Orlando’s Joe Blessett released last month Excuse Me, a 12-track full-length album which features saxophone, bass, guitar, keyboards, virtual instruments, and vocals. While all the songs are firmly ensconced within an electronic feel, most of them have an added distinct flavour such as R&B, rock, soul (“Who’s in My Shit”), jazz (“Taking It Down), and hip-hop (“That’s the Way U Living”).

The results are mixed. Some clear talent comes through in the instrumentation, such as the sax in “Taking It Down” and “Joe Blow”. But while some of the tracks manage to put together the various genres and instruments in a palatable way, other tracks are hard to digest, mostly because they are all over the place. They capture your attention because of how different they are from what you normally would hear. The listen becomes at times more frustrating than anything else; there are glimpses of something worthwhile that can’t be enjoyed because of the multiple layers, the distortion, and the asynchronous rhythms (“That’s the Way U Living”, “Limelight”, “Joe Blow”, “I Say Eat Him”).

There are thankfully also some strong tracks on Excuse Me, most of which would easily fit on a bustling downtown lounge’s Thursday evening playlist, be they upbeat (“Taking It Down”, “Kali”) or mellow (“Who’s in My Shit”, “Paying Bills”, “In the City”, “Good to My Girl”). These are well worth picking up a copy of the album for.

More information about Joe Blessett can be found on his official website; his tracks can be streamed on SoundCloud, and videos are available on his YouTube channel.

Pictures provided by Independent Music Promotions.

First published on Blogcritics.