LSA: Reviews

Artist: LSA
Title: Bits And Pieces
Genre: Electronica- Trip Hop
Label: lllElements Records
Website: http://www.lsamusic.net

Aliza Grant AKA LSA (Life’s Sole Apprentice) is a multi-talented musician/programmer/engineer that creates her music with keyboards, guitar, sampling, and various vocalizations. On Bits And Pieces Aliza decided that she wanted to give everyone a collection of her music that spoke to her very best efforts, showcasing her diversity.

What you will hear on this CD is an amalgamation of sounds emanating from guitars, keyboards, voices, natural sounds, and some vocals. What it all boils down to in the end is a wide presentation of electronica, trip-hop, and downbeat.

If you like music such as this you will find Bits And Pieces to be a real chill out experience with plenty of variety that allows you to get into a groove, and a most consistent and pleasant one. There is something universally about music like this, I find it very uplifting and relaxing at the same time. By sampling sounds of life, nature, and our surroundings in general, then mixing it electronically with layers of keyboards and various sounds that shifit from one demension to another, it makes for a ambient surrealistic expereince that one has to engage in to find out what it means to them personally.

One of the best tracks is “Underwater Blues.” I love the guitar with the reverb and the cool keyboards that sound like they are melting all around the other instruments and sounds. Its futuristic yet grounded in basic guitar chords for a foundation. I like the way LSA takes one idea, and then builds and joins several sounds around it. It’s a clever adaptation of the tools at hand and most definetly one of the best tracks on the CD. Similarly the next track “Cricket” is mostly sythesizer, in varying degrees the keyboards are used to build a composition, its something you could imagine hearing playing in the background of a science ficiton movie. This music is not devoid of emotion and feeling as one may think, its very colorful and full of life. “Jesus Loves Me” features vocals and a prolific message which is a step away from the what most of this album is about. Only the artist knows how personal the instrumental runs in every track is and you can try to read between the lines as you go along but its best to just feel what you it makes feel, then it becomes your own interpertation what each title means.

All I can say is give this CD a spin, let yourself become enveloped in all the sounds and draw your own conclusions.

© Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck-http://www.muzikreviews.com



Rating-8/10


01. Cloud 9 (4:11)
02. Maybe I Can Help U (3:25)
03. Jesus Loves Me (4:33)
04. Herdsmen (4:18)
05. Offkilter (3:16)
06. Raindance (4:13)
07. Underwater Blues (3:50)
08. Cricket (3:53)
09. Open Your Heart (3:26)
10. Ice Age (4:32)
11. Born into Bondage (4:10)
12. Bounce (4:04)
13. On the Rag (5:29)
14. House You (4:50)
15. Take Me Serious (4:07)

LSA - Bits and Pieces
III Elements Records San Francisco songwriter and producer Aliza Grant creates a stunning debut that injects incredible life into the drum and bass/trip-hop genre. Her talents in sampling and production are matched by her prowess on guitar and keyboards, lending a nice touch of uniqueness. Honest emotions grasp you in songs like Jesus Loves Me and Underwater Blues, while Raindance and On The Rag will enthrall you with their frenetic energy. Very cool and well done music.

LSA • Bits And Pieces • IllEllements Records • While most of the album centers around downtempo, chillout music, there are elements of drum 'n' bass and hip hop scattered throughout. There are vocals in a few of the tracks, which frankly I could have lived without. Otherwise, this album is great to listen to...I found it quite relaxing. (AL)

Review Date : 25/12/2005
We get CD's from all over the planet. This one came to us from the Bay Area in the U.S. What is the first thing you think of then ? Indeed rock, garage, ... and definitely not electronics. This young woman has worked as a producer, songwriter for a band called "Children of the Fog". One can tell she has experience as a producer and as a songwriter as it actually adds quality and maturity to her debut release. She also has been producing hip-hop for a long time till she decided to explore new musical grounds. I personally think she has chosen a good path as electronic music unleashes both her programming and production skills and off course it feeds heavily upon her musical talent. She debuted in 2003 with her "Underwater Blues E.P." which basically was a 5-track E.P. consisting solely of tracks which feature on this very debut album of hers.



As the infamous "Cloud 9" (a name that seems to fascinate thousands of songwriters yearly) kicks in, she has my attention. It strongly reminds me of a mixture between Polygon Window and The Black Dog. It has the basses of Polygon Window, the hip-hop beat one can expect from LSA and the melancholic melody of semi-connectedness that is typical to The Black Dog. The second track "Maybe I can help You" is much more of an early 4hero track. Not everyone knows, but initially 4hero used to produce more techno oriented material. The track has an exquisite balance between loops, samples and programming. "Jesus Loves Me" is a real pop song, full of depth. It sticks to you as much as songs by Björk, Massive Attack or Enigma do. Next there is a real drum and bass tune with a jazzy vibe and Aphrodite-like bass. "Herdsman" could have been produced by any "star" of the genre. DJ Die, Alex Reece, DJ Aphrodite, ... You name them and LSA can be them ! What makes these tracks stand out is that this reference to Polygon Window, Black Dog, Autechre, Seefeel and many more is present: melodies full of warmth, peace and density that meanwhile breathe a sense of alienation and intrigue, unease even. It is that specific quality that distinguishes them from the general dance oriented scene. A scene in which rhythm is the beginning and the end, the mean and the goal... Uni-dimensional electronic music which is pure dance music is not what LSA is about. The fifth song, "Offkilter" is another example of a warm melody. This one is much more optimistic, fun even. Melancholy is not far away, but hope is immanent as well. Very much like Detroit techno atmosphere à la Carl Craig in an Aphex Twin shaped track. I am sure many would catalogue it under "intelligent techno". More great tunes are ahead, but I urge you to get this CD and to discover LSA's musical talent. Check out the playfulness of "Cricket", the crossover between two-step and jungle on "Open Your Heart", the µ-ziq like beats on "Born Into Bondage" and the Leftfieldian "On The Rag" before ending this CD with the ultimate lounge track to a day of sailing in the sun : "Take Me Serious". My favourites



A fantastic debut by a promising young producer that fascinates note after note and that unveils new and unexpected layers song after song. All tracks are different and have their own framework. So enough variation... It's a bit like making 30 paintings of a church each time a week later... None of the paintings will be the same though you will see a common theme in all of them. Different moods, different colours, different techniques but definitely from the same hand full of craftsmanship. Let's welcome LSA as a professional and passionate producer amidst a wide circle of - unfortunately mainly male - established names. She shows that she can do much more then hip-hop, though her roots still show in tracks such as "Cloud 9" and especially "Raindance" which even has the scratching added.

earBuzz Review: LSA, from Sacramento, submits what the liner notes denote as a collection of tunes that was a struggle to complete. There is no evidence of struggle audibly. The first track, "Cloud 9", has a popcorn perpetual keyboard pattern with quick ride and bell like whispers. The rolling quality of the tune is consistent throughout the album - most tracks experiment around foundation grooves. Track 9, "Open your Heart", is one exception (one of two tunes written by Jormah Lohr). The track includes some of the only vocal performance - and the combination is compelling - vocals have the tone of Hutcheans - which is appropriate seeing that the music bed has a dance/euro quality to it. Although LSA's support has a more ethereal quality, nowhere near pop. The long mp3 clip here, "Jesus Loves Me", begins with fluctuating analog key elements - followed by recitation of the Lord's Prayer to acid beats. Vocals are subtle and relaxed - intimate, by Jormah. Lyrics, 'you said you loved me, but you don't know my name, you said that Jesus loves me, but he don't know my name'. LSA showcases guitar playing and interesting music revolving in track 5's "Offkilter" - single coil guitar lines arpeggiate between two chords and make way for a medium upbeat Sealish groove. The final track, "Take Me Serious", again showcases LSA's application of melody and chord to a single line acoustic guitar - again, moving into a medium beat that features gentle piano patterns and string patches. There's a lot here - relaxing and atmospheric with 15 tracks and a full hour of artistry.

I don't know why I broke my own rule with this album but I did. Normally I don't even listen to CDR's with laser printed covers but blindly I put in LSA's new EP entitled Underwater Blues which had all the criteria to hit the trash. I'm glad that this one didn't slip by because this girl has something special going on. LSA is Aliza Grant from San Francisco and has apparently been creating and producing music for 12 years. She got her start in a hip hop group called Children of the Fog (quite appropriate for a Bay Area band). She has also graduated from the College for Recording Arts with a degree in sound engineering. Underwater Blues is an introduction into what LSA has been working on lately. The 5 song EP starts out with a full-on drum and bass track called "Herdsman" that incorporates an Asian element into it. It works really nice and comes off very original. The next track is the title track and it sounds like a soundtrack for a deep sea diving movie, gentle and very calm. Other than that, Underwater Blues is actually a very impressive venture into electronica beats of all sorts. Aliza has done a fine job and I look forward to a complete album from her.
(Illellements 2003)
Review date: 2003-10-02 23:29:34 by Dennis Scanland

Review of Underwater Blues- Impact Press August 2003
LSA • Underwater Blues • ILLELLEMENTS • LSA is Aliza Grant, and this EP features five tracks from her upcoming album BitzandPieces. In just under twenty minutes, she explores drum and bass and trip hop, and sometimes a mixture of both. Her sound is more organic than most, and well worth a listen. (AL)

Within thirty seconds of putting omy headphones, this record immediately began dragging me in two completely opposite directions. In one ear I hear the same ole' watered down electronic noodling that by this point does just about nothing for me. For instance...imagine your favorite Sony commercial. In the other ear, however as the shaky yet danceable drum pattern sinks in my beloved eardrums. Voices morph in to strings, strings into noise, noise into nothing and back into voices again. The parts weave in and out, complimenting each other suprisingly well. A strings break and a few sampled scratches later and we're back in the groove, making me think mentally stable Aphex Twin meets Sigur Ros. Good.
I shudder when the second track begins with birds chirping, geese doing whatever it's called when geese make noise, and a few other various sounds derived from mother nature. Thankfully this only last a few seconds,making way for an old friend that doesn't get a lot of action in the digital world-the guitar. The simple yet odd way haunting, guitar riff adds an interesting touch to an otherwise uninteresting song.
After the first track, unquestionably the highlight of the record,and the guitar cameo in the second, the remainder of the record plays through rather routinely,lacking any real suprise and constantly switching back and fourth between electronic bliss and less than stimulating techno (the best example of this being the last track, "Bounce") The songs, while very well put together tend to be anticlimactic and a little reptitious at tiems. The elements that make up this record seem to be used wither too much or too little-there isn't much of an in between. Unfortunately, it seems that the overused, generic elements that ke this record sound like any other electronic record are used too much, and those that make it interesting and unique are used to little. Some parts seem unnatural and forced, others groove brilliantly. It is like half of the record belongs in the "mood music" section at your local grocery store, and the other half is well, good. Reall good, in fact. The potential is undoubtedly there, it is just a question of using it and using it well. By stepping out from the safe-shelter of imitation and with the help of more creative sounds LSA could indeed have a very bright future.