Honest Tune Review of Beyond Words
Beyond Words is an apt title for Chicago’s The Hue and their new release of the same name. A gripping run through improvised sheets of heavy metal with liquefied and bluesy jazz, Beyond Words takes on all forms of music to leave the listener speechless.
Starting out in the proverbial street rhythms of darkness, “Blackout” takes several melodic turns before reaching epic peaks in it’s sixth minute. “Igneous Pillow” is an understated turn of reflective percussion from Brian Gilmanov and brutal bass underpinnings by Kyle Meyers. “From Anger” puts the harmonic guitar playing of Jared Rubin and Marcus Rezak front and center with a berserk firestorm of leads. Like Umphrey’s McGee on steroids, “Quiet Defiance” is a highlight from a disc chock full of marvels.
This reviewer has heard the future, and it is full of the wonder and majesty deeply embedded inside of The Hue. Produced by Rick Barnes, Asim Ali and The Hue, Beyond Words features keyboardist Eric Levy of Garaj Mahal fame on the exploratory piece “Waking Visions.”
A cruncher of an album, Beyond Words leaves followers giddy and bewildered.
Beyond Words is out now on Hue Music Records.
Columbia Chronicle: Band Plays a Vibrant Hue
Some songs stick in a listener’s head because of their simplicity and charm, but that is not so with The Hue. The band’s complex interlace of dueling guitars and wordless verses sets the hook while its clear melodies keep listeners tuned in.
The progressive four-person band features two guitarists, Jared Rabin and Marcus Rezak, drummer Brian Gilmanov and bassist Kyle Meyers. Three of the band members met at their alma mater, Berklee College of Music. Rabin was a later addition, but grew up in the same Illinois suburbs as the others.
The Chronicle recently sat down with Rabin and Rezak of The Hue to get the story behind the band and how The Hue creates its intricate melodies.
The Chronicle: How did you come up with the name of your band?
Marcus Rezak: Basically, it originated before this version of The Hue was together. It was really early on and Kyle and I did a trio thing for awhile and we called it The Hue Trio. The Hue resembles the way we can shift from one sound to another—kind of a color spectrum of sounds really. A hue, a kind of color saturation and correlation as it relates to our sound, I would say.
The Chronicle: What is the process for writing your songs?
Jared Rabin: I think it varies from person to person. At this point in the game, everybody has been writing stuff individually and bringing it to the group. Everyone has a different way of doing that. Some of us write out charts and bring them in. Some of us make recordings on our own of all the parts and bring them in. Some people are more particular than others, but everyone has kind of brought their own tunes to the table and at rehearsals, taught everyone else how to play. Everyone is then able to lend their own style to it and then it sounds like the band.
The Chronicle: Is it a little bit different because you don’t have lyrics or a spoken chorus in your songs?
JR: Sometimes. Some of our tunes do follow the traditional song form where you can separate it out into like verse, chorus, verse, bridge—stuff like that. There are no lyrics, but there are guitar melodies that would be the theme of the verse or the chorus. Some of it is also way more progressive in that it doesn’t follow the typical song form. Not having lyrics lends itself to more creative song forms.
The Chronicle: When you perform, is there much improv?
MR: Yeah, there is a lot of improv, generally in the middle of all the tunes. Some tunes don’t actually have any solo sections that are improvised. Some are actually composed solo sections, but in terms of song structure, some songs are just broken down into lettered sections as opposed to verses going back and forth. It’s all a big variety really just depending on the type of tune and the purpose of it.
JR: Some tunes, if you came and saw them at a show, would be relatively similar from time to time and there’s other tunes that are more improvised. They never sound the same from one time to another so it keeps the variety—it keeps them fresh.
The Chronicle: Do you remember a solo from any particular performance that you did that you were just like, “Wow, that was awesome!”?
JR: Not particularly, but lately—
MR: —so many solos.
JR: Yeah, there’s a lot.
MR: So many notes.
JR: For sure, we have a couple of tunes that turn into long jams and stuff where we’re never really sure what’s going on, or what’s going to happen next. There’s definitely times when we are like, “Oh yeah, that was awesome,” and times we’re like, “That was horrible.”
MR: Jared definitely had a few really great solos at The Ten Thousand Lakes Festival we played at.
JR: See, I don’t even remember.
JamBase Review of Beyond Words!
The Chicago music scene has never really seized on a signature sound, spreading itself around, producing sporadic superstars in a variety of styles. But over the past decade or so, the Windy City has seen an unusual surge in preeminent progressive rock bands, from the post-rock side by way of Tortoise to the metal edge of Pelican and the jamband contingent via Umphrey’s McGee. Add to this list the instrumental prog of The Hue, whose debut album, Beyond Words (Reapandsow Music), is more complex yet melodically sophisticated than a debut has any business being.
This style of heavy, no-vox music has a tendency to get lost in Satriani-esque wankery, but right from the opening blast of “Blackout” you’ll be headbanging vigorously, even as the melodic hooks nestle almost instantly into your brain. Even at almost eight minutes, it’s a concise musical expression, with the eclectic, fusion-tinged drumming of Brian Gilmanov speeding things along without ever settling into a lazy groove.
There will be no avoiding the Umphrey’s comparisons for this band. UM fans will hear echoes in the ascending arpeggios of “Igneous Pillow” and the dueling guitar noodling of “Shatter For Now,” but the King Crimson methodology is essentially public domain at this point, and more power to the two contemporary bands for keeping it vital.
Perhaps the most engaging aspect of Beyond Words is the way it blends darkness and light. “From Anger” and “Like Lines” both touch on the creepy experimentation of Crimson circa 1974 and temper it with soaring, Brian May-style harmonic guitar flourishes. “Bipolar Pride” is epic pop à la Rush, but it gets an extra kick from the muscular, thrashy chugging and double bass workout that might scare off aging ’80s stoners. Still, the bent of the song is so uplifting it might just expand some minds at the same time. Even the unabashed metal of “Waking Visions” is aggressive without being vicious.
The bottom line here is that, while everything on the album brings to mind the obvious influences that make up The Hue, the playing is human, the passion lances out of the speakers, and the craftsmanship isn’t stolen. Ultimately, this band will win fans the same way as Buckethead – they’ll come for the technical spectacle and they’ll stay for the songs, which are liable to be stuck in your head after just one listen.
JamBase | Big Shoulders
Go See Live Music!
By: Cal Roach
