EP Review – On The Meadow by The Umbrella Puzzles (2022) (Subjangle)
As a kid I was good at sport, but not quite so humble in the face of any sporting achievements. This use to lead to my parents regularly reminding me, in no certain words, not to be a bad winner (OK perhaps my Dad’s wording was a tad more colourful).
The above is the source of my general refusal to write reviews of any acts that my Subjangle label releases. It just feels a bit boastful and the disapproving winces and words of my parents still resonate with me today.
However, with this On The MeadowEP, my little label has now collaborated with Ryan Marquez (Sodajerk, Apple Orchard and Golden Teardrops) and this, his The Umbrella Puzzles solo recording project, on three releases.
This only serves to remind me that a) the label is plainly doing something right no matter how occasionally and b) that I am just a music fan and some music, even if we are involved, needs to be bragged about !
If Marquez was not the most unnassuming person I have ever had the pleasure to collaborate with, then the opening All This Time track, could be construed as his early quest to ensure that he re-claims his erstwhile ‘King of Twang’ crown.
All dulcet, clunky tanging riffs, mixed with tiny, incidental jangled riffs that merely twinkle in the background, The Umbrella Puzzles are back and Marquez makes his early mark.
The twang is omnipresent..and so it should be, as that is exactly why we have always bought the ticket for this particular act. However, the jangle quotient gradually becomes more vibrant in That’s Where I’ll Go and What’s That Sound until Get What You Want takes the jangled lucidity to new heights as Evan Seurkamp’s (The Laughing Chimes) 12 string brilliance (it is crazy to think this lad is still a teenager, such is the way his makes his various guitars sing) locks horns with the sense of downplay, prior to the superlative stand out of Morning Reappears taking us to the heights of jangled intensity.
Brag over. I’ll just let the music do the talking from this point on.
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