Pedro - 'Early Pedro' (Melodic)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
There are two common reactions to music you don't understand. One, you revel in the new, previously unthought-of ways music can get inside your head, counting the difficulties of the piece as a missing patch in your own musical quilt rather than a flaw in the work itself and embrace the whole affair as an education. Your glass is very much half full. On the other hand, you could view it as either so complex that it isn't worth your time, or rather arrogantly view your own appreciation of music as being so complete that the only reason you don't click with whatever's in question is because it must be rather stupid. The glass could do with a top up.
Even in his early days (demonstrated by this collection of his first three EPs), Pedro was no fool, so strike that option from the list. Quite the opposite, he (James Rutledge) knew his stuff, and relaxing and breezy as much of it is, whilst appreciation of what went on amidst his formative years eventually does sound like a walk in the park, the climb to that stage is an uphill one. It's worth it, though. Lovely views.
So first, the confusion - folk and electronica, hip hop and jazz, thinly disguised soft rock and slightly worrying Zero 7 soundalikes ('To Lie Here And To Not Go Out' loses points for that minor crime as well as a completely unnecessary, unbefitting use of the word 'piss'). It would take a special kind of glue to get each to stand side by side, or rather become interwoven as Rutledge eventually manages. At first, this can't clearly be found. It drifts past pleasantly, inoffensively enough, but neither excites to the point of elation nor calms you to the brink of bliss. The only thing that really grabs the attention is the niggling feeling that there's something more going on here. What is it?
No answers will be given here because part of the fun of the record (or more specifically, records) is going through this process for yourself. Or, to put it more crudely - buggered if we know. All that's really important is that you can genuinely really enjoy this as a highly interesting, soothing, beguiling introduction to a career, even if you're one of those who'll need to put in a bit of time to reach such a stage. Look closer - you'll see the bizarre way 'Assembled by 33' is covered in fizzing noises but still sounds beautiful, how 'Chapel Was My Dream' admirably attempts to capture the sound of starlight and the closing 'Part 2' seems to be the rest of the tracks masterfully layered to sit on top of each other.
This is merely Early Pedro. You forgive the occasional sugariness of it as a youthful learning process. Its peaks are easily enough of an enticement to warrant checking out his maturity.
Artists in this article: Pedro
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