The Big Motif displays talent and heart well beyond the collective age of every band member, while mixing together everything that was great about music from decades past.
Title: Does It Weigh Heavy
Artist: The Big Motif
Label: Mobee Music
Time: 7 tracks/33:54 min.
The guys of The Big Motif have been playing together for 6 years now. Listening to their EP Does It Weigh Heavy you would swear they spent every moment of those 6 years practicing. No sleeping, no day jobs, just constant playing. These three guys are really comfortable with each other and it shows. They have a well-defined sound that ties the entire disc together, yet at the same time makes it hard to label their exact genre. They mix blues rock, a heavy reggae influence, a little soul, and a good measure of jazz into one huge jam-fest. Hard to believe that Colorado would produce this sound – there is some grisly southern fried grease here. You feel like you need to pick bits of butter-soaked corn on the cob out of your teeth when you are done listening.
(For those not from the South, that is a really good thing. And yes I am hungry for lunch. Why do you ask?)
Stylistically, this is more of a “sit back and jam” album than a “play everything really technical and clean” affair. Remember when every other blues rock band had that second song on their tape where they slowed down after the scorching album opener to show that they could groove with the best of them? Ever wonder what an entire album of those songs would sound like? That is what you have here. Nothing incredibly fast or hard… but nothing that resembles a ballad either. Personally, since I like the hard stuff I would have liked a couple of blazing fast hard rockers on here. Nothing like heavy metal – more like the faster songs you find on early Eric Gales Band albums. But that is just personal taste and nothing that takes away from the talent on display here. If you are up for a mid-tempo blues/rock/soul/groove/reggae jam, this is the perfect ep for you.
By Matt Crosslin (June 29, 2011)
