Vast - Music For People (2000)

Jon Crosby is the musical force behind VAST- Visual Audio Sensory Theater. It's a big job but Crosby's been immersed in music his entire life.

As a young boy he turned onto the film Amadeus. Immediately he decided he would become a classical composer. After years of study and thousands of hours of practice he was ready to take the next step in his musical development. After becoming infatuated with a girl named Michelle, he directed his energies towards learning the Beatles tune of the same name. And on that very day he turned the corner (and got a date).

At the tender age of sixteen Crosby began experimenting with electronic music that utilized distorted tones and complex compositional theory to push the crunch and punch. An early demo tape of his work earned him a record deal. The deal produced the self titled debut. And the debut found him with plenty of critical praise along with two radio hits, "Touched" and "Pretty When You Cry."

VAST's latest offering, Music for People, moves forward with richly textured musical passages, dark grooves and haunting, beautiful scratches into the depths of the musician's soul.

Tracks like "The Last One Alive" and "I Don't Have Anything" manage to scare up a thick sonic energy that is at once seductive and terrifying. It's a direct glimpse into the musician's head. "There's a place not far from here/ Where people go when their dreams have died." It's a heavy place to be, for sure. A place many listeners know all too well.

The electronics are still prevalent on this disc, but it's not quite as obvious as it may have been before. Buried electro beats and tweaks lay low in the mix. On "What Else Do I Need" and "My TV and You" the synth kick makes an appearance before the New Bombay Orchestra lights up the dark spaces on "Blue," "A Better Place" and several other tracks. It's a fantastic juxtaposition that melts heavy rock with sophisticated strings. A difficult and often cheesy move, VAST manages seamless transitions that tempt the ear and challenge our notions of modern music.

VAST has done it again. Music for People fuses pop, dark metal, electronic, classical and acoustic pieces into something that is at once familiar and exploratory. It's an unusual musical combination but it holds great secrets, great sorrows and many untold mysteries.

Check out VAST's web site at http://www.realvast.com/

1 The Last One Alive
2 Free
3 I Don't Have Anything
4 the gates of rock and roll
5 What Else Do I Need
6 Blue
7 Land of Shame
8 A Better Place
9 Song Without a Name
10 We Will Meet Again
11 My TV and You
12 Lady of Dreams