Burnt - Reaching For The Sun (Self-published)

The title of the album not only perfectly suits a reggae album released in the midst of winter, but the band immediately adds: "Everyone has no doubt experienced some realizations this year, and a big one for us is that when the world sends this band down into a twisted and unexpected hole, our reaction is to bend and stretch in whatever way alllows the music to keep on growing... like branches reaching for the sun!". We couldn't possibly cover all 27 songs individually, so we'll spotlight the most noteworthy. For the country-esque 'Jack London Dreamliner' (think: Burnt's answer to John Denver's 'Country Roads'), vocalist/guitarist Danny Franco drew inspiration from the plaza in front of the Oakland train station in California, named after American autor Jack London. Rob LaPorte, the band's drummer, even recorded the sound of an approaching train, which can briefly be heard in the intro of the song, Danny describes as an ode to the nostalgia of train travel and the longing for new destinations. A song that certainly needs some explanation, at least for non-Californians, is the very catchy instrumental ska-tune 'Bolo The Kelp Rider', a musical tribute to the mythological creature that chases its enemies with a whip made of bull kelp (a brown seaweed common in the waters off the Californian coast) and supposedly makes the roads there unsafe driving around in an old Cadillac! For those wondering what the weird answering machine fragments incorporated into the outros of 'Home' and 'No Repeats' are all about, these are old recordings of the voice of Burnt saxophonist/keyboardist Jamal Siurano's landlady, complaining about the loud bass noises she heard coming from his house during band rehearsals. A fun play on words is 'True Love Never Chain', replacing the traditional "changes" with "chain". Of an anecdotal nature is 'Big Edna', in which Burnt vocalist dFranx wonders who could have stolen the band's tour van, lyrics based on facts dating back to 2014, when Burnt drummer Rob LaPorte after a night on the town in San Francisco noticed that Big Edna, the band's tour van, had disappeared. The song opens with a recorded report from the local police, informing the band they recovered the vehicle in question. To cut a long story short, on the night in question Rob was so drunk he simply couldn't exactly remember where he'd parked the van!

Burnt once again invited several vocal guests for this album. We still remembered Karmic Basis aka Uglee Troof from 'Majestic Walrus', on 'Reaching For The Sun' he can be heard in no less than 5 tracks (highlights being: 'Into The Thou', a song containing fragments from Martin Luther King Jr.'s last speech in Memphis, Tennessee, the so-called 'I've Been to the Mountaintop' speech, in which, at one point, he paraphrased the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan: "Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus; and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters in life. At points, he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew, and through this, throw him off base. Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn't stop to help him. And finally, a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But with him, administering first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the "I" into the "thou", and to be concerned about his brother."). Angelica Challenger, a singer from British Columbia in Canada, who met the band during on of their first tours in the region, was also featured in 'Easy Come Happy' from 'Majestic Walrus', here makes an apperearance in 'Grace' and 'Spark'. And then there's Frank Lasalona ('Shadows'), the frontman of Iconoclast Robot, a hip-hop/fusion band Burnt's Jamal Siurano is also active in. 

Some tracks also showcase musical originality. In the intro of closing track 'Slowfaded', you can hear an African balafon and we recognized the sound of a Brazilian cuíca in 'Spark'. A special mention has to go to the aforementioned Jamal Siurano, whose sax plays a solid leading role in several of the songs on 'Reaching For The Sun'. Picking favorites from the track list is an almost impossible task, but the delicious instrumental rocksteady of 'Raindrops', again featuring Jamal Siurana, this time masterful behind the organ, the excellent horn section - Kevin Nolan (trumpet/trombone), Jamal Siurano (alto sax) and Nev Gibson (tenor and baritone sax) in the aforementioned ska tune 'Bolo The Kelp Rider', 'Moonglow', sounding almost like an eighties production of reggae-influenced bands like The Police or 10cc, or the combination of the inspiring lyrics with Jamal Siurano's jazzy saxophone vibes of in 'Into The Thou', all left a lasting impression.

Burnt initially wanted to retreat to the woods of Mendocino County to record this album, but were thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic. None the less, the band still managed to make the 27 songs sound like the delightful murmur of a mountain stream effortlessly meandering between conscious roots, lovers, hip-hop, ska, dub, jazz, rocksteady and more.