I would be unfair to cradle Slow Burning Car in just one big creative embrace. They have a wide spectrum of vibes emanating out of their musical instruments.
I developed this ‘discourse’ especially listening to their latest album ‘Assumption’. The output is varying in sounds from RnB to Heavy Metal. Some songs play like ‘Red Hot Chili Pepper’ and some appear to have fallen out of Robert Plant’s retro Led Zeppelin closet.
When the song ‘Tread Not on Me’ started, I had to check whether I had put on Eric Clapton’s playlist by mistake! The further surprise was: when the bridge part of the same song brought the blazing ‘Sex Pistols’ back into my ears; bizarre is the right word for it.
Slow Burning Car is: Troy Spiropoulos who handles Lead and backing vocals, as well the bass guitar (also stints with keyboards, sound effects etc.) Troy’s songwriting aspirations come from mythology/theology to the reality of life and common observations. The guitarist Duc ‘Jimmy’ Le is not only an established sound engineer, but he also has an impressive brand of hand-crafted effect pedals assigned to his name. Last but not the least is the drummer Mike Zimmerman; his open hi-hat floundering quite obviously hints at greats like John Bonham and Buddy Rich (hence the Zeppelin like feel in some of their songs).
The music produced by this dynamic trio can be called ‘Experimental’, but this is the third studio album by Slow Burning Cars, so I would stick with the ‘Progressive’ element. To name a few from the past albums, the song ‘Fabien’s Stroll’ from their second album ‘The Scattering – Vol.2’, gave me some goose bumps. Its eerie, it’s psychedelic, and it is much more enchanting than any other (ballad) songs they produced. My second pick would be ‘The Scorpio Complex’ for its raw n inclusive psychedelic experimentation; it sounds as if the whole band got into a minivan and recoded it live….
From a creative perspective, their previous albums (Blow Back and The Scattering) are more colorful, while Assumptions has a straighter to ‘Alternative Rock’ approach. It is noticeable that the band is finally settling down for a ‘Sound’. It is also evident that, as a band, Slow Burning Car had been more focused on the ‘Live Sound’ rather than their studio outputs.
There is one unique quality emerging out of their experimentations: they have a different (yet classical) touch in their ballads, so my analysis (suggestion) would be, to hear them focusing on the ballads and more on singer-songwriter genre than their efforts to please a live crowd with piercing and grungy acts.
Slow Burning Car is doing circuit around Los Angles, California, while also touring Europe (UK).
Peace and Love, in the troubling times!
The above statement is a light in the dark for all lovers of heavy and pounding sounds of ‘Heavy Metal’ and Rock: from those who have had cut down their locks and cried in the night hearing Justin Biebers’ being played over and over on the radio, to those who have sold their soul and taken the distortion pedals out of the effect’s chain –to produced cleaner/lighter sounds- just to feed their (Sunday School going) kids…