MC3’s first CD under their new band name(MC4 now that drummer-percussion “Goss” has joined) is appropriately titled A Half Bubble Off Plumb. Appropriate because everything about their music is so different than anything else out there on the Boston scene that it would have been weird if they didn’t have an eccentric album title. The progressive elements come in the form of Clara Kebabian’s foreign flavored violin melodies and vocal styles with Curt Naihersey’s assortment of keyboards, and unusual arrangements that often puts two different things in startling contrast to one another. Yet, MC3 manage to forge something accessible to every music fan without losing their vision for highly original sounds.
Opening with the brief “Dear Friends,” MC3 waste no time ushering us into their world of sound effects, exotic violin, engaging harmony vocals, and unusual lyrics. This declaration of love comes with a haunting underpinning in its chilling vocal timbres. You just can’t stop listening to the oddly appealing tunefulness.
“Out On The Lam” glides by on the strength of Clara Kebabian’s Eastern European tinged violin as Naihersey, a.k.a. Mr. Curt, sings in a strangely alluring low guttural timbre about daydreaming in the middle of world catastrophes. A pairing of violin and piano during an instrumental portion conjure a more pleasant experience that belies the world is going to hell in a hand basket lyrics.
Clara Kebabian resumes the lead vocal role in her own ditty “Cocktails,” a story of a man she loves falling carelessly out of love with her. She’s a clever lyricist who, in these words, wants to toss it all off over cocktail indulgence. Her vocal is straight forward pop rock timbre with a bit of classical training. It’s a driving piece of work, with up tempo motivational percussion, exotic and engaging keyboard melodies that remind of 1970’s mellotron. There’s organ, accordion, piano, synthesizer meshed in with bulbous bass runs from Marty White and a mightily strummed acoustic guitar. It’s a tasty mesh of sound textures that delights with all it has to offer as it moves forward like a steam locomotive.
Trading backing and forth as well as harmonizing on the lead vocals adds eccentric allure to “Are We There Yet.” With Mr. Curt’s husky low tenor vocal up front and Kebabian’s softer, higher coo in the background, the song becomes an odd journey into new and ominous soundscapes. Just the four word chorus of “are we there yet?” becomes something pleasant to listen to while also making you wonder if there destination offers safety or more danger. The drum programming adds another layer of texture that contributes to this song’s way of making you wonder what just hit you.
MC3 offer their special finger snapping rendition of “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” complete with Kebabian’s pristine, forlorn sustained violin notes flavoring things up. She makes her violin sound like its hissing its notes near end, one of many musical textures she offers up throughout this album.
“Kitty Jay” finds Kebabian singing an almost shout vocal style while she bows an intense inner tension in the song, rapid notes that go toe to toe with a racing percussion below. This music could inspire visions of anything from gypsy dancers to Viking invasions. MC3 plays this one like they mean business and somebody is going to get what‘s coming to him.
Mr. Curt comes into the prominent vocal role on “The Grandfather.” His mid-tempo croon is rich with texture and experience. He’s sung, played, and learned a lot over the years, and you can feel the history in his timbre. His chirpy keyboard texture is pop beauty and foreign exotic in one. The intrepid violin and eerie female backing vocal wind their way around the main song structure with an odd beauty that wraps around it tightly while simultaneously letting it breathe.
“Geronimo” is lilting pop rock sung in Kebabian’s wider timber with a more assertive approach than the other progressive pop-rock material here. The chorus is catchy as hell, and a gently whistling violin melody, wide acoustic guitar strums, and many other fine touches turn this into something commercially accessible without selling out the band’s vision for gripping, engaging, and unique soundscapes.
“Peonies” has a breezy vocal from Kebabian, a swaying musical texture, and a percussion that’s at once alluring and unobtrusive. There is something in the way Kebabian holds her notes that make this one special. Her breathy brief sustains alone create this particular song’s other worldly quality, giving it a slight foreign exotic flavor while keeping it pleasant to the ear. There’s a handful of melody instruments carrying this along in a way that makes you feel a bunch of enthusiastic travelers are in the middle of a long journey and they’re inviting all the meet along the way to join them.
A sound effects called “Cloud Of Ease” introduces the band’s version of Beck Hansen’s “Farewell Ride,” a number that finds Mr. Curt singing low, earthy, and world-weary like Tom Waits. There’s an ominous tone in the guitar, keyboards, and everything else going on around him. Kebabian keeps coming in with a haunting coo that makes you feel the spooky lyrics: “Two white horses in a line/Carrying me to my burying ground.”
MC3(now MC4) have taken Mr. Curt’s original vision for progressive music and spread it even further into something that can reach the masses while holding fast to the band’s unique sonic structures. It would be nice to see music this refreshingly original gain a wider audience.