David Ramirez

All the Not So Gentle Reminders

 Blue Corn Music

David Ramirez is a heady singer-songwriter based in Austin, TX who has five LPs, three EPs, and countless collaborations in his catalog but had taken an hiatus from music to isolate himself and just write music for the joy of music. The result is this rather genre agnostic work, All the Not So Gentle Reminders. His twelve songs are dreamy musical journeys, some with lyrics and others mostly without. The songs wee written during a writing getaway where Ramirez settled into Standard Deluxe, a music venue and art space in the tiny town of Waverly, Alabama. He purposely wanted to escape the bustle of Austin in search of silence he had been missing. Having written the material, he returned to Spectra Studios in Cedar Park, TX, just outside of Austin to record the record which features richly textured arrangements, ethereal balladry, sweeping choruses and hints of pop and cabaret. It’s not the usual singer-songwriter fare by any means. At times, you may think you are listening to new wave or contemporary jazz, or a film score. It is intentionally transportive, almost as if the mind is flipping though a series of flashbacks with sudden jolting interruptions that return the listener to reality, or at least something close to it.

Opener “Maybe It Was All A Dream” plays to a simple, steady rhythm from a drum machine as synth line begins the melody, later joined by organ, drum rolls, and electric guitars as it builds over three-and-half minutes, constantly restating the theme. Buried underneath are staticky voices repeating the words of the album name until an abrupt halt and a wave of static leads into a recording of his own mother, “David…David…it’s time to get up.”  We do hear Ramirez’s solid, crooning vocals in “Waiting on the Dust to Settle,” almost autobiographical in the sense that he sings about giving himself time to arrive at this musical vision. The synth-pop backing is dense and sometimes a bit overbearing, obscuring his vocal in favor of instrumentation and waves of background vocalists.  The percussion still has that machine-like quality. Standout “The Music Man” bears some of these qualities but his crooning, emotional vocal is set more prominently in the mix over swirling organ and swelling orchestration. Ramirez sings about his earliest memories about being attracted to music when his father gave him a Walkman in this clever use of the two words – “So take a look at me now. I’m quite the music man. Take a look at the crowd. We’re all here for the music, man.” It’s the music, man.” “Dirty Martini” offers more soaring crooning and a long musical outro, mostly via cascading bluesy guitar enveloped in keys and synths.

“I Got People” is a more straightforward pop song over an infectious groove until  he returns to the opening strains after a bit of clutter in one section.  “Twin Sized Beds” floats over a hand clapped rhythm and morphs into dreamy soundscapes where his vocal alternates from remarkably clear to buried in the dense accompaniment.  It’s a weird one, hard to pin down what he was going after, other than, as he says, making music for the sake of music.  “Deja Voodoo” gets closest to the flashback aspect referenced at the end of the first paragraph. He questions his own memory – “Maybe it was in another life, Maybe it was just a dream. Was it a a memory passed down from another?…”  Haven’t we all experienced this sensation after waking from a night of fitful dreams? I know I have.

In the disorienting “Bigger World” Ramirez’s vocal seems to be channeling in from an outer realm before we are treated to another lengthy outro. Ramirez vocal ranges from a soaring croon to barely a whisper on the pulsating, rather haunting “Holiday” while the upbeat standout “Nobody Meant to Slow You Down” best depicts his effusive, emotional side.  On the other hand, on the piano-driven ballad “Do Not Disturb Me” his smooth tenor takes on the stark, lonely quality of a Leonard Cohen tune.  The lush orchestration and the potency of his vocal pipes return in the affirmative closer, “Dreams Come True.”

Clearly All the Not So Gentle Reminders is one of the most intriguing albums of this young year. By turns hypnotic, almost obnoxiously orchestral, to frighteningly powerful, it will put you through an emotional wringer.

– Jim Hynes

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