New York City Smoke

Musique Noir

(self-released)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

This looks dark and broody moody. It looks – well – Noir. So, let’s dive in, shall we?

Singer-songwriter Howie Statland puts together this art deco New York nightlife soundtrack that slides out like some Lower East Side nightmare that’s transformed into something still dark, but also a little romantic, adventurous, and lit with street-life candles of hope, shining in-between the chords and notes. Now, this is not, regardless of the first sentence I wrote, some atmospheric goth anthem. The first song, however, titled “Introduction,” does have some strong atmospheric qualities pushing through its 2 minute instrumentalness. It kinda reminds me of a wordless anthemic guitar heavy shoegazed opening, pushing you towards something big and glorious, but full of shadows.

From there, the shadows seem to dissipate a little, moving closer to the ground like just a hint of dry ice at a rock show, giving the performance that little touch of menace and mystery, while the music rocks on over top of it – and that’s where NYC Smoke goes… towards the moody pop rock with hints of menace that creep under the rhythms that the band throws down. It is rock, it does roll, but there are little twists of shape and sound that make it move more serpentine through the verse chorus. It’s like getting that Johnny Thunders grittiness, throwing a little Placebo glitter glam over it, throw in some four on the floor Pleasure Club touched moves, and tie it all together with a sweet pop song sensibility that calls to mind both the Replacements and Possum Dixon, which, in this case, actually works. It’s borderline New York gutter trash glam, which definitely has its own place, but here there’s a little more smoothness in the delivery, like if the New York Dolls dressed like Interpol. That would actually make for an interesting picture.