Ladies and gentlemen, Travis Mendes has arrived and he brings with him a monster of an EP! Travis' newest three-track EP entitled Closure features Jon Bellion and is my latest addiction. Closure is vocally intriguing, sonically satisfying and is overall enthralling music begging for your enjoyment. It would be a crime if it wasn't.
Closure's opening song 10 Years is a blend of so many good things that it leaves you feeling so damn good after every listen. The track is Mylon Hayde-produced, with no feature and a true display of the creative pastures Travis Mendes can take with his vocals. I think 10 Years can sit close on the shelf with Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere album in sound classification alone. 10 Years dips into the alternative rock, neo soul/blues elements. The instrumentation on here is refreshing. The drudgery nature of the strings also contain Southern bluesy sounds through the particular chord progression the guitar goes through. The sound has a concealed amount of hurt in the notes. There's melancholy feels there that I think are fun and interesting to tap into. Mylon Hyde's dulled drum with the simple pattern engages in the sorrow with an offer of slow work, only flaring up with the vocal performance from Travis Mendes.
Travis Mendes' singing on 10 Years is what makes me think of St. Elsewhere the strongest. It may just be my ears, but on Smiley Faces, CeeLo's vocals sound like they're being transferred through a filter akin to a TV or a radio. There's a bit of distortion in the sound, and here Travis boosts that quality to make his vocals sound as if they are being broadcasted through a fuzzy radio. The sound, his holler style, makes it sound even more retro, giving everything more creative liberty and individualism apart from today's musical space. I adore it. I thought it put the song's layers of distance between the woman he's singing about into perspective. I felt the relationship's turmoil. The pleas for attention nagged at me, and I carried that weight with him. It really is a good song. The hints of hip-hop with a Busta Rhymes soundbite close out the track, and along with scratching scattered around 10 Years that sound heavily influenced by the scratching/various glitches embellished on Midnight Marauders make for one hell of an introductory song with many hidden musical Easter eggs that are a joy to discover. And it only gets better from there.
Closure's second track How Close (Closure Edit) is again produced by Mylon Hyde and stands on completely different legs than its successor 10 Years. How Close, in sonics and in feeling, hits like antiperspirant ecstasy. The drums live in a pocket that bangs like floor pounds. Mylon's synth has a deep rumble that pulls and wavers like the E string on a bass, while Travis' vocals sound like they're whizzing by in a dance. The sound lives in a night club and How Close adopts those all important electronic music qualities that warrant frenetic dancing. The dramatic change of style from song to song in the first six minutes kept me on my toes for the entire duration of the EP. There was a level of excitement to hear what was next.
The final song Dead Presidents finds its production at the mercy of confidant Jon Bellion, who is also featured on the track. I think Bellion infused some leftover magic, some leftover twinkle from his album The Human Condition right into the DNA of this song.
Dead Presidents opens in an overwhelming state of exploration. The almost eerie ploppy aquatic keys drifting at the start of this track oddly drew me into watching Tinker Bell fly around through first person view in a more deafened universe of Finding Nemo. Jon's vocals sound a bit somber-fueled, full of questions. His verse really gets inside the minds of man exploring the true value of money. The lyrics and vocal performance make me think and I love that. The power screech that sounds like a guitar (likely pulled off through sliding his own vocals) brings a jolt to the journey this song goes through, while Jon Bellion's drums have that smack from the pocket they sit in. The hunks of rhythm sway you. The kick and snare conversation is leading in the production so when the orchestral section rushes in the grandeur, the scope of the song climbs to new heights. And then Travis Mendes finally blows.
Travis Mendes' vocal strength on this one took me through waves of triumph and kept Jon's exploration into human wants going. At times the emotions of his vocals were reminiscent of Phil Collins on the Tarzan soundtrack. I sensed feelings of loss in Dead Presidents. There were qualities of redemption. And sometimes when he toned down the strength of his voice, I personally heard glimpses of reaching for the cadence Collins at times revealed on that soundtrack. It was cool. Dead Presidents was a brawny way to send off Closure. Travis Mendes constructed a smash of an EP. There's a ton of great stuff spread over just three songs. So much so that Closure makes it into my top EP's this year list. Travis Mendes dropped something different and fully entertaining. It was a pleasure to listen to and even more delightful to write about.
Listen to Travis Mendes' EP Closure below.
Photo Creds: soundcloud.com/https://twitter.com/FranciscoViews
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