SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE BEATROOT ROAD – HUMANIMAL

THE BEATROOT ROAD
HUMANIMAL
INDEPENDENT

In most cases when artists/bands attempt to cover as many genres as possible or subgenres on a single album, the first thing that might come to mind to many listeners is that old saying, or a variation of it, “bite off more than you can chew.” Yet, what if, by chance, that concept actually works? Case in point for the latter—the project of Vancouver-based duo Mark Russell and Hazel Fairbairn of The Beatroot Road and their album Humanimal.

When artists go for crossing and combining different genres, they usually cover two or three with more or less varied success. So, how far did Russell and Fairbairn go? Well, there are 10 tracks here, and the number of genres the duo covers here is possibly double that.

When the ground you try to cover is so vast, you expect the concept to falter at some point, but frankly, it is quite hard to find that point here. It is also intriguing that the duo notes that “all of this music is performed by humans on musical instruments and sung, without auto-tune, in 13 different countries, then edited and processed by Mark at Laboratory X Studio near North Vancouver in BC to make the finished work.”

Still, it all works, possibly because there is a common thread tying up all the loose musical pieces into a complete whole, something that is often oh-so hard to achieve.

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