Bio: Birth, life, and death: if it were that simple we wouldn’t have nearly enough to do with our time. The good small stuff—the fun stuff—like falling in ... (more)
Bio: Birth, life, and death: if it were that simple we wouldn’t have nearly enough to do with our time. The good small stuff—the fun stuff—like falling in love and figuring it all out is what really makes the hours go by. Jeff Kessel knows this, and on the self-titled debut of his solo project Rifle Recoil, available now on Brooklyn label Louis & James, he presents a life as measured by this small stuff, taking the listener on a heliocentric aural journey from birth to death, making sure not to miss a single step in between. By employing techniques that span nearly every genre—from beat boxing to strumming an acoustic guitar—Kessel creates a musical space so large it is impossible not to want to jump inside it and explore. Kessel’s voice gives birth to the album during the first track, which he says represents “the optimism of early life.” The entire album is informed by Kessel’s interest in Eastern philosophy and the cycle of life, and little cues towards this interest are hidden throughout. Using a combination of original songs and covers, Kessel charts the course of an individual life from pre-birth to post-death. Just as life is made up of the parts we write ourselves and the parts that maybe others write for us and we then make our own, Kessel uses covers by such greats as Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, The Clash, and Outkast to punctuate the life of his creation. His treatment of these songs is both smart and tender, and reflects not only his strength as an artist but also his ability to curate individual sounds into a more complex whole. Citing musical influences as disparate as The Microphones and Prince, Kessel’s sound is incredibly difficult to categorize. If you could meld together electro, folk, and indie rock and then build something from the results, you might have something close to Rifle Recoil. The ability to make such a wide variety of music does not come out of nowhere, however—Kessel cites his being brought up in Arlington, Virginia as a major influence. In Arlington, he says, he was “brought up by the older kids playing shows in basements.” Although some of their, as he calls it, “anywhere, anytime” spirit surely comes from the hardcore scene of nearby Washington, D.C., Kessel says that the kids in Arlington were playing everything, from “what you would think kids in basements would play—punk—to folk.” Kessel himself got started when a friend of his suggested he play an acoustic set in his garage. Although he has been performing as Rifle Recoil since 2004, the musical shift that led to Kessel’s debut album really began when he purchased a Boomerang loop pedal in 2006. Kessel’s use of the loop pedal lends a certain magic to the sound of Rifle Recoil, and creates a sense of wonderment at the transformation of one sound into many. By capitalizing on the tension created when variety appears in the face of repetition, Rifle Recoil sounds cosmic and ethereal, while the sweetness in Kessel’s near-falsetto keeps the tracks rooted in humanity. “Lonely Sailor,” a track combining acoustic guitar, beat-boxing, and gorgeous lyrics, represents the strength in Kessel’s musical method. Densely layered, the track gives the impression of many voices coming from one source, and has the same urgent quality that exists on every track on the album. Early on in the album’s life cycle, the track is both jubilant and a little unsure—ready to explore what life has to offer but also making sure to look both ways before moving ahead. A later track on the album, the ethereal, organ-driven “Bad Girl,” uses Kessel’s signature loop pedal to explore the ways that one phrase, repeated like a mantra, can take the listener through a whole slew of memories as they listen. Although the song sticks on the one phrase “you’ve been a bad girl/you know it/you know it,” the meaning and experience of the words changes with each repetition and brings up something new. Indeed, every track on Rifle Recoil brings you back, pulls that hair-trigger of memory, while also reminding you that life is a journey that changes with every day.
For more information please contact Jeff Anderson of Rock Steady: jeff@rocksteadyLA.com (less)
