StellarJay - Sea Breeze

StellarJay

Sea Breeze
​self-released; 2020

3.7 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

StellarJay is the musical project of Nathan Randall who is currently based out of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. He recently released an EP entitled Sea Breeze which is an eight- song EP revolving around guitar.

The songs mostly revolve around the same thing. There’s a simple chord progression and some lead guitar with reverb. The music has a similar quality to one of my favorite artists William Tyler.

The album begins with the title track “Sea Breeze” and it is indicative of what else is on the EP. Suffice it to say if you like this track you will appreciate the rest. “Milky Sway” had its moments and I enjoyed the calming stream of rain on “Brookside.” “Aurora” has a calm, contemplative type of quality. “Hindsight,” “Rendlesham” and “Venera” were pleasant songs and further built on this foundation. Last up is “Adobe” which is a short but sweet send off.

The strongest aspect of this release is the cohesive qualities. From beginning to end there’s a specific type of mood created that aligns with the cover art. I always preach about this and thought he did a fantastic job with this aspect of the release.

I would really encourage this artist to listen to William Tyler and in particular his masterpiece entitled Modern Country. There were so many similarities in what they were trying to achieve in the music to my ears. As a recording engineer myself I think it might behoove StellarJay to try and get to a similar aesthetic in terms of the sound quality. I applaud him on achieving what he has in his home recordings but I promise there’s much more that can be done in this department to complement the style of music he’s doing.

​Overall, I thought there were good ideas and solid implementation. He is a talented guitar player who has the ability to find a memorable melody and seamlessly transition to other ideas and sounds.I hope to hear more soon from this very promising artist. Take a listen

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