Boston (US) artist, Nolan Driscoll, has just released his latest single, Drive, and we’ve been smiling and nodding our heads for several listens today here at the Send Me Your Ears studio.
Drive is a simply fantastic, funky track which has a kind of looped feeling to it. The build is sublime and the rise and fall throughout the track kept us interested and on the edge of our seats throughout this superb, almost 6 minute long, track.
The track starts with some super funky bass and guitar and slowly instruments are added, with some very Stevie Wonder feeling keys and a great synth brass section that adds stabs and riffs throughout.
Vocally sounding a little like Ali Campbell (UB40) in places, in other places there’s a very clear Prince influence to the whole feel of the track. In other sections it almost feels like a half speed version of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”. There are sections in Drive where the vocals are at breakneck speed, almost rap like and this shows some spectacular versatility in Driscoll’s techniques.
As if we weren’t impressed enough by Nolan Driscoll’s vocal gymnastics, his guitar solos are to die for. Fantastic techniques, subtle playing and extremely carefully constructed. Absolutely flawless.
The F/G to G loop throughout the track doesn’t get boring at any point. Various instruments come and go, the vocal rhythms and melodies change and throughout the entire length of this track we were utterly enthralled. This is world class musicianship.
Sitting at almost 6 minutes long, when the stinger ending came in, we were honestly disappointed that the track was over already and immediately hit replay. We were in the presence of an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist.
Production-wise, other artists can learn a great deal by using this as a reference track. Instruments coming in and out throughout working in perfect harmony with each other make this an excellent example of what can be done with a fairly simply sequence. A small boost at around 55Hz would give a little more thump to the kick drum and a boost at around 170Hz will bring the bass in a little more too. A small but wide boost centred around 9kHz would give the whole track a little more brightness. Consider an additional boost in the top octave too for a little more air. As always, these are just a few suggestions that we feel could make a tiny difference to an already brilliant track.
Nolan Driscoll’s, Drive, is a simply stunning funky and groovy track that oozes class. A track which would comfortably sit on a playlist alongside the likes of Stevie Wonder, Prince and Michael Jackson. Wow!