Arjay Smith is an actor, writer, producer and musician from Southern California. He is well known for playing actor James on the ABC show The Rookie. Mixed and mastered by Gian Bravo and owned by FamJam Inc., “Old Man Rookie Instrumentals, Pt.1: Fives Up” is the latest instrumental EP composed and produced by the artist.
The EP starts off gently with the track “Afta-U”. The track slowly builds one sonic layer on top of another, one instrument after another, holding pacing and the tension on the palm of its hand. One is right in calling the EP a Boom-bap project as it is the percussion that propels the track forward and keeps a listener engaged. The production is immaculate and while the bass is subdued, it adds a lot of texture in my opinion!
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Followed by the track “Space in Time” which is much dreamier and has airy sonic elements that are given more weight and allowed to take centre stage. The sonic palette is ethereal and has a sense of positivity and hope for which the synths are largely responsible. The track ends with the sound of waves and a voice recording which I thought was an interesting touch.
“Dead Pres.” is a short track that has urgent keys and vocal harmonies that are really soothing. Compared to the very heavy instrumentation on the previous track, this feels driven by the percussion that is bass-heavy. The dryness and crispness of the beat stands in appropriate juxtaposition to the EP so far. The end of this track also has some beautiful vocals.
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“The Survival (9-5)” is the shortest track on the EP that serves as a great interlude between “Dead Pres.” And “Boom Bap’tism”. Sonically it sticks to the theme of the EP and keeps it bright, floral and flowy like water.
“Boom Bap’tism” is a really clever title and as it suggests, the percussion is intense on this last track. The bass dominates while the keys set up a menacing and dangerous ambience. Sonically it is simple in terms of the elements but it does a great job of setting up a scene and sticking to it. While this is the longest track on the EP, it is also the one I enjoyed the most and thought was a great way to the end the project.
It is difficult task to keep an instrumental album from becoming monotonous but Arjay Smith does great job of keeping a listener’s attention. For someone like me who loves nothing more than albums that flow from one track to the other seamlessly, the transitions on this project were a gift!
The proceeds from the EP go towards the promotion and publication of the children’s book “Wes & Morris Meet Mr. Buck” written by Arjay Smith and his wife Brittany Scott Smith who is an Emmy winning director. Make sure to check out the album here:
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