Dan Bryk - Lovers Leap (Scratchie Records)

Dan Bryk is a confessional piano-based singer-songwriter, with heavy emphasis on the 'confessional' part of the equation--much of Lovers Leap lyrical content is concerned with Bryk's romantic past, of which it says much that the title isn't "Lover's Leap" (with the possessive apostrophe), it's 'Lovers Leap', as in a suggested activity for lovers. Truth be told, I don't absolutely love this music, and this is the kind of music that you must absolutely take to heart because otherwise it might get, well, grating. It's so idiosyncratic that it seems doomed to a small but enthusiastic audience, but each member of that audience would likely credit Dan Bryk with saving their lives by letting them know there's hope for others like them out there. This may seem contradictory but this is the difference betwen mass-broadcasting Blink-182 generic culture and narrowcasting, acclaimed as the inevitable future by media experts much smarter than me--if you're at all likely to be into this music, check it out because you might totally love it. The rest of us will get by just fine without it.

So who might get into Lovers Leap? Well, probably people not too unlike Dan himself, or at least the image of himself Dan projects via his extremely personal lyrics: someone whose romantic history has perhaps not been as successful as they'd like, someone who weighs a bit more than they consider ideal, someone who's old enough to remember the glory days of geekdom and Apple II machines, someone who still burns with sublimated hatred for the happy peppy people who teased and taunted them back in the institutionalized pschological torture farms known as 'public school' in the US. Musically, Bryk's work can be aptly described by four touchstones: Half Japanese, Pavement, Daniel Johnston, and the Violent Femmes. Okay, not too many Celine Dion-type voices among those four acts, which should serve as a warning to those whose brains explode when a vocalist wanders off-pitch, but those souls likely to connect with this music shouldn't be too put off. It's the lifeline here that's valuable, not a Sinatra-like vocal performance.