Massachusetts-based band, Mad Painter, have just released their latest single, Illusion, and we’ve been taking a few listens here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today.
If you’re looking for a song that sounds as though it was lifted straight from the 70s, then you really need to stop what you’re doing and take a listen to Mad Painter.
Starting with a classic 70s-sounding organ solo that builds and builds with extra instrumentation, Illusion instantly transports you to a Deep Purple feeling vibe that is exciting and enticing.
When the lead vocal joins the mix, we were reminded of the great Ronnie James Dio. There’s a real quality and power in the vocal that displays a maturity and passion. There are a few times when we were reminded of some of the tracks in Jesus Christ Superstar – this song has a real rock opera feel to it at times. There are some superb additional harmonies and layered vocals added throughout the track too which add a wonderful dimension.
Listening to Illusion, you simply cannot deny the quality of musicianship in this track. Clearly seasoned performers, we anticipate that their live show is an absolute joy to behold.
As you would expect for this style of music, the focus isn’t just on the quality vocals, it’s also on the musicianship of the entire band, with each performer being given plenty of chance to shine. The stops in the organ solo show how tight the band are. We love the way the Deep Purple-style solo develops into a guitar solo that then trades back and forth with the organs before a piano joins the mix as well, all crescendo to a stinger ending.
From a production perspective, a large boost centred around 100Hz would thicken up the low end nicely and along with a large boost across the high mids and highs centred around 10kHz, the overall sound would balance out a lot better across the audio spectrum. The track is fairly quiet too so a light compressor/limiter and maybe 5dB of make up gain would help make the track a bit warmer as well as raising the volume to match that of similar releases.
A stunning display of quality musicianship from a band who are creating music which instantly transports you to a festival stage in the late 60s/ early 70s. If Woodstock were to ever return, Mad Painter should be on the bill. Delightful!