man and things - in deep

Man and Things

In Deep
self-released; 2013

3.8 out of 5

By Sean Dennison

Robert Rinaldi's aka Man and Things hyper pleasant In Deep should be required listening for those turned off by the human voice. The eight instrumental tracks of varying lengths reveal the power of both acoustic and electric elements in music. To achieve this end, Rinaldi uses acoustic guitars, electric bass guitars, MIDI keyboards, drums pads, software and, naturally, his own imagination. His MO seems to be to create whatever "sounded good" and really, what other approach to music should there be?

The tracks are primarily built alongside exploratory guitar rhythms. Some tracks open with thick beats or artificial noise but the guitar makes itself known. The tracks are unified only in their experimentalism; none of the eight numbers sounds the same as far as tone or mood goes, though nothing can be stated as conveying a negative emotion. The country tugs in "Findings," contrasted by synthetic squeals and rubber sound clips, are only heard in "Findings," just as the crystalline sound effects and pneumatic ambiance are only found in "Shunk" and so on and so forth. 

Debuts such as In Deep allow an artist to explore their strengths while re-examining their weaknesses. There is an element of meandering throughout the album (some of the tracks overstay their welcome) that can make listening difficult but also seems to be impossible to separate from the creative process that has Rinaldi striking gold. The horn section in the closer "Road to Sometime" is all at once hopeful, excited and maybe just a bit rueful the album is over. We've already passed the lonely strumming in "Someone Else's Lullaby" and the garage rock composition in "Bobble Head." What next?

Rinaldi's debut is a solid introduction to the man's ideas about how music should be created. The results are surprising, as the tracks are not always lively, and sometimes even dull. Still, there's an "it" factor he possesses that makes In Deep worth checking out, and revisiting.

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