mental boundaries and also travels the continent of Europe with great care to complete his personal quest, making this splendid album into an encyclopaedia that satiates and conquers us.

Alex Dematteis

Musicshockworld

Salford

5th November 2022

https://thesingularitymusic.bandcamp.com/album/elysium