Synesthesia is where information, meant to stimulate one of your senses (for example hearing music), involuntarily stimulates another sense ( like visuals or smell.)
When one says "listen to my song", a synesthete may actually see the colour blue in addition to hearing the blues. What would a synesthete see with blue dirt girl ?
Would they smell rainbows?
Would they hear dreams?
blue dirt girl is Kathryn Sutherland, Albert Klassen and Jason Overy.
Their new release is called NOTHING IS AS IT WAS.
It is nothing like their first release, Crazy Beautiful.
This new blue dirt girl is not content to remain in one place, it does not yearn to return to a Crazy Beautiful state.
The new blue dirt girl is an affirmation of change as a part of life and art.
The new blue dirt girl deftly mixes together a new masala, a blend of unique, personal sounds, sounds bleed into colors, touches, feels, and flavors.
There is a magic with a three piece band, where every part depends on the others. It is a delicate relationship to maintain, and like a souffle, can collapse easily, but also like a souffle, it is a mouthful of perfection.
A song may start in one groove, and then it suddenly shifts down a gear. Don’t worry- blue dirt girl are excellent drivers and this car is a handmade beauty. The changes are not abrupt, but seamless. No buttons lost, no zippers snagged.
Kathryn Sutherland’s lyrics are open to interpretation, not linear, they are not easy rhymes. They conjure a mood, inventing new colours, with a masterful brush stroke.
Albert Klassen is a most amazing bassist, perfectly partnered with his rhythmic counterpart Jason Overy. I find myself mesmerized by the grooves, not knowing exactly where it is going, but trusting, putting my faith in their capable hands.
The songs channel reggae/dub, modern soul, a dash of 70’s guitar magic. Something about the feel reminds me of Traffic, Joan Armatrading, and an unnamed, distant memory of the 80’s that as hard as I try, I still can’t remember.
This is not music that references influences. It breathes a sophisticated rare air.
The songs:
Blood: Skeletal guitar, a dub reggae beat, "Everything changed", and the bass begins a pattern that pulls us forward, "in a moment of anxious clarity", lying here on the edge of the knife, Kathryn the cool, poet soul, commands us shred your tongue, and everything slows, reverses, is there anything between us, the skeletal guitar and propulsive bass intoxicate.
the conversation going on here, as we put our masks back on, and climb back aboard the knife. Steady Jake, it’s only blood that connects us here. Family has their own languages. Their own rules.
But the river flows into the title track....I Don’t Mind.
There is a great little change, where even words become inadequate. Dat, dat, dah. Oh my God, my mind pushes itself to remember, but what?
And the beat goes on... Sunset Daddy.
A new time signature, another conversation, the steady beat reasserts itself. We hear a familiar recollection of a towel that threatened to fall as her father goes up the stairs. You better stop....The intimacy of the recollection furthers the connectiion.
But wait, is there only one more song?
We want more. The music creates the feeling of a child swinging, up, down, always returning to “warm safe hands.”
Cherry blossoms rain from the sky....life goes up and life goes down
or it just spins around, but we always return to warm safe hands.
You listen many times and discover new connections. This music satisfies needs you were not aware of before. It is relaxed meditations on love, relationships, age.
This new blue dirt girl is mysterious.
You don’t know where she is going.
We are told to beware of strangers, so we will just have to get to know blue dirt girl better.
The road beckons.
It smells like rainbow.
It sounds like velvet.
