Brimer - Vibrations

Brimer

Vibrations
self-released; 2014

3.4 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

David Brimer, or just Brimer as he is known, is an artist from California who recently released a twelve-song album entitled Vibrations. According to Brimer the album started out as a desire to make an album like Todd Rundgren, Prince or Stevie Wonder. For Brimer that meant playing all the instruments and writing all the songs but after listening to the album their stylistic influence is also quite obvious. 

He is a solid songwriter that clearly has a penchant for ‘70s music. Throughout Vibrations Brimer tips his hat to blues, R&B and rock while not reinventing any of those genres. Some of it works, some of it feels too disparate but as a whole Vibrations was a enjoyable experience when listening it from beginning to end.

The recording quality is about average for a DIY but comes up shy when being compared to professional recordings. As with a majority of self-produced records, problems show up when a lot of instrumentation is happening as well as the drum sounds. To Brimer's credit I thought he did a good job with the vocals and even more so with the vocal harmonies.

The first song “Vibrations” contains a bit of soul, funk and rock. It’s a fun, loose song and the chorus pops with authority. He sings, “I can feel the vibrations, emanating out of you.” He flashes his lead guitar skills, which are pretty good, around the halfway mark.

Brimer quickly switches styles with the second track ”Under The Velvet Sky” It’s a lounge-y, laid back song revolving around warm pads. Perhaps the oddest thing about the track was how different the vocals sound from the first. It quite honestly sounds like a different person. 

The next couple of songs switch between distorted rock songs and his subdued pop/R&B style until arriving at “White Flamingo.” “White Flamingo” lands somewhere between prog-rock and Pink Floyd style guitar solos. As the album progresses there were a couple of highlights, which include “Drastic Measure” and the closer “Restless Blues.” Overall, I can recommend Vibrations. There were some kinks in the armor but also a number of inspired moments. 

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