Artist: David Sasscer (and the Mojo Conga Jam)
Title: Quiet Mind
Website: http://www.davesasscer.com
Style: World/Pop/SingerSongwriter
Label: Roomful of Sky Records
Rating: 7 out of 10
By C.W. Ross
David was raised in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, a small town located on the west coast of the island. With this fact along with the press material that came along with this release mentioning that David is joined on the release by his band with the name Mojo Conga Jam I expected to hear a real Latin flavor to the music which didn't happen on most of the songs.
David's love of music started early writing songs when he was only in 5th grade. While attending college in Atlanta he shared the music bill with acts like REM and Love Tractor. He quickly notes that this was before REM gained worldwide fame.
From there he moved to New York City where he began performing with his band, the 'Mojo Conga Jam', at infamous NYC clubs such as CBGB's, The Bitter End and Under Acme. Sasscer and the Mojo Conga Jam released their first Indie CD, Teaser on Gusto Records, which was labeled by music critics as, 'eclectic pop-definitely worth a listen'.
After several years of living in Paris, writing, recording, and producing other artist along with getting a few of his own songs on French radio stations he returned to the states and co-produced a musical television show with the legendary folk-rock artist Richie Havens.
He's also been keeping busy writing and producing a soundtrack for the Emmy nominated TV show, "Keeping Kids Healthy."
David isn't one to back down when asked a question, when asked if it is possible for an Indie artist to have both commercial success and artistic integrity? He answered with the following, " You can absolutely have artistic integrity and commercial success at the same time. I believe that more often then not, the argument that they are incompatible is used to justify really poor sales and/or really bad art."
On his latest release, Quiet Mind, you'll hear a world sound that you can better understand after considering all of his world travels mentioned earlier. The two things that stuck out most in the songs were the drum and percussion parts that steered each songs direction by their beats along with the vocal tracks that have a tone to them that keeps your attention while not going over the top.
My favorite tracks were, "Almost Perfect Weekend," a horn saturated island sounding song that deals with romance. I also enjoyed the very lively song, "Dynamite" with its rocking guitar parts and "I Do, To" with its funky R&B bass line.
There are two songs that I'm not sure I really got the true meaning of, "Jon Stewart is God," I'm guessing the song is about the Jon Stewart who host the Daily Show on TV. From the song I get the feeling that either David is a 'stalker type fan' of Jon or this song is done with tongue planted firmly in cheek humor.
Also the last track, "Doxology" came like a shot out of the blue with its praise and worship lyrics to God. The song features a killer heavy drumbeat that drives it along with other percussion and guitar parts. The vocals don't start until 1:35 into the song and are filled with rich harmonies.
This is one of those releases that will grow on you more with each listen as you pick up every little nuance that it has to offer.
In a footnote the record label that this release is found on Roomful of Sky Records says that, they strive to achieve their goals in a karmic way. This includes using environmentally friendly packaging and 10% of proceeds from sales going to charity. For this particular album the charity picked was Amnesty International.
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