Watson Park is the solo project for Evan Ringle. Ringle released Lovers, Strangers which is a lo-fi recording of his songs which contain guitar and vocal.
On his Bandcamp page Ringle gives props to iconic people for “demonstrating that the most powerful art derives from your own personal experiences.” As someone who has been recording and engineering albums for the past twenty years I found his other statement about embracing lo-fi more interesting. I think lo-fi has a time and place and is conducive to the style it is trying to convey. It’s a topic that I have a lot of thought about which I could go on in length about but for Ringle the lo-fi quality could use a couple of tweaks which could benefit his sound while still being undeniably lo-fi. The album starts off with “Annie, my sweetheart! (you poor, poor boy)” and no matter how lo-fi you get you typically want some separation between instrumentation which can be achieved with EQ. Ringle sings and I liked the melody but I struggled making out any of the lyrics. The lo end was lacking from the guitar and the mid and upper range frequencies around 2 khz to 5 khz were competing with each other. I could also tell right off the bat the vocals were muffled and muddy because of the frequencies around 700 hz and 300 hz build up. An application of two or three db cut would have created more clarity with this song and well as less competition with the guitar. As the EP progresses the songs “Lovers” and “She Doesn't Know Her” consist of a couple of softy strummed minor and major chords and a more somber vocal delivery. “Interlude” contains what sounds like guitar improvisation with the type of melodramatic poetry reading you might hear in a hip underground lounge. The last two songs “End of Summer” and “Strangers” continued with a very similar feel to the previous songs. The combination of not being able to understand the lyrics and a very similar strumming style made it very hard for me to pick up on emotional differences between the songs. I wanted a little more diversity from the guitar work whether it be from a technical angle of a creative picking pattern. I eventually read some of the lyrics on his Bandcamp page and with a couple more listens I started to appreciate the songs more. Suffice it say I think Ringle is a young guy who is in the embryonic stage of his development but has potential to evolve. When I was in college as a music major I would go to an open mic to perform on weekends. Luckily smartphones weren’t a thing yet but the bar was often noisy and people were paying half attention to all the performers. Regardless I gave it my all as did others I observed giving heartfelt performances that attempted to resonant with people. Ringle seems to have that same passion and I wish him luck on his journey.
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