Grant Ellman & Andrew Turel - plastic clouds

Grant Ellman and Andrew Turel

Plastic Clouds
self-released; 2013

3.5 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Grant Ellman and Andrew Turel haven't even bothered with a band name yet. They are two young men not even out of their teens who have an astounding amount of technical talent. Ellman is an aspiring recording/mix engineer & producer, and produced, recorded, mixed and mastered their recent release Plastic Clouds in his small home studio. He may have a future ahead of him as an engineer if he doesn't make it as a rock star because the quality was pretty impressive. The drums sound powerful and the guitars have a solid mid range tone. One thing I did notice is that the vocals seemed to float on top of the mix as opposed to in it.

Creatively, it seems they are still in the embryonic stage of their artistic development. They have a lot of ideas that seem to not fully come to fruition. For example, three of the four songs are instrumental, which is fine but two of those tracks seem conducive to include vocals. There just isn't enough going on to carry those songs with just instrumental components. 

The EP opens with the best song on the EP called “The Pursuit,” which is a diverse song with a funky bass, excellent guitar work as well as intricate timing that adds another level of complexity to an engaging song. There are a lot of changes in this song, which is why it works. The focal point is the astounding guitar work that draws your ears in. 

The second song “She Brings You Down” is the only song with vocals. It is a decent pop punk type with a fairly memorable hook but at the same time it doesn't sound very original. With that being said the lead guitar solo shreds and I have a feeling Turel could be a session player down the road if he wants.

The third track “On The Hunt” was begging for vocals. Instrumentally nothing is carrying the song. It has a decent riff but doesn’t have a memorable lead melody. The last track “Reflections” suffers from the same issue although the lead guitar does a better job at replacing the vocal melody,




Turel and Ellman are talented musicians and may not even be out of high school. They have plenty of time to refine their creative talents and I have little doubt that that is what they will be doing. 

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