Altsounds - Itamar - Die With Beauty [EP]

‘Die With Beauty’ is a collection of six new tracks from London based singer songwriter Itamar. Relatively unknown and unrecognized by the UK music press, Itamar is hoping to capitalize upon the encouraging critic acclaim that he has already received from live recordings and plans to make a big impact with industry insiders. Regularly gigging in the shallow yet trendy circuit of unsigned bands in North London, it is surely but a matter of time until things start to take off for this artist.

Upon listening to the record, I was pleasantly surprised that it was not how I had imagined it to be – actually a blessing when you have to listen to as many predictable, image based marketable bands as I often do. The artwork that accompanies the Christmas-cheer-filled title ‘Die With Beauty’ reminisces of the early 90’s, so I naturally was not expecting punchy sing along tracks like ‘Mr. Right’ that keep the listener wanting more from start to finish. This is the beauty of Itamar’s music – even if it isn’t to your taste, it still keeps you on your toes and as soon as you think that you have his style all figured out then bam – the closing section of ‘You Were Right’ kicks in taking you by surprise and leaves the listener asking where that came from. In terms of radio-friendly pop music then that’s definitely a negative aspect, but if after listening to the record and you consider Itamar to be a cheery, upbeat pop musician then maybe you ought to start asking yourself a few questions.

On the whole; an interesting listen that defiantly boasts of its own sound but still isn’t too ‘out there’ to be successful. Unfortunately however, it is also nothing new and occasionally lacks memorable melodies that would help to take things to the next level.

http://www.myspace.com/itamarts