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When he was fooling around with the bits and pieces that he would eventually assemble to form [I]Beach Reading[/I], the first effort from No Evil Star, Adam Quane had a clear sense of purpose.

Quane, whose main gig is conjuring up the lush fields of sound that have become a trademark of his main band, The Hush Now, in which he serves as lead guitarist, wanted to create a record that captured a sense of a man caught in an endless cycle “The album was strongly conceptual. Most of the lyrics were more impressionistic with this recording, which allowed the words and songs to really develop together from one or two simple ‘images,’” said Quane in an interview conducted via email. “The images of the sea frame a record that felt sorta like Jay Gatsby's Mansion, a mansion of sound I hoped this Daisy chick I'm crazy about might one day come to a party at.”

The album represents a very bold and direct statement. It is not a mere toe in the water. Much as Gatsby’s house served as a symbol of aspiration in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, [I]Beach Reading[/I] is a declaration of the very same thing. It is a brilliantly executed concept album that produces a few moments of pure contemplative magic, and Quane fully lives up to the lofty goal of even embarking upon such an undertaking.

With an eye towards Friedrich Nietzsche’s epic 19th century tome “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” Quane wanted to “capture that sense of eternal wandering between two realms.”

He accomplishes this task by substituting the sea for the great German philosopher’s cave, and weaving a tale of a man caught between “a world he sees in himself and a world he lusts to share in with others.”

The album features one full rotation of this cycle. Or, as Quane put it: “a dickload of pining and whining over love followed by an inevitable return to the sea.”

The album came about through what the guitarist termed “a lot of sonic experimentation in my bedroom in Allston and Jamaica Plain with friends from all over,” and also features  various other musician friend’s or his.

“Dave Goodchild, Jordan Stein, and Emily Spear helped out,” said Quane of his fellow conspirators. “Along with local BU filmmakers Ahmed Khawaja and Andre Puca, whom I have been working with synchronistically on a couple film projects.”

Quane helped out with music for an upcoming film by Khawaja and Puca.

“The feature they just finished up is tentatively titled Kassandra with a K, and should premiere in Boston this Spring/Summer,” he said.

While recorded exclusively in his bedroom home studio, when it came time to put the finishing touches on his solo venture, Quane opted to turn to a firm that has mastered some of the biggest bands around today. Peerless Mastering.

“The project was recorded and mixed at home and then taken to Peerless Mastering, where Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice mastered the project,” Quane explained. “Jeff and Maria are great. Given their incredible profile, I was amazed at their generosity in working with me on shaping my home recording, but Jeff was delighted in "getting to turn the knobs harder--much harder, that is--then usual.”

According to Quane, No Evil Star should be booking some Boston shows in the near future, possibly in April or May. He says the physical release is also targeted for early summer. - Dirty Water News

I think I can, thank you! This oh-so brief introduction to Seattle? Portland's? Mink Throat Featurette. While precious little can be gleaned from the internet, YOU CAN HANDLE MORE is a glowing, hyper kid brother of a 7" that jumps freely from glorious almost-breakcore on the eponymous track sampling from kid's television shows on a rudimentary drum machine to dark piano chords on the other "side" "Hype C". Jason Forrest's latter stuff on Deathbomb Arc or SLC's VCR5 may be a good introduction. Nevertheless, YOU CAN HANDLE MORE has been on non-stop repeat since I heard it a week ago.
- Tome to the Weather Machine