Wow, this is only one dude doing all the work!
author: Siren Kimmie - Score Music Magazine
Notable Lyric: "One day I watched a tear dripping down my face. My fear and lonliness put me in this place." - "Instinct"
Factoid: Wow, this is only one dude doing all the work. That's pretty danged nifty!
This is a very interesting composition. There are times when (don't shoot me) the vocals remind me of Brit artists like Pet Shop Boys but having an industrial twist. The disc moves from soothing to an intense and sometimes angry mood. It's a veritable emotional rollercoaster ride that has left me with some sort of idea what it's like to be bi-polar. James Garrett, the brain child of this effort, certainly pours everything he has into his work and he delivers a gift of raw emotion.
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Cool lyrics and all around good musical quality.
author: Michael Johnson - Hot Indie News
Only Now Existing is mostly indie rock with a strong synth pop influence to it which can be found in a vast majority of tracks. I'm not a big synth fan. The third song, "Instinct", was about to leave a funky taste in my mouth but left me enjoying it quite a bit with some very tight guitar riffs, cool lyrics and all around good musical quality.
These guys should tour with Radiohead or Tool. Their musical styles would mesh perfectly with either of those two groups - even Manson could be listed as a good a pair. It's like pairing wine with food. "Puppet" is politically driven and is rocking out to the end zone despite its synth sound in much of it. It has a crushing chorus you can stomp to.
I guess the real beauty about this group is that you could play them at the Rave or take some tracks to the gym on your MP3 or rock it out with your crowd slam dancing. It's a versatile CD with tracks for nearly every fan of Indie tunes. If you like bands like KMFDM, Radiohead or Tool then you will definitely find something to listen to from Only Now Existing.
Listening closely to the lyrics you can begin to understand just how political these guys are. It's masked and disguised under all that electronica synth sound, but it's there - you just need to listen to it and begin to understand the statement their attempting to get across. Especially with their song "Disciple" which takes you back to the Branch Dividians and David Koresh.
Stand out track on this album is, in my opinion, "Inside of You". It's very soulful. Monotone but yet manages to be very full in verse and musical content - a difficult task to say the least. It has anger and it has angst. It's absolutely great in my eyes.
I have to, of course, mention the title track. "Escape Artist" begins slow, almost ballad like with echo vocals laid on. It begins to pump up the music with the vocals remaining the same slow, paced words. Normally it would annoy me but it works extremely well and I find myself being drawn to the work more.
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Escape Artist is an intriguing almost frightening listen
author: Paul POP!
James Garrett, better known as Only Now Existing, is a one man band seeking truth and seeking. Only Now Existing's second album, Escape Artist is a layered, emotional introspectional affair that sounds as if thirty people constructed it, when in fact it's just one guy and a lot of technology.
Escape Artist is predominantly electronically based album that sounds something like the artfulness of Tool mixed with the darker moments of Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode. It's moody and heady stuff to that sounds haunting and ethereal. Call it the best nightmare you've ever heard, the songs will continue to dwell in your presence long after you put this album back on the shelf.
"Give It All Away," for example swirls in a cloud of fog and lurks in the shadows, while "Conquest," is a dramatic song that uses strings and a repetitive bass line to bore itself into your brain.
Only Now Existing has done a good job of creating a dark, haunting environment that despite its bleak nature somehow strives to be positive. Escape Artist is an intriguing almost frightening listening that will make you think.
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O N E proves to be an artist, not only a musician with Escape Artist
author: Lisa Pikaard
Only Now Existing’s newest album is entitled Escape Artist, and it is appropriate for so many reasons ranging from the tracks sounding like they belong in some action suspense thriller movie soundtrack, to the fact that the artist really escapes everything conventional and expected when it comes to an album. More than that, the album is really and truly artistic.
Escape Artist really reaches a level and maintains it throughout the entire course of the album. The sound is solid and the songs are defined, not like most music by the vocals, but by the usage of the actual instrumental music to help build tension in tracks. Musically, Escape Artist, isn’t something many people have heard before which is the basis for its appeal and the appeal for Only Now Existing overall.
The fourth track on the album really helps prove that music can build tension in a song just as easily as vocals on any given song. The guitar is a driving force in the track in the beginning and the vocals do not need to drive the tune. Midway through the song the vocals really take over making the song undeniably different from most songs written today.
Another track displaying the cool, calming, yet intense vocals of ONE is the fifth on the album. The song seems almost soothing but gets intense nearing the conclusion. The sound, I can only describe as Enigma (calming almost yoga music) meets Linkin Park, not necessarily because ONE sounds like either band, but but because of the intense, original musical composition. The content and music is intense as a song begins with a 911 call. Intensity, art, and musically creative is the only way to describe Escape Artist.
To accompany the new album, ONE has recorded a new music video for “Instinct”. The video opens to a beautiful shot of the ocean. The beach seems calming yet disturbed. The effect is caused by the lighting which aides in the artistic appeal of the video. The music is calming yet the lyrics have very heavy content. The chorus brings about a flashing eerie lighting scheme which brings you right to the core of the song. The video for “Instinct” as well as Escape Artist as a whole, and on yet another level, ONE, is an artistic journey more so than an album of songs to blast from a car.
ONE proves to be an artist, not only a musician with Escape Artist. The video for “Instinct” as well as the tracks on Escape Artist are more creative and truly artistic than any video or song hitting the radio today making it something worth listening to.
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