Parmenter, Ryan - The Noble Knave

Year of Release: 2007
Label: self-released
Catalog Number: n/a
Format: CD
Total Time: 59:00:00

It would be foolish to let this album rest indefinitely on the shelf without giving it a listen. For those who think Brian Wilson is brilliant, Ryan Parmenter is no brainless reprobate either. Parmenter's music is creative, melodic, and unique. It's Progressive Rock; yet it's different. It's not comparable to anything that's come before in the same way that Phideaux's Doomsday Afternoon is normally mentioned in the singular. If you've heard Parmenter's collaborative band, Eyestrings, you're essentially in the vicinity of this album. Even so, his solo work is as analogous to retinal vessels and orbital muscles as Peter Gabriel's personal mantras are to Genesis.

To give it to you straight, the use of harmony and pianos in this release are outright weird. At those rare times when he's mainstreaming, he panders to the psychedelic numbers of David Bowie, The Moody Blues, or The Beatles. As out-there as he can be, his compositions are still catchy, tidy, and neat.

And if Humpty Dumpty were perched on these simmering, sound structures, he wouldn't have cracked his fragile shell in the first place. Instead his creamy nougat insides would have remained intact, because the percolating percussion would have hardboiled that egghead. What's more, Parmenter's bubbly voice is like a ladle trying to clutch a piece of pasta in between convulsive noodlings on the piano.

Parenthetically, music comes naturally to Parmenter and it even runs in his family, but I'll leave the genealogy up to the Wikipedia. In regards to Parmenter's profile, his sense of humor is staidly engrained into his style. Oftentimes he puts comic relief secretly into pseudo-funny verses. While it's not readily apparent in most cases - unless you're one of those literal people who reads liner notes or listens intently to every bit of lexis, "Dating My Frankenstein" is obviously a piece of fiction. Not to mention, the neck bolts and whooshing keyboards aren't even the tale's creepiest characteristics. It has a banjo that bellows from start to finish. As you can imagine, "I Dig Your Head," regurgitates much of the same tuneful twaddle.

Occasionally Parmenter's quite serious as demonstrated in the ballad, "All Ways;" but in general, his humorless demeanor is short-lived. Not to mention, his aloof goofiness abounds greatly in the artwork and the insets. Splitting the difference between the common and occult, "No Matter How You Spend Your Day" shows a likeness to Morrissey and Owsley. Additionally, the title track clangs close to Kevin Gilbert's Thud. It's the best from this kooky cache of non-cookie-cutter cuts due to its considerate derangement.

Notwithstanding the grasping at straws that has already been done thus far, any of these sensible guesses are just as likely to contrast what you'll actually hear. By no means is The Noble Knave routine.

To most, this artist's name will slip their mind or be confused with the elder kinsman of his clan. Cross-referencing Parmenter's after-market parts with incessantly accessed bins in the dealer's storehouse, Genesis' Trick of the Tail is the nearest I can come to citing something that's statistically relevant to the masses. Everything else escapes the tip of the tongue.

To a certain extent it's excusable to ignore an album with a silly title by an unknown artist. Still, that doesn't let those harboring this good-for-something disc off the hook. What's more ridiculous than letting an album sit sedentary too long or passing over an obscure one altogether is orphaning a promising artist after you've just become acquainted with his childish antics.

Tracklisting:
Z?ccer (3:32) / Keep Crying (4:30) / Dating My Frankenstein (3:12) / Starving (4:12) / Diamond Eggshell (4:09) / I Dig Your Head (5:36) / All Ways (4:48) / Sterilized (4:32) / Dream (4:13) / No Matter How You Spend Your Day (5:12) / I'm Just A Guy (5:19) / The Noble Knave (5:36) / Come Along (4:28)

Musicians:
Ryan Parmenter - vocals, keyboards, programming and sampling

Discography:
Helvetica (1995)
Eyestrings - Burdened Hands (2004)
Eyestrings - Consumption (2005)
The Noble Knave (2007)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin US

Added: February 17th 2009
Reviewer: Joshua "Prawg Dawg" Turner
Score:
Artist website: www.ryanparmenter.com
Hits: 4633
Language: english