The Unperson (with Kate Doblick) by The Unperson

Doblick slithers through the room with “Precious Bugs” dripping from her mouth like honied morning dew while Visick plucks Morse codes from his guitar. Visick’s nimble fingers are imbued with the ghost of Nick Drake on the wistfully nostalgic instrumental “Memory Hole,” while “Queen’s Decade” is something you’ll want to listen to in a smoky jazz bar nursing your fifth watered-down gin and tonic. “Before The Storm” floats along on the crest of a wave, surfing your heartstrings like a long lost lover who just mysteriously reentered your life. Visick grabs the mic for closer “Safety Breach” and delivers a Paul Simon channeled through Stephen Bishop air that’s a pleasant contrast to Doblick’s lovely vocal performance.

An amazing new talent, Doblick’s voice is perfectly suited to Visick’s soulful, jazzy concoctions, with a faint bluesy air throughout and “The Unperson” certainly deserves a wider audience than ther casual websurfer stumbling across Visick’s website. I’ve done my part…now I invite you to pick up a copy and help spread the word.- Jeff Penczak

2006/06/22

While listening to The Unperson with Kate Doblick, it quickly becomes apparent that the project was created from a wonderfully-experimental guitar approach which has naturally led itself to key shifts and uncommon melodies with a combination of absolute fearlessness and flowing musicality. Despite being outside of contemporary pop predictability and rationale, none of the musical areas these songs visit feel forced at all. In fact, the tonal blending and textures employed through layered guitar lines and arpeggiated rhythms coupled with darker-than-normal melodic choices give a perfect harmony to the songwriting approach as a whole.

The album starts with “Refuge;” a simple guitar/vocal piece with a hypnotically-repetitive riff that offers an open sense of musical space, but doesn’t leave the listener wanting more arrangement like many electric guitar and vocal duos tend to do. Quickly after, the listener is jutted by an in-your-face alt-rock arrangement with a much more assertive Kate up front entitled “I Am Ill.” Listening through the album, you feel the song order comfortable, flowing and well-chosen with its seemingly calculated ups and downs. Personal favorites of mine were “Precious Bugs”, co-written by principal songcrafter Albert Visick and Vanessa Rijo; “Looney on the Ceiling;” and “Understatement,” a gently-flowing 6/8 shuffle that refuses to settle itself into the safe zone of any one key in particular.

A hugely redeeming factor to this album is the front herself, Kate Doblick. Her vocal approach at times is reminiscent of The Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler on songs like “Looney . . ” and “Queen’s Decade,” but with moments of more depth; both figuratively and literally. Hidden within, there are beautiful aesthetic contrasts between Kate’s voice and hauntingly-dark lines like “The pleasure of taking lives and subsisting upon them.”

The Unperson definitely owns his feel well, in that there’s a steady flow from one song to the next and the project in and of itself has a oneness. The songs have the ability to stay with the listener long past the first listen and each one offers a new flavor from the last. One can only wonder with anticipation what will follow up this effort.

-Greg Schmitt

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