Ian C. Bouras – Pieces of the Past
Final Rating: 8/10 Stars
REVERB NATION: https://www.reverbnation.com/iancbouras
You can tell by listening to real “good” music by the impression it makes on the world and by the footprint it leaves behind. Sometimes it can come out in a passionate vocal line, a social movement, or a song that is sung with emotional bewilderment. The collection of songs featured on this latest release from Ian.C Bouras Pieces of the Past is a non-stop presentation of all-out electro/synth chill as scribed above. Making use of every production and sampling trick in the book, it’s hard not to find something you’ll like on this 7 track collection. Provided you have a reasonable tolerance for this genre. Ian was nominated by Billboard Magazine to be among the top songwriters in 2004 and 2005 for his work with AñaVañA. Since receiving his audio engineering degree, Ian has produced, mixed, and played guitar and bass on records in all genres from rock to spoken word, and is now working as a freelance audio engineer.
The first track “Everyting You’ve Always Wanted” gets the experience started off right full of hard melodies and deep seeded layers that really keep the essence of the music spiritual and invigorating. Sometimes you don`t need too much to create something high quality and powerful. I’ve often heard the term “Keep it Simple Stupid”. Keeping this in mind there’s no over the top musical theatrics here besides the grinding synth bass attack, deep seeded drums, and immense sonic variety. My ears pricked up to the sonic style right away. – so much depth. I’ve listened to this CD about 5 times and I sweat there’s something new everything I listen to it. Track 2 “In Mysterious Ways” delivers a top tiered track with music expressed with eloquently, emotion and conviction. Soon you will come to understand what Ian Bouras is all about. The guitar style of Bouras defiantly flows like a ship lost at sea, and I’ve only heard a handful of players execute this style well in this type of music. Because there aren’t any over the top chops, and I also feel most people fail to understand this style of music – because it’s not so flashy sometimes – more like a musical journey. Despite this all songs have messages worthy of your attention but you listen more than once to pick up on it.
All in all there’s a highly creative set of songs on Pieces of the Past. There are parts that seem to be perfect and sudden when you hear strange beats, you may probably wonder if something is wrong with the audio, but it is not, especially on Track 4 “The Fear of Being Hurt” the mission may be to show something perfectly imperfect turn into something unique. “The Inevitability of Loss” is another standout tracks not to be underestimated with musical psychedelics and a distinctive voice for the masses to consume. Most songs are about themes of fear, love, death, transformation, resurrection, fear, life and fear of the unknown. Swaying between modern Synth-Electronic-Chill Bouras kicks out the jams hard. The mix is masterful and presents low and moody frequencies. Ian C. Bouras has all the components necessary for a popular Chill act. All of above make him a stand out act in his own terms of musical expressionism.
BROADJAM: https://www.broadjam.com/iancbouras
– Jamie Funge