Gabe Qazi - ​Welcome

Gabe Qazi

​Welcome 
self-released; 2016

3.5 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

Gabe Qazi is a young musician from New Jersey who released Welcome. Welcome is a DIY effort that showcases some talent and also areas that could be improved upon.

​The first thing that has to be mentioned is the production. Something I see over and over with DIY efforts is the superfluous amounts of reverb that tend to be in the recording. That's the case here with the guitar. Qazi has some great jazz guitar work, unfortunately there is hardly any clarity because of how much hall reverb is on the guitar.

In this case the reverb itself needed to be EQ’d to open up the sound and get rid of the muddy low end which was masking essential frequencies. His guitar is the main element of these songs. It should be the focal point but it’s not. It sounds like it's in the background while the electronic beats which rarely change are the elements that stick out. 

You can hear this on the first song “Good Afternoon” which is one of the better tracks on the album. I really liked the guitar work but could have done without the beat entirely which sounded like a basic loop. “Old Shirt” is an ambient jazz track. I really liked this track and this was the one occasion where the hall reverb worked better. It’s a dreamy song which might make you drift off to sleep. I say that in a good way.

“KK” has a lot of interesting enjoyable guitar parts. Great stuff. The drum sound still wasn’t working for me and overpowered the guitar. “Welcome” goes back into ambient territory with some success. “Fishtank Cleaning Blues” has some inspiring moments while “Midnight Halal” was a serene closer. 

If Qazi wants to implement drums into his songs I think he needs to have a little bit more experience with production. I would encourage him to give a listen to the work from Four Tet and Steve Reid and see if he can get close to a drum sound like that.

Qazi has some good ideas and potential. I’d like him to explore where else the songs could go. He has obvious talent on the guitar and is on to something with his songs. As of right now he fits into a case of wait and see.

Become A Fan

Tweet