URL: https://thecaminosideproject.com/
Paul Farran takes listeners on a sonic journey around the globe in the latest album released under his Camino Side Project moniker, Of Movement & Music. On our adventure, we’ll become acquainted with the brooding acoustic string play that frames “Right Here,” “Silent Picture” and “Supermoon” in stately harmonies that seem to hang over us in the atmosphere hours after we’ve stopped listening to them. Grizzly overdrive ushers in an ocean of grinding grooves in the riff-rocking “Jam in the Bus Lane,” while chic hybridity imprints “Sunrise, No Sunset” and “Highbeam” with a sharp, urbane nuance that you just don’t find everyday in rock music anymore, but don’t be fooled by this record’s ambitious design – it’s anything but inaccessible to the common pop fanatic. In many ways, The Camino Side Project amalgamate so many strains of rock, pop, blues, jazz, hip-hop, R&B and ambient music in this most recent offering that to dub it as anything other than experimental would seem both inaccurate and rather dismissive of the inventiveness that Farran exhibits here in spades.
Every element within Of Movement & Music is exquisitely produced, with all of its most alluring and evocative qualities receiving VIP treatment in the master mix. Some tracks, such as “Wheels,” “Human Faces” and “The Autobiography of Mr. Borern,” while structured using entirely different compositional concepts, utilize exotic harmonies to paint as much of a picture for us instrumentally as they do lyrically. “Silent” doesn’t need to say anything to us vocally; its rigid textures tell us everything that we need to know, and in my opinion, close out the album better than any conventionally-stylized song ever could have.
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7ezyvLGXimXmx9QisOT2YT
There are occasions, like “Vilma’s Soundtrack” and the studded “A Taste for Change,” where Farran allows himself to go a little off the rails and indulge in the more angular aspects of his musical profile, but none of it – as eccentric as it might get – ever feels out of place in the grander scheme of things. The Camino Side Project is one of the most cohesively constructed solo vehicles I’ve reviewed in quite some time, and it’s no doubt thanks to Farran’s constant attention to even the smallest of details in his work.
Fans of alternative rock and indie folk in particular would be really wise to give Of Movement & Music a spin this February, if only to hear what all the buzz surrounding The Camino Side Project has been about. While’s it’s a broadminded album that doesn’t play by the rules, I think that it’s one of the more accessible and fluid LPs of its kind that I’ve heard so far in 2019, and that’s no small statement to make. Critics across the board have agreed that this is almost certain to be a watershed year for music both in the mainstream and left of the dial, but no matter what style you fancy most, I highly recommend giving this record your attention. It’s a strong, emotive piece from a sonic sorcerer who clearly has found a sound all his own.
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/thecaminosideproject
Gwen Waggoner
