The North has released their latest album Slow Down (This Isn't The Mainland). The North is comprised of Romain Collin, Shawn Conley and Abe Lagrimas, Jr. Together their musical talents come together to perform beautiful, peaceful and inspirational instrumental music that has a classical feel while have modern influences at the same time. The album has a jazz/traditional feel but does explore a more modern take on the genre.
The album opens with the track "Great Ocean Road." This single introduces the musical stylings of North to the audience. The track slowly builds and is at time soothing, how calm and well though out each musical note is.
Collin's piano skills are front and center on much of the album, the piano is really telling the story of the album and expresses different emotions during the record. At times the piano playing feels like a way to honor classical musicians who came before them as a band but other tracks will feature a modern, fast playing style of the instrument which really showcases that these band members are taking a traditional instrumental style of music and adding in their own flavor.
The other instruments including the bass and the drums help to frame the notes of the piano and help to round out the very full and modern sound that The North has put together on this record.
Slow Down (This Isn't The Mainland) feels like an entire musical composition as opposed to just individual singles. This type of music is detail oriented, passionate and inspiring. Why couldn't this type of music appeal to an entire new audience and generation? If The North has their way, this type of music might be able to reach entirely different audiences through modern age mediums.
Stand out tracks on the album include, "Join Us Jackson," "Stay With Me" and "Blowin' in the Wind."