Joel "Fad'nez" Fadness: Press

Technology has and will continue to provide musicians with endless possibilities for the autonomous creation of complex and nuanced compositions. The danger lies in a lack of perspective between the musicians and the project before them. Furthermore, the ubiquity and general affordability of home studio equipment and peripheral gadgetry can quash spirited inspiration with too many bells and whistles. Local multi-instrumentalist Joel Fadness has avoided such pitfalls with his debut release, Dynokaleido—a word with clear etymology, yet pure rhetorical invention. The apt title behind the 14-track LP is an entry to sculpted and absorbing electronic rhythms composed over a two-year period. The strengths of Dynokaleido’s songs are the seamless instrumental transitions between live drums, keyboards and Ron Carter bass samples. Each instrument assumes a different character with psychological complexity and depth to engage in the composition’s interior intimacy rather than an exterior surface. Where too many falter in the pallor of conceptualized song arrangement pastiche, Fadness revels in sophisticated musical skill and subtle tenacity with each intricate landscape he creates.

"I love your "Dynokaleido" CD so much I'm going to feature it on the FRONT PAGE of CD Baby for a few days. We're REALLY picky about what goes on the front page.  We get about 100 new albums a DAY coming in here now,
(about 100,000 total), and yours is one of the best I've ever heard."

-Derek Sivers, CD Baby

Drums bouncing and keyboards set on stun, Joel Fadness offers a
frenetic opus of electronic jazz.  Despite having held down gigs as a
drummer for several world, world fusion, Native American, and jazz
artists, Fadness has an obvious command over and ear for what works when it comes to computers and keyboards. Slightly kitschy, darting synth lines skip over largely strict, tight drums to form masses of thoughtful songs. While the music possesses some elements of modern IDM and breakbeat, it's also got serious reverence for the patterns of early electronic music and the sound of the synthesizer... not the sound of the synthesizer trying to be an acoustic instrument.  With this type of effort, it's pretty rare that all of the sounds coming out the keyboard are perfectly manufactured and pasted together in a way that's avoids cheesiness, even with its occasional glance back to 70s and 80s synth sounds.  It is a record that's easy to take seriously where others might be written off as a joke.  So listen to it, dance to it, dork out to it.

-CD Baby

There's a commment on the webpage for Joel Fadness's CD which says "He is happy to be in a band that will never break up." I totally agree. Fadness is a one-man band/phenomenon. In truth, he plays everything that is heard on Dynokaleido (Bitbang), an amazing 14-song instrumental journey which has him moving from jazz/funk fusion to quirky pop to electronica. In a track like "No Cho" he does the kind of music that Herbie Hancock has done recently, but better. The core of what he does seems to be the drums, and no matter what the context he knows exactly what he's doing. I've read before that when musicians go out out to play everything, the music sometimes lacks the spontaneous feeling that a band recording (i.e. various members in the studio or in a live setting at the same time) can have. I didn't feel that here, one could easily imagine what this could sound like with a group of musicians, but the quality of the musicianship, the compositions, and the songs themselves are extremely good for a one-man operation. "Romper" has him bringing out the Hammond B-3 for a bit of MMW-like funk. There are brief hints of "programming" (thus the electronica tag) but the album was recorded primarily with real instruments, no uploading or downloading involved. Good for listening, good for dancing, good for meditative purposes. It's just good, and it's *that good*.