Reviewed by Aaron Cloutier & Staff
Chicago native Kama Tala brings heavy beach vibes with the eclectic “Monterey.” A soothing blend of surf, soul, rock, pop & world music that somehow achieves a balance between being upbeat while simultaneously relaxing.
The performances captured by Kama Tala bring a very feel-good vibe to the music complete with a dreamlike major tonality all wrapped in a slick Indie production style. The pristine sounds of a clean guitar makes its presence known immediately as the jingle-jangle of its single coil pickup tone cuts through the air.
The beach vibes continue as a veritable ocean (no pun intended) of layered vocals come together to form an incredibly hypnotic ear worm and arguably, the song’s strongest hook. These ethereal chants conjure up pictures of Hawaii (that’s close to Monterey right? …I’m kidding.) in my mind and are wisely used throughout the song.
The lead vocals are full of attitude and personality as the singer recounts a peaceful, yet fleeting moment by the water’s edge best conveyed in lyrics such as…
“The time is slipping away
Stay a little bit longer
if you don't wanna get low
but right now I'm too high to know”
In the pocket bass lines bring in some nice warmth to help offset the brightness of the guitar and vocals and are all carried down the shoreline by a steady snare backbeat. The song itself clocks in at about three minutes and twenty-six seconds and is a testament to Kama Tala’s talent for penning tight, catchy tunes without an inkling of fat on them. Everything is nice and concise, structurally speaking.
In addition to his penchant for catchy melodies and succinct songwriting, Kama Tala includes some nice brief musical departures here and there. Take for instance, when the drums go from the driving double time feel that is prevalent throughout the song to dropping into a brief, but effective halftime groove. It’s gone almost as fast as it arrived and yet, provides a substantial bit of variety and breathes some extra nuance into the track to keep things interesting.
In short, if catchy, mellow, genre bending, pop infused music is your bag, I highly recommend taking a deep dive into Kama Tala's music.
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About Kama Tala
Hailing from Chicago, IL, Kama Tala is an amalgamation of styles and influences. Soul, Rock, Surf, Jazz, & World music are all woven together on Kama Tala’s debut album Before the Wind. The 12 track album, released on 03.07.21, is a personal look at the human condition with each track offering a unique flavor of emotion. KamaTala completed their second project and a series of singles called The Wayside released in the spring of 2021.
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