No-No Boy (from the album Empire Electric

No-No Boy (from the album Empire Electric

No-No Boy (from the album Empire Electric available on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings) (by Bryant Liggett)
Dr. Julian Saporiti is exploring the musical realm of art and Avant-Folk. Not quite Art Rock, and definitely not traditional Folk, it’s a sound that pulls from both, soft yet thoughtful and thought-provoking cuts that add a dash from the not-exactly Folk music realm. Recording and performing under the name No-No Boy, his latest in Empire Electric serves as masterful offering from a world where art meets music on common ground. The sonics feature slight Psychedelia with a dash of whatever Saporiti deems worthy; Lounge, Electro, and World Music all seem to fit.
It’s a dreamy opening, “Orion Kings of Ontario” introduced with strings and soft harmonies, a wonderful beginning that also serves as a welcome when Saporiti sings ‘we’re all waiting for your arrival’. The music is handed over with gentle care. While “Mekong Baby” is a cut with Far East influences while “Jakarta” plays like a film score, the bulk of the album is quietly elegant. “Western Empress” begins with a plucked banjo, before giving way to power chords, although offered up with careful restraint. “Little Monk”, with its string section is an angelic lullaby, and “1603” closes the record as it opens, a cut that could score a dream.
It’s a record that lyrically digs into self, and interaction between self and the world, summed up in the wonderful line ‘cruel and constant spinning of your minds demand’. An original and outsider offering, No-No Boy has done something most musicians spend a career trying to achieve, and that’s make something that sounds like nothing else on the shelf. (by Bryant Liggett)
Listen and buy the music of No-No Boy from AMAZON
 
For more information, please visit the No-No Boy website