by Deuce

Sines certainly has an eye for talent. The West Coast based producer/musician/artist displays an unerring knack for getting the right helping hands on his latest LP, A Series of Moments, to make them last well after the songs go off, in some instances.

Several of the tunes are accompanied by a female vocalist of some sort, which is certainly a good thing, and extremely fitting, too. Most of the tracks on the LP have a decided strobe light effect; you can just see the silver ball spinning in the room splaying weird colors about the dance hall when you simply listen to them. Many of the numbers are dance-worthy (which reinforces the female motif dominating a significant portion of the project) in an unorthodox, almost European discotheque sort of way.

But back to the babes. Unfortunately, most of their performances are uncredited, notwithstanding the sheer musicality some of them evince. On “Under The Waves” some big voiced lady is hitting nice sounding high notes just as long, and strong, as she or almost anyone else could please. The synths are out of this world on the tune, and Sines (also known as Jason Wann) is well accomplished at hooking up the drums on this and most of the other cuts—especially the effects on some old fashioned, fat ass sounding snares.

He also has an obvious thing for bass lines. Most of the time they’re sizable enough to overcome the four-on-floor drum patterns that find their way, at some juncture, on some of these songs. The house bass on “Something in the Way”, for example, hits hard, has a somewhat subversive feel, and is accentuated by a prominent kick.

Plus the tune is considerably aided by the chops of Kitty Richardson, who can flat out sing. Her vocal quality bestows another dimension to the number, as do most of the female vocalists populating this project, too.

Sines even throws a rapper with a good voice on “Powerless”, an ode to the biological phenomenon which has given birth to us all. Although some of the lyrics are a little monotonous, she’s got a good delivery and provides some much needed urban enthusiasm on the album. In that sense the LP is wonderfully eclectic, reaching out in a couple different directions at once.