Blogarhythms

Making comparisons, humorous or inappropriate though they may be, between people is one of my favorite pastimes. These comparisons could be between two music artists, folks I know and total strangers, folks I know and folks other folks I know know, and people I see on the street and celebrities. The most frequent forms such caparisons take is to refer to one individual as a “poor-man’s,” “broke-ass” or “broke-down” version of another individual or to call them a “blank-a-like,” with “blank” being a variable filled by the first name of whoever I deem to be the originator of the appearance, style or sound being parroted by the offending “a-like.”

When it comes to music, artists are wont to imitate, copy, pay homage or offer tribute to their influences by sounding just like them. And more than one artist is liable to have been influenced by the same crop of earlier trailblazers and so sound eerily similar to another artist. This post is dedicated to a couple of recent releases by such artists whose music is like unto the output of other musicians who’ve also dropped a new record in the not-so-distant past.

If, like me, you were a tad underwhelmed by the decidedly un-electronic pallor of Jamie Lidell’s recent Jim LP you’ll probably welcome Australian-born, Los Angeles-raised, London-loving singer and multi-instrumentalist Sam Sparro’s self-titled debut full-length with open ears. The son of a Gospel musician, Sparro cut his teeth singing backup for his dad in-between child-acting gigs and just scored a spot filling in for Daniel Merriweather during Mark Ronson’s performance at this year’s Coachella festival. Saturated with the heat and glitz of his L.A. upbringing, Sparro’s debut disc is a poppy Electro-Funk workout that splits the difference between Jamie Lidell, Jamiroquai, Plantlife and Chromeo while casting a knowing wink in the direction of the usual synth-fueled Funk suspects like Prince and The Gap Band, et-al.

Although it made him look a little less than serious (despite the songs socially and environmentally conscious message), the video for “Cottonmouth” (a slithery tune that reminded me a lot of D’Angelo’s “Brown Sugar”) caught my eye and ear late last year. And while he was reportedly readying the release of an EP at the time I didn’t think I’d ever hear from dude again after that. So I’m psyched to say the least that he’s dropped a full-length that expands on the “Cottonmouth” sound. Some of the tracks worth looking out for are are the ’80s Electro/Freestyle throwback “Sally,” the Sylvester-esque NRGetic Disco of “Cut Me Loose,” the Rick James/Tina Marie vamp “Clingwrap,” the Prince-flavored cuts “21st Century Life” & “Hot Mess,” and the pounding Synth-Pop (think Eurhythmics and Yazoo) of “Black & Gold.”

Sam Sparro “Hot Mess”

Replace Sparro’s dancefloor-friendly freakiness with moody, mildly psychedelic orchestral Pop-Rock and you’ve got another self-titled debut — this one from Tacoma, Washington-based female-fronted five-piece Mono in VCF — whose identity is inexplicably entangled with another band’s. I started listening to their record alongside Portishead’s long-awaited third LP. And while I find no fault with that album there were certain elements of Mono In VCF’s sound that reminded me more of Portishead’s old modus operandi than some of the songs on 3rd did. I mean, sure, the Bristol-based threesome don’t own the patent on twangy Western guitars and cinematic string arrangements. And Mono In VCF is clearly influenced by ’60s Chamber-Pop & ’80s Shoegaze as much as anything else. But their similarity to late ’90s Trip-Hoppers like Portishead and Blue States is hard for me not to notice.

That the most Portishead-sounding (minus the DJ of course) tune on the LP — “The Only One,” which sounds like one of those Isaac Hayes covers of a Burt Bacharach song re-envisioned by a Goth chick on Acid — even mirrors one of that group’s most recognizable singles titularly can’t be a coincidence, can it? I dunno, but some other selections in a similar vein include “Death of a Spark,” “Spider Rotation,” “Masha,” “Cinch Ring” and the instrumental “We Could’ve Owned the World.” While tunes like “Escape City Scrapers” and “Chanteuse” embrace a broader Pop-influenced sound that recalls the melancholic side of ’60s girl-groups and the Brill-Building school of the aforementioned Burt Bacharach’s contemporaries, not to mention Portishead frontwoman Beth Gibbons‘ solo outing Out of Season.

Mono In VCF “The Only One”

Neither Sam Sparro or Mono In VCF are a “poor-man’s” or “broke-down” version of anything, but they sure as hell wear their influences on their sleeves. And in a music world of constantly changing trends and fluctuating inspirations it can be comforting when one artist surprises you by giving you exactly what you expected from another when that one’s decided to move on to something else.