A Project To Purge The Soul

When I was back in my knob twisting days, the one thing you could always depend on was drummers. Most of them walked into a gig and looked like the meanest SOB in the room but as a whole, they were the guys who were the nicest, most approachable members of the band. I don’t know Kevin Preston personally but I would bet that my theory holds true. According to his website, Superstar Wormhole started as the result of a middle-aged drummer who found a new creative outlet; his laptop. A drummer’s world is different from that of a guitarist, or horn player, or singer, for that matter. When was the last time you saw a guy set up his kit in the park and play for change? It is a little cumbersome.

Technology has been a good and bad thing for the music industry. On one hand, it has allowed many creative individuals the means and freedom to create their art and on the other, it has allowed many “artists” with questionable talent to create what passes for music and bombard the public with too much canned drivel that not even their family would buy. I regularly search music sites like Reverbnation and Bandcamp and some things I hear I just can’t believe. The music business has become a crowded space and everyone is jockeying for position hoping to be the next big discovery. I guess there’s no accounting for taste.

That’s why it is refreshing to me to hear a record that doesn’t try to be anything more than it is; an exercise in creativity. Superstar Wormhole isn’t trying to be the next big thing. Preston’s pet project is just that, a guy with too much time on his hands and tunes running through his brain. I suspect that if something ever happened to Larry Mullen Jr. and Bono came calling, Mr. Preston would jump at the chance but for the time being, he is happy to have a vehicle to take those tunes in his head and give them life. The album is aptly titled “Catharsis” and from my theater training I realize that this album is exactly that; the arousal and purging of musical emotion. Well done.

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