Kyle Lukes is an artist from British Columbia, Canada who recently released Gumball. He mentions on his Bandcamp page that he recorded everything and played everything. That’s what you call a complete DIY effort.
This album despite being one guy does sound like a band for the most part. In fact a lot of the songs sound similar to classic and hard rock. In particular I was thinking of bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. There are twelve songs and they have a number of different flavors. Take for instance the opener “Out of the Darkness” which is more metal and hard rock inspired. You can hear the Black Sabbath influence on this song. Then we have “Funktastical” which as the name might imply is a bit funky. That being said there isn’t slap bass but it still felt funky somehow. It reminded me of Queens of the Stone Age but more upbeat somehow. I enjoyed “Polaris” which is a heavy hitting song and felt a little more grunge inspired to me while “Bloodbath” is even heavier with some stellar riffs. These songs don’t have vocals and some of the songs did sound like they were missing a lead instrument because of that. On that note I thought his best songs and the highlights were the songs that did have a more prominent lead. “Nuka's Song,” which is an eight-minute epic, is an example of Lukes at his best. I also enjoyed the badass sounding “Sex Magician” and the organ fueled “Phantasmagoria.” As an engineer and producer did I notice differences between this and a live band? The answer is yes. There is simply a lot more subtlety and nuance I notice in the drums from a live drummer and to a lesser extent the bass. On that note I was thoroughly impressed with how organic these songs sounded. It’s clear to me Lukes understands a lot about songwriting and production. I thought this was a solid album with some good songs. I’d definitely be interested in hearing what Lukes could accomplish with a full band but also think another solo effort with perhaps more experience behind him would be cool as well. Suffice it to say I’m looking forward to where he goes from here.
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