In this day and age it seems as though the more you triumph
in the music business the more you defeat yourself. With financially
motivated major labels looking for the next hit single it's
harder than ever for artists to attain freedom within the
industry. Nowadays acts are manufactured,
processed, spit out and turned over again at here-today-gone-tomorrow
speeds. With dollar-sign-corruption choking the life out of
radio and music television, it's inspiring to see the flooring
talent of artists such as Maine's own Kate Schrock sticking
to the path of the independent and leaving the crookedness
of commerce behind.
"If I was approached tomorrow with a deal from a major
label, I wouldn't take it," Schrock shared from the South
Bristol office of her own Kakelane Music label. "There
are so many aspects to the human condition and the human psyche.
If we begin to be a society where only this certain portion
of being human is looked at, then what are we doing?"
There's darkness in all of us and we have to take a look at
that - we can't not take a look at that."
Dames Rocket, Schrock's third album, is an 11-track transit
of candle light contentment across the clean piano playing
expanse that has come to define her work. On Dames Rocket,
Kate proves that she is unafraid to confront her emotions,
which is why she is able to play through fir unharmed. "I'm
a big observer," Schrock said. "I draw from life.
I try to capture something, but it's art so it is embellished
to some extent."
On Dames Rocket through apple-pie-order arrangements she
roams the natural high that she has created as if pursued
by a demon. She braves all dangers, runs every risk, fears
nothing, absolutely nothing, except the loss of her integrity,
which she flawlessly maintains on this spellbinding exhibition.
The listener becomes disoriented through a sense of Schrock
being passed to her fingers, her fingers to the keys, the
keys to the notes; the circulation of her playing slides along
and propagates a meticulous universe wherein forms arise fro
a split second, only to be engulfed and then to return, overlapping
one another, palpitating, penetrating one another as they
surge
like the waves.
Kate Schrock's craft is unmatched by any mainstream act that
we are fed as consumer's on a daily basis. Artists like Schrock
- artists who lead by example and stir tornadoes on records
- are few and far between and that is unfortunate. The sincerity
of her music is a life preserver to float on in the ocean
of temptation that we wake up to every morning. Grad a hold
and don't let go.
