To properly review Bryan Thomas's Ones and Zeros, I first had to purchase Radio Plastic Jennifer, his first cd release. I have been told for years to listen to Bryan's work, and I had a copy of his "demo" given to me by a friend, but I have to be honest, I was not expecting the level of quality that Jennifer had to offer. Bryan is a unique voice in this region and his first release was extremely ambitious. The song "six" reminded me of Kerouac with its stream of consciousness rap, and the music itself seems highly influenced by Prince. The sexual inuendos are difficult to miss in Bryan's work. Somehow, I doubt that "six geese a laying" is just a mere reference to a Christmas carol. "Closer" is a raw rock tune with hip-hop chords that make it so catchy that it's difficult to believe that the music industry has missed it. By the end of my run-through with Jennifer, I was thoroughly impressed. It is professional, polished, but with a raw almost punk-rock edge. In short, his first CD is a brilliant conglomeration of styles.
Bryan Thomas's new album, Ones and Zeros, has more of a rock sound when one compares it to his last release, Radio Plastic Jennifer. The musical experimentation persists, but the guitars are consistently distorted. What comes out of this new album is an emerging, unique style that still reveals various musical influences.
Bryan Thomas begins with the timely song, "Digital", a song that uses the binary codes of the modern world as a backdrop while making references to classic mythological and historical characters. Like a code in itself, this song may take a bit of deciphering to glean the meaning out of the metaphors. Like "closer" from Jennifer, the music is catchy and provocative with its combination of funk and rock styles.
It would be tempting to regard Ones and Zeros as a continuation of Jennifer, there are references to Jennifer herself throughout the album, but Bryan's latest release seems to be more of an advance than a sequel. Unlike Jennifer, where the style changes sometimes jump out with certain songs, there seems to be more continuity musically and lyrically. The themes of society, sex, and race relations are still prominent within the funk, punk, and hip-hop music, but the binary codes remain: ones and zeros, male and female, black and white. |
