Album Review: Venice Music - Familiar Ground

Ryan Downey's captivatingly dark, baritone voice immediately strikes you, enhanced by moody, Western-style instrumentation in opener, The One. Plodding, skulking bass and the stark, grating shriek of violin evoke a gothic, romantic mood. It grows increasingly more frantic before shifting starkly in tone into a withdrawn, forlorn denouement. This tribute to Americana-style music continues throughout Familiar Ground. Follow-up track, Beyond The Mist, The Mountains, has a world-weary, country aesthetic while All That We Share is simultaneously contemplative and exploratory, employing sparse electric guitar and choral vocals. He plays 10 Nov, The Toff In Town.