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Dave Hart music review
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Dave Hart Diversity
From acoustic fingerpicking to methodic riffs orbiting in space, Canadian musician Dave Hart's mission to pack dutiful compositions full of DIY drum programming and noise comes to fruition on his BOA Records release Diversity. The album's title certainly begs for listener attention and comparison, but while the record is most assuredly as its title claims, it becomes apparently clear that that the word is a reflection of the musician himself rather than a statement based solely on musical content. Dave Hart is a heavy handed, consistent guitarist who plays environmentally over a variety of realized textures and landscapes. Even though the songs on his album run a gamut of sounds and styles, his fingerprints are almost literally all over them.
Track listing:
01 Love Journey
02 April Rain
03 Mexican Sonata
04 Transitions
05 Wickers
06 Red
07 Kaleidoscope
08 ATC Dance
09 Stratus Dream
10 LJ Lupe'
11 Crop Dustin'
12 Little Bridges
13 Spiral G
Playing the role of arranger for the entire album, Hart takes to the task of conducting a band and orchestra comprised of no one but himself. Through the use of a Roland guitar synthesizer, he is able to create the sounds of strings, flutes, drums, and other instruments that are layered on each track to a mixed bag of results. Most noteworthy of all is the resemblance the some of the imitated sounds here, mainly the flute.
Despite the veritable world of instrument sounds Dave Hart makes available through his Roland gadget, this album actually excels most in its more sparse moments where the playing can be enjoyed without a deliverance of ringtones and Nintendo sounds. While the compositions here run from light to dark, vacant to crammed, it is within those that weigh less that Hart's true talents are revealed. While the other arrangements seem to pack more of a technical punch, they are more often than not overdone. At points, the range of possibilities proves too much for the songs to handle, sending them into cosmic overdrive with too much atmosphere and too many bits of data. This combined with a few heavy shredding sessions results in quite a few tracks that seem to over-deliver.
The balance between proficiency and appropriateness is one that seems to haunt many talented players of both acoustic and electric guitar. Choosing how to best display chops and on which instrument seems to get in the way of other creative factors throughout Diversity. Many of the songs start acoustically and lead themselves down a celestial path right into the mouth of a 1/4" cable. The dramatic change from an acoustic section to an electric one is lost in the repetition of the charm resulting in songs that sound too similar to each other and thus divert from the titular theme.
As a player Hart is fluid motion, sending his fingers up and down the fret board beautifully. He could certainly hold his own with a backing band and would undoubtedly shine, but the problem here comes to down to excess. Some of the songs are too busy or the ideas are just off target. Instrumental music should be interesting, but when it seems forced or top-heavy it becomes distracting quickly. A different approach would benefit this talented player greatly as he has much to offer.
