Storybox: Press & Reviews
In today's day and age, it is hard to believe that gay people were often arrested for congregating in their own clubs less than 40 years ago. During that political climate, gay men and women remained an imaginary threat for the mainstream right wing and in spite of the pervasive "love power" that predominated the '60s, this same sentiment was still a long way off for the gay populace. Storybox thus crafts a fictional account of real world events from the 1969 Stonewall Riots with the title track "No Dancing Allowed." While this track is highly danceable and filled with infectious grooves honed from the top electro acts of the '80s, this anthemic track poignantly looks towards the pseudo-apocalyptic future of nightclub life throughout the New York scene of today, regardless of orientation. "Never Wonder" dishes up yet another '80s inspired track reminiscent of New Order with hopeful and emotively loving lyrics. "Ashes in the Air" opens with a dark electronic infusion, which then reverts to something akin to the dark pop sensibility of Depeche Mode. Lyrically, this is an homage to those who perished in the Holocaust without making the topic lighthearted in the least. "Fantasy" brings us on a more theatrical journey, similar to that of the later work of Marc Almond. This mid-tempo beat is delivered with a touch of archaic medieval emphasis combined with Broadway intensity and opulent electronic instrumentation. No Dancing Allowed is a body of work lyrically, photographically, and sonically that will invite contrasts and comparisons, to which a short review could never do full justice. This particular CD is definitely geared to those who love the timeless sounds from the '80s as well as the underground dance pop club styles of today, as both are beautifully combined within the parameters of the 12 tracks. This is a fresh and inviting debut from an artist who clearly puts a creative spin on every aspect of his release in order to make it a timeless classic.
"One of the most creative and emblematic (not to mention bona fide feel-good!) albums to come out of 2007."
STORYBOX: "NO DANCING ALLOWED"
"No Dancing Allowed" is the debut album from Storybox, identified on the official site www.StoryboxMusic.com as "the poptronic music outlet for Agent D., AKA Dave Montana". Montana produced, programmed, arranged, played guitar and keys, and performed all of the 12 songs on this pinnacle of popcraft-- and wrote all but one of them. Right off from the first few beats of the opening title track, the stage is set for this musician's particular skill: creating superb electronic beats and instantly addictive rhythms. It's strikingly clear that Agent D. was influenced by some of the most creative and emblematic (not to mention bona fide feel-good!) new wave music which hit the masses in the '80's: Sparks, Depeche Mode, and New Order among them. Yet, not content to rely solely on his magic box of electronic special effects, he does indeed have a voice. Montana's voice is grounded, strong, and more concrete than a lot of the singers from the genre and era that he was influenced by. Yet, he's also got quite an impressive range (This comes out very clearly at many points throughout the album...), and he also has the capacity to sound (Dare I say?) sweetly romantic. In other words, at times he can emote more tenderness than you'd expect to come from a man who, in person, makes for a very imperious presence. Occasionally, his voice becomes grand, soaring, and almost otherworldly-- not unlike one of his presumed musical role models Dave Gahan, lead vocalist for Depeche Mode. "No Dancing Allowed" the album opens with the title track, which may (...no, must!) become the next dancefloor anthem, a call to action that should be heard from New York City to Dave Montana's home state of North Carolina. The song opens with an almost apocalyptic aura, and moves on to the deep house sound and grand feeling of freedom and abandon that we used to feel at some of New York's legendary clubs (The Roxy and Limelight among them). The listener detects a vein of forbidden ecstasy running through the whole song. Given the dictatorial crackdown on dancing in clubs in New York City over the last few years, the song transcends from fantasy to what may be a very real picture of the future: a song based on a true story about to happen:
"Imagine no beat,
Imagine no sound;
Your hands on your back,
Your face on the ground.
Thou shalt not dance,
Thou shalt not move;
Thou shalt not swing,
Thou shalt not groove..."
The end result is amazing. If "No Dancing Allowed" doesn't start a revolution through its message, nothing will:
"Stomp your feet,
Raise your hands;
Move your body
As fast as you can.
The time is now,
To take your chance;
Fuck any law that says,
'No dancing allowed'!"
The next song, "Never Wonder (Words Unspoken)" will remind astute listeners of one of New Order's most well-known tracks, "Bizarre Love Triangle". With this one, Storybox shifts genres and reminds us that a love song can be irresistibly (Dare I say again?) sentimental, yet rock solid at the same time. For the third track, "Ashes In the Air", the listener is intrigued by an ominous melody (think Depeche Mode's "Agent Orange") morphing into a brooding beat (Think Depeche Mode's "Strangelove"), followed by more upbeat poptronica effects. For a moment we think we're hearing more lighthearted stuff, although the listener soon realizes, via the lyrics, that there's a far, far darker message behind the song. Yes, it's about the Holocaust...
"Led to a place of darkness,
Disguised as a shower room;
The poison fell upon them,
While the others went up in fumes...
Ashes, ashes in the air,
Cried out for help but no one really cared;
I can hear them screaming everywhere,
Do you see those ashes in the air..."
For "Fantasy", Montana adopts yet another vocal style, offering an almost medieval sound and some impressive vocal highlights. "Sun", another gem on the CD, returns to the '80's-influenced, electro-pop realm-- evoking early Depeche Mode ("Just Can't Get Enough") and featuring space-age blips, digital raindrops, and an overall ethereal ambience. The feeling is pure joy-- no more, no less. Next up is "Things We Said Today", the only song on "No Dancing Allowed" that Montana did not write. Originally heard in 1964 (It was composed for The Beatles movie "A Hard Day's Night" and was the B-side of the single of the same name...), the lyrics are timeless, and the melody of Agent D.'s version is addictive. Montana adopts a free-spirited, '60's-influenced sound as an homage to the original; but ultimately, this new interpretation is unmistakably our generation! "Ardor" shifts gears again, serving up a darker atmosphere... and it's not hard to detect a "master and servant" subtext behind the music, even if you don't analyze the lyrics. The sexual tension is intense! This song would be the perfect background music for a, shall we say, forbidden after-hours club. A real stunner comes with "Thearapy". Whether or not the song is fiction or was inspired by true life events is irrelevant -- it's haunting and disturbing either way, and the fact that it's set against a musically neutral (as opposed to, let's say, a more sinister beat...) makes the deadpan, confessional-style lyrics even more jolting.
"You Move Me" is yet another high point on "No Dancing Allowed", pushing Dave Montana's vocals to the forefront. It's the best love song that Martin Gore, Vince Clarke, Andy Bell, or Neil Tennant never wrote:
"But round and round and round we go,
Discussing things we should let flow;
Say you will be mine,
Until the end of time.
Your eyes they dance,
When you look at me;
It makes me wonder what you see.
You move me, you move me..."
The lyrics may be simple, but Mr. Montana's delivery makes it complete. But just when Agent D. shows us a bit more of his vocal power in "You Move Me", the album closes with "Gone With the Wind". A true stunner of a closer, this final track features vocals by Montana that go even further in range and intensity (love those mega-impressive high notes!), backed by some expertly produced electronic rifts. Overall, "No Dancing Allowed" is destined to stand as one of the most creative and emblematic (not to mention bona fide feel-good!) albums to come out of 2007. Like the protagonist in the album's title track calling clubgoers to action, the debut album by Storybox is likely to cause a revolution as well.
Jed Ryan
PM Entertainment Magazine
www.pmentertainmentonline.com
www.jedryan.com
"Thomas Dolby having a love child with The Thompson Twins (all three of them!)."
The Politics of Dancing And Loving
1983: news of AIDS (or what was then Gay Cancer or God’s Punishment—how melodramatic and evil), I’m fairly new in a relationship with another poet, and we’re at Carol’s Speakeasy in Chicago when Re-Flex’s “The Politics of Dancing” comes on. The boys go wild and take off their shirts so that we’re like an army of lovers warring against all the social justices outside of the corporeal disco. It was an era when curious sweat shined on our questioned bodies, when psychic arms went into the air to bring down the spying moon just on the other side of the roof.
The lyrics for “The Politics of Dancing” say this:
We got the message
I heard it on the airwaves
The politicians are now D.J.s
And we understand that the media is being Reaganized, that we gays are cultural and spiritual criminals simply because of declarations that simplify us. So some of us choose to resist—by dancing! By keeping the sexuality in homosexuality. Take a look at the original music video by Re-Flex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAS7RxK4Uvc
This memory has been stirred by Storybox’s LP, No Dancing Allowed. This LP’s scenario is even more apocalyptic than in the 1980’s. In the title song, the singer wails and demands that the revolution against tyranny begins with the individual body. Big Brother is everywhere; dancing is wisely forbidden by the powers that be (read Republican, I suspect). This is a great dance tune that offers hope as resilience while Storybox sings and plays: “Your hands on your back / your face on the ground /Thou shalt not dance.” The music swells into a song you must dance to for in small acts of defiance do wise choices become apparent. This is a song about defiance through dancing, through the body, through the right of being a citizen equal to anyone else. The police sirens, the Biblical passages, the disco hook of repeating a chorus are powerful presentations of the human spirit’s embroilment in the contemporary. Finally: imagine a world without music, not the kind one can dance to or that is allowed to negotiate between cosmic and human powers.
The rest of the LP is also solid as it investigates love and place, passion and the times. My favorite song is “Dream Ghosts” for it reminds me of life in a contemporary city in which one’s memories collide with the present architecture, people, facts. Storybox moans, “just release me from this pain” but it is obviously an impossible request. They go on, “wake me, wake me, I can’t take it anymore.” Again, I’m returned to the Chicago of my 1980’s after AIDS has invaded Boystown. I remember one night walking home from the clubs and noticing it was less crowded than it had been years ago, that the city looked haunted, that the mannequins were mostly dressed in circumspect black. I opted for a winged taxi and the driver said, “Where to?” And I didn’t know the answer right away—the past? the future? home? But I thought of the young men I knew, some who were lovers, whose bodies were shipped back to Kentucky, Mississippi, elsewhere as if their years in Chicago were nothing, as if they hadn’t been forced to seek solace and joy far from families and religion. This is why art matters: ghosts need to be honored for their years of scars.
There are other great songs of course, like “Therapy,” and I recommend this LP without any hesitation. Storybox is a new discovery to me and the sound reminds me of Thomas Dolby having a love child with The Thompson Twins (all three of them!). It’s rare to find someone who follows his own way and yet generously invites us along. Dancing and revolution, I’m convinced as the years add on, are synonyms.
"...Naked... genuine and without frills."
Storybox is the personal project of Agent D (a.k.a. Dave Montana). Previously he played in different bands and experienced different musical genres. After moving through different states of the U.S. Dave arrived in Austin, Tx and there decided to start working at Storybox. When Dave asked me if I was interested into reviewing his album I accepted because I like electronic music and synthpop but I accepted also because since from its cover NO DANCING ALLOWED shows its multifaceted essence. A man tied to chains kept by hands raising from the ground it's a particular image for a synthpop record. Also reading the lyrics of the album I noticed that here Dave or Agent D. shows himself naked in front of his audience, talking about his joys and his fears. From his website you can read that "Ashes in the air" born from a chat with a friend who found out his ex was Pro Nazi, "Dream ghosts" from the nightmares that he has almost daily, "Therapy" about a child who's been abused by an uncle while his mom was abused by his dad. Musically we have poppy songs like "Sun", "Gone with the wind" as well as dark electro ballads or dark tunes like "Dream ghosts", "Ardor", "Therapy" or the opening "No dancing allowed". There's also a cover of Beatles' "Thigs we said today" which originally was recorded as "A hard day's night" B side. The production reflects the nature of the work: genuine and without frills.
Storybox has an appreciation for the combined heydays of dance music and new wave.
Storybox (a.k.a. Dave Montana or his band moniker, Agent D) is the latest signing to the ever-growing Section 44 label. With a musical background stemming from when he was a child and most of his teens spent working with various styles of music, he has since returned to what he holds dear and continued his work in the field of synthpop.
The journey of "No Dancing Allowed" starts with an interesting sample that later reveals a lot of the intentions of the album. Through a large number of the tracks, Storybox often picks up on society's thoughts and actions toward the world's gay population in a way that actually makes you stop and listen. This is certainly one of the album's strongest attributes, and I found he explores this area with clearly a lot of thought involved. Unfortunately, this is where my interest stopped. Musically I found the album to be slightly directionless, and it has a nasty habit of fading into background music in between tracks. Another problem I found whilst listening to it was that a lot of the album's tracks don't sound like they've been mastered very well at all. With vocals often sounding under-produced and grainy on some tracks and on others sounding fresh and well performed, I had the constant impression that the album was somewhat unfinished.
On the upside, the album has a certain flair and at certain times it felt like I was listening to the early works of Erasure or Depeche Mode. The only problem I can see with that is that this isn't the early '80s anymore and sounds and production have improved with time. Maybe this is the approach that Storybox intended, but for me it just didn't work. I've heard and bought many albums by many acts that give a sense of rejuvenation in this particular genre, and maybe what this album is missing more than anything is a modern twist.
If you are a fan of the music from the early era of electronic pop music (circa 1980-83) then perhaps "No Dancing Allowed" might be worth looking into. Speaking as a fan of that era as well, though, I can't help but think that if you are not going to give the sound a slight update, then maybe some things should be left as they were.
“No Dancing Allowed” es el primer álbum del reciente Storybox, del versátil y veterano Dave Montana. El tema que da nombre al álbum, ‘No Dancing Allowed’, fue la primera realización oficial de Storybox, incluido en el álbum recopilatorio “Sector One” del sello Section 44. Veterano, como digo, ya que desde la edad de 4 años ya practicaba con la batería, y con 13 años grabó su primer trabajo con la banda Ocolomy, como batería y vocalista. También se hizo cargo de la batería en el grupo No You Turn, además de participar en otras realizaciones.
Agent D está especialmente comprometido con los problemas de la discriminación social de los gays y eso se refleja en las letras de sus canciones. Se denota, de una manera sutil, casi subliminal, en los textos una sensibilidad especial respecto de las relaciones humanas, la preocupación por conductas radicales o intransigentes (particularmente evidente en 'No Dancing Allowed' y, sobre todo, en 'Ashes In The Air'). Esa sensibilidad contrasta, quizá, con su imagen (sex symbol, por cierto), su aspecto "bear leather", duro, fuerte, masculino, incluso basto y rudo.
Comienza el álbum con 'No Dancing Allowed', musicalmente muy bien concebido, con bajadas y aumentos en la intensidad del sonido, bien programado y con un buen ritmo que anima al baile. Sigue 'Never Wonder (Words Unspoken)', un tema más alegre y más melódico, pero que mantiene la misma intensidad musical del anterior, también muy bailable. Del siguiente corte, 'Ashes In The Air', decir que es fenomenal cómo introduce lo que transmite el texto (malestar, preocupación) dentro de la música, de los sonidos; la música transmite lo mismo que el texto. Y en contraposición a lo anterior viene el siguiente corte, 'Fantasy', rompiendo el ritmo, a ritmo de vals de tres por cuatro, con una interesante melodía y una, también, interesante y difícil entonación vocal. Continúa 'Sun', synthpop minimalista, de transcurso rápido, de melodía y ritmo rápidos y alegres que transmiten positivismo. Sigue 'Things We Said Today', quizá un poco monótono, ya que no hay demasiadas variaciones en los sonidos, sin embargo, también invita al baile. El siguiente corte, 'Ardor', parece mucho más elaborado, tal vez porque se van sumando sonidos según transcurre la canción, aumentando de intensidad. 'Dream Ghosts', un tema ambient, de melodías de fondo superpuestas a unas lentas inyecciones de electrónica, sin percusiones, todo sonidos fantasmagóricos. Con este corte cambia la perspectiva, de lo anterior alegre, brillante y positivo, hacia lo siniestro, oscuro y decadente; porque el siguiente, 'Therapy', sigue en esa línea, me recuerda mucho, más que por el sonido, por la angustia que transmite, a una de mis canciones favoritas, 'Baby Doll', de Soft Cell. La voz, casi susurrante, la hace aún más inquietante. 'You Move Me', un tema disco, de sonido bastante repetitivo, donde los compases se repiten, con voz tratada, nada tiene que ver con el siguiente, 'Gone With The Wind', absolutamente synthpop, de sonidos melódicos y nada ásperos. Finaliza el álbum con un tema extra, en el que Agent D luce sus cualidades vocales, al estilo Boy George, o Steve Strange.
Este álbum, “No Dancing Allowed”, de un estricto synthpop, recuerda bastante a los grandes del género como, por ejemplo, las mejores joyas de Erasure “I Say I Say I Say” (1994), “Erasure” (1995), “Chorus” (1991) o “Wild” (1989), o de Yazoo, o de los Depeche Mode de principios de los 80. Sí, parece que Dave Montana quiere recoger el testigo de Vince Clarke con el nombre de Storybox y, de momento, con este "No Dancing Allowed" ya se ha puesto a su altura.
Nashville Performance Review
"...the most arresting music..."