Australian artist, Ben Street, has just released his latest single, Now’s the Time, from his forthcoming full length album release. We’ve been taking a few listens here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today.
In the words of the artist; “Now’s the Times was inspired by real times and stories, having met refugees and immigrants in a English learning centre while living in Sweden. But it’s also generally about those moments we all know when you got to just get up and go, that now’s the time.”
Now’s The Time starts on just drums and then added in are some very futuristic sounding synth tones. The song then kind of merges into a more bluesy feeling groove, with the futuristic synth sound occasionally returning in to the mix.
There’s a repeated riff on the guitar that stays the same throughout the track, even when the chord changes. Because of this, it makes it feel like a track that you might use as a “study vibes” track, or perhaps something to have on in the background while your mind wanders – perhaps a track to dance to.
The layered vocals are a nice touch, but it’s an interesting production choice that these don’t seem to be the main focus of the track. They’re often dominated by the futuristic synth sounds and this makes the track feel very unique and experimental.
Something that we particularly liked about this track was the bluesy improvised guitar solo. This had a great, clean, sound and some good note choices. Street is clearly well versed in blues improvisation and he takes the opportunity in Now’s The Time to really shine here.
To our ears, there are a couple of places where some light EQing could benefit the track. Firstly, a hi-pass filter at around 40Hz would reduce some rumbling tones and could actually make the kick drum more noticeable since the only tones generated by the kick drum are the low tones. The much higher sound of the beater hitting the skin is not present in the track. The tuned note on the snare drum is quite dominant too so a surgical cut at 200Hz would even things out a bit. There are also some dominating tones around 3-3.5kHz so a cut here would help. Maybe a small high shelf boost at around 8kHz too for some extra brightness.
Now’s The Time is a hynpnotic blues groove track with some very unique synth additions. If you like your guitar solos smooth and bluesy, then this track is for you.