Virtual Jungle ~ Cycles (album review) ... Roaming through the jungle!

Style: alt rock, pop, experimental
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: New York

Members: Lucio Rebello ~ all instruments

Once upon a time, growing up in the 80's, the word 'alternative' didn't mean what it does today when referring to music. Today 'alt rock' has become a particular style of youthful angsty rock that came in rebellion to the over-the-top hair metal 80's ... but once upon a time it literally meant 'alternative' in the traditional sense, as in an option outside of the norm, something different, unusual even. Cycles by VJ, the one man band of Brazilian born multi-instrumentalist Lucio Rebello, is an alternative album. It's unpredictable & offering something different, unusual even - the opposite of a majority of albums that claim the alt rock title. Over a couple songs one might go anywhere from shoegazing a la Galaxie 500 to alt pop Posies to 70's Larry Carlton jazz-rock. All of the movement hinged together with gentle singing & rolling little guitar melodies of a repetitive but hypnotic nature. Though, don't let the name of the band fool you. 'Jungle' is a deceptive term. The songs are a jungle of ideas not a jungle of sounds ... nor is the jungle in a state of chaos. If anything it's more of a calm night in the rain forest. It's a jungle of places VJ is going to take you. Or, to put it another way ... the album opens with the standout track "The Train" & Cycles is a train ride over changing landscapes. Having personally travelled on trains in Eastern Europe across countries borders I can confess to having seen in a single ride day to night & back again, unexpectant change of trains, empty chairs going to crowded halls, machine gun toting customs officers that recall too many Nazi war films, bustling cities & country sides & lost villages abandoned in time & leaving in the sun only to eventually watch snow fall out the window. I'll confess to more thoughts & experiences looking through the window on such journeys ... such cycle ... than in the trips that would ensue. Electronic drums bubble like water against layered acoustic & electric guitars to create dreamy melodic ballads that take a train ride all their own through society with VJ. All aboard.