Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

The San Francisco artist Divasonic (Lynda Arnold and friends) first release Changing Wind is an interesting mix of pop, folk and, dare I say, new-age? I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this album, and as a guy who likes to listen to a lot of Nine Inch Nails, when I saw the cover I thought, “What have I gotten myself into?”

The album starts off a little clunky. The first track, Feel High seems very generic and the vocals are a little off the rhythm. It just seemed to kind of clunk along. I wasn’t really sure how to feel about the lyrics and the vocal track because of this. But from then on I realized that this is a group that knows what its doing. Summertime, an instrumental, is beautifully crafted. In fact, it’s an album that builds to the end. The more I listened to it, the more I liked it. Once I reached the end with Glass Pebbles (Beat Mix) I was thinking “This is pretty damn good!”

And it was. I can’t think of too many bands that pull off the pan flute on a track that resembles rock (with the exception of Marilyn Manson’s “Cryptorchid” from Antichrist Superstar). The flute ads that sort of “new age” feel to it, but not as pretentious and awful as that sounds. The musical skill is obviously there, and the compositions reflect this. The use of electronic beats is also well utilized in this album, adding a sort of counterpoint to the flutes. There’s even a bit of a jazz influence that comes through, especially in Tick Tick Boom (not to be confused with “Click Click Boom”).

The only real issue I had with the album was that the track listing on the inside of the packaging didn’t list the songs in the right order (The outside has it listed correctly), but I’m a sticker for those details.

Divasonic might not be the best choice for someone who listens to Nine Inch Nails, but I must admit that it’s very good. If you enjoy well-constructed instrumentals, chances are that you will enjoy a lot of Changing Wind.