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The title is apt. Very real, alive and urban, the music paints scenes of street life in Vancouver and Montreal City.
The CD opens with Saint Viateur, a collage of images of Montreal during the "Fête de Saint-Jean-Baptiste". There is an organic feel to the album as songs develop, creating the vision that Mark wanted to capture in his music. The CD utilizes low-fi recording techniques on vocals to good effect. Arrangements are strong on dynamics, reminiscent of a popular Québecois group Harmonium. |
 Photo Credit: Shuruq Harb |
Mark Berube delivers the real thing on vocals, piano, guitar and accordion. The rhythm section, consisting of Mike Liston's upright bass and Mike Simpson on drums, provides a tight foundation for Mark's theatrics and improvisational style. Matthew Rogers rounds out the sound with electric guitar, banjo, lap steel, percussion and mandolin.
There is a special appearance by Allison Russell (vocals) from Internationally acclaimed Po'girl on Babylon Barroom.
The CD is also very personal and revealing in its poetic lyrics. Free association leads us through painful emotion and wistful memory. "Does the rain still always fail in its attempt to paint you grey".
Sweet Reply was written in Montreal after 9/11, conveying the feelings and mood evoked in him by this event.
Cradled is a mélange, influenced by life experiences in Canada, New Orleans and Africa. The song exhibits some of the influence of a childhood spent in Swaziland, where he lived until the age of 10. Surrounded by the music culture and social unrest during apartheid. This influence is apparent in his music.
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Rhapsody of the Yellow Raincoat is one of my favorite songs on the album. This song paints a sonic landscape of a thunderstorm. Rumbling bass notes and chiming, tinkling trebles. One can close their eyes and visualize the wind, rain and lightning. Sketches is not born of or bound by familiar American popular music traditions. It has the jaunty liveliness and emphatic beat of European cabaret music, with creative dynamics and free-ranging vocals that take it beyond. Check out Mark's web site: www.markberube.com. It is one of the coolest sites I have come across in a long time. It uses the notebook metaphor that Mark conceived of himself. He tells me he updates it daily with musings on the places and people that he meets in his travels. |
 CD Cover |
Guy Langlois is Publisher and Webmaster of Cosmic Debris Musicians Magazine.
He is also a musician and has recently released his debut album of original compositions, Ambiance.
