Soneji, a solo alternative music artist
based in the San Antonio area, has released his most recent flagship
EP album, “Capitulus Duodecim.”
Soneji, a solo alternative music artist
based in the San Antonio area, has released his most recent flagship
EP album, “Capitulus Duodecim.” The record is comprised of only
five tracks and is therefore considered by the artist himself an
extended-play release, however music fans will be excited to know
that “Capitulus...” is an unusually comprehensive EP, containing
just over forty minutes' worth of excellent modern alternative folk
music of a sort that the underground indie scene hasn't yet heard.
Indeed, Soneji's solo work is perhaps the freshest, most raw, unique
and roundly excellent material listeners will have heard in years –
maybe even decades.
With “Capitulus Duodecim,” Soneji
is paying homage to the likes of Robert Johnson, Johnny Cash and R.
L. Burnside, who are major influences on his songwriting and style of
performance. Their involvement in his artistic process is obvious and
wonderful: each recorded track sounds alive and present in the room
when played from the album, even though Soneji is not bashful with
his effects in production. These effects tend to give his already
bizarre and somewhat melancholy tone a level of bleak darkness that
conjures black-and-white images of desolation and dread in the
listener's imagination.
Sound-wise, Soneji's music recalls some
of the greatest blues revisionists of the 1990s, many of whom were
often lumped together in the so-called grunge or Seattle movement.
Their styles and moods are prominently displayed in his own sound and
composing, which makes sense because these artists were writing under
the influence of Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, and the other
early-American folk musicians, too. One can hear the great Kurt
Cobain in Soneji's vocals, although Soneji is himself a very
individual character and sounds in no way derivative. His dreary,
dirge-like guitar work recalls the black magnificence of Alice in
Chains, although truly, this is again the continued thread of the
early-American folk players of the midwest. These are, however, not
the only perspectives found in “Capitulus...” by any means at
all, as it contains too much depth and complexity to fit in a single
piece of music journalism.
Soneji's “Capitulus Duodecim” is
sure to be his first and last release as an independent musician, as
anyone with an ear can deduce from two minutes' listening. It is
available online worldwide beginning February 11, 2013.
-S. McCauley
Staff Press Release Writer
MondoTunes
The EP “Capitulus Duodecim”
is distributed globally by MondoTunes (www.MondoTunes.com)
and is available at iTunes for convenient purchase and download
MondoTunes
(www.mondotunes.com)
supplies the largest music distribution in the world and provides
upstream services for many major labels in search of breakout
artists. While most independent distributors reach only 45-50
retailers despite charging needless monthly and yearly fees,
MondoTunes reaches over 750 retailers and mobile partners in over 100
world regions without any monthly or yearly fees.
ARTIST
CONTACT INFO:
artdesoneji@gmail.com
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