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Jeffrey Bützer has been a long-term fixture on the Atlanta music scene. However, Mr. Bützer walks his own path, making the music he wants to make with little regard for trends. I respect that a lot, although i suspect the music here will not be to everyone's liking.
You see, Jeffrey Bützer and the Bicycle Eaters have released a 5-track 7" EP of piano-based pop. And i don't mean Coldplay here -- what Mr. Bützer does reminds me more of Count Basie, or perhaps Scott Joplin. This is instrumental music that is sort of timeless. Had Jeffrey Bützer and the Bicycle Eaters performed a concert for your great-grandparents when they were young, ole granny would have given her dancin' shoes a workout.
I know that some people are bored by that sort of retro thing, by this act does it very well. There are five tracks on the EP, the first of which is Hiding Plastic Spiders, in which two happy piano riff dance with each other for a minute before the Bicycle Eaters come in, bass, guitar, drums, and cello all going at is as Bützer's piano drives things along. It's a happy and pretty little song.
The rest of the A-side of the EP is taken up with Case of Unspiraled Stairs, which is kicked off by the cello, sawing a mournful melody alone until, after half a minute, the rest of the band comes in with a central European melody. There is an accordion, the mournful cello, trembling guitar, and forceful staccato drumming.
The B-side starts off with Dissimilar to Locusts, which starts off with the accordion, chiming a happy little melody that would be perfect in a movie about someone wandering around Paris. But when the rest of the band kicks in, the song takes a turn towards the old west, with tremoloed guitar and a rhythm that can only be described as "galloping". I love the picked echoed western guitar that Chad Shivers plays here.
Bützer kicks off the final vinyl EP track with a tight piano riff, eventually joined by cello. She Traded Her Leg has a cinematic quality to it, as it grows slowly with slowly crashing drums, and guitar.
If you look on their BandCamp page, there is a bonus track to download with the EP, a track called The Scrivener, which is another tune really driven by the piano. Cello, drums, and guitar all add a rolling rhythm behind Bützer's jaunty playing, in a fun song that ebbs and flows nicely. As an added bonus, the one is free on BandCamp, so you can have it without having the splurge for the 7".
Personally, i like what is going on here, but this is very retro music. There are quite a few people who will not be impressed. However, what Bützer and co are doing is fun, and not exactly like everything else out there. A little variety spices up the music flow, you know?
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