Kelly Kirwan
We’re in the dead of winter here. The head down, world painted grey, wind-whipped bitter days of February are upon us—you West Coast folks aside—and as the wind chill starts to dip below zero know this: there’s a ray of light to get us through. Yes, we have an antidote to counter all this sleet-soaked gloom, and it comes in the form of the ever-dynamic collective, The Love Experiment. Since it’s 2010 Boston beginning, The Love Experiment has been a mosaic of twenty-some-odd songwriters, singers and multi-instrumentalists, whose taste for neo-soul and classical-inspired arrangements have created a niche genre unlike any other in the game right now. At the band’s core is triple-threat Charles “Blvk Samurai” Burchell (producer, composer, drummer), who’s been the group’s rudder as they navigate the Northeast circuit. Now based in New York City, The Love Experiment has played Manhattan staples like Webster Hall and The Bitter End, while still having an affinity for slyly putting on shows for those in-the-know enough to find them. And while I hate to blow my suave cover, I have to state the obvious: they’re beyond cool.
Take their song, School Girl, whose beat swerves between a sultry rhythm & blues and new age jazz, enriched by interweaving brass and ivory key accents. Lead vocalist Kim Mayo’s croon is multi-faceted, the lyrics seem to compress and twist under her high, back of the throat pitch, her voice capturing the vintage soul of Billie Holiday. It’s a playful and intricate piece of work, tracing it’s fingers across the picture of a new love, winking at the old phrase, giddy as a schoolgirl. “My daddy said, now baby don’t be shy/You got a lot to say do not apologize/But I stumble and I fumble and I lose my words/Especially around you…” She sings, each word taking on a new mint with her twittering timbre. The song ends with a hip hop finish, the jittery lovestruck persona taking on a more assured tone, as The Love Experiment proves their vast scope.
Want Your Love has a funkier, electronic garnish. The vocals are as light and smooth as silk, ruminating, “I just want your love…the past keeps creeping in…would you be committed?” Lines of synth give the song a quirk over groovy woodwind patterns, as the melody quickens its pace; keeping still would be a true test of will. It’s a tune that’s rife with yearning and the slight pullback of doubt, and we see the trend emerge: this album is an evolution, following love from it’s first blush to heartbreak, and then the opening of your heart anew. The Love Experiment embodies this sound; which is an expansive, heartfelt dip across genres that have deep emotional reverberations.
Calling this work simply an "album" doesn’t seem to cut it. It's a tour de force, with a symphony-scale composition that is here to shed some light on our cold winter days.