Originally from Cleveland, Alec Berlin moved to New York City twenty-five years ago after completing a masters degree in jazz performance at Boston’s New England Conservatory. He has played in Broadways Green Day’s American Idiot and has shared the stage with the likes of Elton John, James Taylor, Rob Thomas, Ben Folds, Kenny Wheeler and Rufus Wainwright as well as performing in dozens of Broadway shows including Rent, Wicked, The Lion King and Bright Star.

So, all in all, a VERY talented person indeed!

Life In The Bog is his new six track EP and is a musical journey spanning many diverse genres. The album mixes progressive rock with classic rock and alternative and even throws in some jazz and funk for good measure. All these different genres muddled together is a great mix and one which keeps the listener on his/her toes.

There are funky bass lines galore, fantastic guitar work and awesome synths with great drumming keeping it all locked tightly together and every instrument comes across perfectly and flawlessly.

The album is very experimental but each song leads effortlessly on the next, showing that the placement of the songs is impeccable and that there is great flow and rhythm.

The mix of tempos of the tracks is spot on and each listen reveals something to the listener that may have been missed on the first, second or third play through and the album showcases Alec’s ability to write great compositions and meaningful yet diverse music to the maximum.

A great album and one he should be enormously proud of!

Track Listing:

1 Life In The Bog

2 What I Wish I Had Said

3 Iota (Not One)

4 President’s Day

5 Flatbush Jaywalk

6 ROYGBIV

This review is purely the property of The Metal Asylum