HAPPY RHODES: Find Me

Happy Rhodes

Find Me

© 2007 Happy Rhodes (700261225456)

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Pleasantly progressive, yet thoughtful - Kate Bush meets David Sylvian in a dark alley and they both beat up a very angry Melanie.

notes

FIND ME, self-released, is Happy's 11th album and her first since 1998's Many Worlds Are Born Tonight.



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REVIEWS
Happy Rhodes' 'Find Me' a stunning new offering
By David Malachowski, Reviewer
The Daily Freeman
12/14/2007

Hudson Valley resident and ambient ethereal music goddess Happy Rhodes has a stunning new CD produced by Bob Muller and mixed by Mark Owen.

Rhodes has a spectacular voice, an amazing four-octave instrument. Having a multi-octave range usually means hitting high notes only dogs can hear, but Rhodes takes a different route, using her haunting, powerful and pure lower register straight away in "One And Many."
Here her signature dark vocal lines are augmented by a sinister Tony Levin-esque bass line provided
by Hansford Rowe, as Rhodes proudly proclaims, "I've been righteous but never angry."

The lush, almost orchestral title "Find Me" is in the vein of "Tales Of Topographic Oceans"-era Yes. Muller's menacing drums are world class, and Teddy Kumpel's guitar
work jaw dropping, as Owen's layered, textural mix takes it over the top.


The lyrics can be dark and bleak, yet memorizing: "I can see Charlie/Sitting on his hands/Drowning in his chaos/And formulating plans/If I had stayed that way (I could have been Charlie) It would have been me (Living on meds) Wishing for a handgun/Or a rope on a sturdy tree".

Despite all the fancy trimmings, Rhodes lives and dies on her spectacular voice and compelling tunes, which are abundant and flourishing here. "Find Me" could certainly
be Rhodes' best CD to date.

David Malachowski is a guitarist, producer and freelance journalist living in Woodstock.

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Now get ready to be haunted by Happy’s 4 octave voice. Just like the opening track “One and Many” that talks about multiple personality “issues”, first time listeners of Happy Rhodes will often wonder how many people are singing. Well, the answer is “one and many” really, because in a split second she can go from an angel to demon no problem.

- Hande Burdg
The Prog Files
http://theprogfiles.com/findme.php


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Happy Rhodes returns after a long absence with Find Me, her latest collection of songs, and it is well worth the wait. Exploring a sound both familiar and new, Happy covers a lot of emotional ground on Find Me. The subject matter ranges from the defiant anthem "She Won't Go", the last thoughts of a dying drowning victim in the title track, the lament of the eternal bridesmaid on "Chosen One" and the sweet tribute to a loved one in "Here and Hereafter."

Happy delivers one of the best songs of her career with the elegant and mesmerizing "Can't Let Go," exploring how the emotional scars of the past can be both a source of inspiration and a curse. The incredible range of her vocal instrument is complimented by a carefully crafted bed of electronics and traditional instruments into a sound that is both unique and incredibly listenable. Nowhere does this seem more apparent than the track "Queen" where she seems to ponder her role as siren to the marginalized, the searching and the broken. Thankfully she seems to be willing to take the mantle, as unwilling as it might be. We'll all continue to be the better for it.

- Jon Wesley Huff


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With a perfectionism and eye for production detail to rival her musical influence Kate Bush, Happy Rhodes has always released records packed with transcendent, multilayered soundscapes. Yet "Find Me" may be her most fully-realized production. Whereas Happy's past records have at times had an even, almost metronomic quality that some have called "druidic," the songs on "Find Me" have heightened shape, contour and drama. The most memorable, like the searing title track, move from quiet beauty into explosive climaxes. When she called this her "rock album" at a recent performance, the audience tittered. But if by calling it "rock," Happy means to reference the album's high-octane, walloping emotional arc, she may not be far off the mark.

-Tim Jones-Yelvington
"Ejaculations of a Perverse Adult"
http://perverseadult.blogspot.com


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Not quite as well known as Gabriel and Gilmour, Happy Rhodes has been making music for more than two decades. Style wise she is hard to pin down. Some of her music is ambient inspired (think of David Sylvian). She also offers alternative/rock songs with Prog leanings (à la David Bowie for example) and some of her music consists of acoustic songs, often revisiting her own material or doing covers. This is the side of her I like the most. Another of Happy's qualities is her voice, exceptional being the only way to describe it.

Find Me give us eleven new tracks of original material, and her three musical song styles I just described are featured on the album. There are no fillers on this CD. She took her time to make it and it shows. This is strong stuff indeed. In my opinion, tracks like "Find Me", "Chosen One" and a few others are among her best ever, this because they show Happy's more tender/emotional side, and that the music is more organic, acoustic (less electronic) then on other tracks. More powerfull songs (like "One And Many" for example) also do the trick and add a nice variety to the listening experience.

- ProGGnosis review
http://www.proggnosis.com/MUSIC_DBCDInfo.asp?txtCDID=24146

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Now, what Happy Rhodes does here musically isn't so easy to describe... Up front is as always Happy Rhodes' unbelievable voice, whose range once again spans the spectrum from Annie Lennox (Eurythmics) to the young Kate Bush. One may compare the opening "One And Many" with the title track and be hard pressed to convince yourself that it's the same singer!

The music itself is best described as prog-Electronica. Like on her previous album she shows influences from Trip-Hop to Ambient, when Bob Muller plays Tabla (such as on "Little Brother" or "She Won't Go") there is an aura of ethnic sound. Some songs sound like Kate Bush singing on a David Sylvian ambient piece (the title track), some are reminiscent of Peter Gabriel ("Queen") or even a quieter Peter Hammill ("One And Many"). But despite all these comparisons the music stands fully on its own, and Happy Rhodes has her own completely unique sound.

- Jochen Rindfrey
Babyblaue Seiten
http://babyblaue-seiten.de/album_8563.html


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BIOGRAPHY

Happy Rhodes is an enigma. This is according to the Music Industry, which has never been able to pigeon-hole her into any category. Her music is otherworldly yet substantial and her 4-octave voice has a haunting familiarity to it.

Most listeners find her work difficult to describe and yet she incites an almost unheard of devotion among her fans. She goes from Kate Bush highs to David Bowie lows and you find yourself being beckoned to follow her into her multilayered worlds.

She was born on August 9th, 1965 and named Kimberley Tyler Rhodes. Three days after her birth, while still in the hospital, her brother Mark called her "Happy-baby" because she was so smiley and he couldn't pronounce Kimberley. It seemed so fitting that it stuck. The family never knew her as Kimberley and so when she was 16, she made Happy her legal name.

As time went on though, she became increasingly removed from the outer world. High School became a place of alienation for her because she was already driven for a musical future and depression was slowly becoming part of her everyday existence. She knew she needed to do something or she would explode. At age 16, Happy left school and got her G.E.D.

For the next two years, she wrote and made some Open Mic Night appearances at a legendary cafe called Cafe Lena in Saratoga, NY. During this time, she met up with Pat Tessitore, a co-owner of Cathedral Sound Studios in Rensselaer, NY. She approached him with the idea of becoming an intern of sorts, just so she could learn the basics of audio recording. "I knew I wanted to be a professional musician, but didn't really know where to start. So I decided I'd learn how to MAKE records first, get my foot in the door and then figure the rest out later."

Happy never really got the full recording education she was looking for because as soon as Tessitore heard her sing, he insisted on recording everything she'd written up to that point. "She played and it absolutely blew me away. And I had heard a lot of voices in my day," recalls Tessitore. "She brought tears to my eyes."

Soon, Happy met up with another musician and mutual friend of Tessitore's, Kevin Bartlett. Bartlett had been writing his own instrumental music for years and had a small, cassette-only label, called Aural Gratification. He heard Happy's work and asked if she'd like to release her music to the public on his label. She accepted. One of these cassettes made its way to a woman named Vickie Mapes, who at that time, was doing an all-female-artist radio show in Kansas City. She began to play Happy's tapes and circulating samplers to unsuspecting music-lovers.

From her efforts, a small fan-base was forming. They organized themselves into what is now known as ECTO, a Happy Rhodes Mailing List. This is a forum through which, music lovers can discuss Happy's work, as well as other "Ectophilic" artists.

Happy released approximately 9 CD's on the Aural Gratification label. In 1997 however, Happy decided that it was time to seek out a different kind of record label. A good friend recommended her to a newly forming label called, Samson Music. Founded by Norm Waitt Jr.(co-founder of the Gateway Computer company), this was a label that Happy felt would take her music to the next level. She signed with them and released "Many Worlds Are Born Tonight" in August of 1998. "I went through a lot of darkness to make that album. It was also the most fun I've ever had making a record." Happy and Samson Music parted ways in early 2000.

Happy lives on a farm in upstate New York with her husband, musician Bob Muller. She currently spends her days building pro-audio equipment for Dangerous Music, a job she likes and finds very satisfying.

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Discography:

Find Me (2007)

Many Worlds Are Born Tonight (1998)

The Keep (1995 compilation)

Building The Colossus (1994)

RhodeSongs (1993 compilation)

Equipoise (1993)

Warpaint (1991)

Ecto (1987)

Rearmament (1986)

Rhodes II (1986)

Rhodes I (1986)

reviews

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  • Find it.
    author: anna maria stjarnell

    Brilliant and original music for those who like things adventerous. Celestial singing and impeccable melodies to boot.

  • Find her !!!
    author: Izabela

    For me it's one of the best CD's in 2007. I'm still in shock. It's hard to believe that I'have found Happy Rhodes so late. Her music is amazing. If you didn't hear it, dont wait, find her !!!

  • A Cause To Rejoice
    author: Stephen Mead

    It's been several years since Happy's last release and, if anything, her return shows that her talents are as strong as ever. Her voice has not faded but is, in fact, more powerful, and the arrangements range from the most melodic to the most rock-out bridges she's ever had. Lyrically, her accessibility is at its most honest and personal, reveling in what is humane without being self-indulgent. Welcome back, Happy. Welcome back!

  • Worth the wait, and then some
    author: Adam K.

    Extraordinary stuff: fragile, haunting and rhythmic, this is, without a doubt, her most consistent, most accessible and most entertaining album. Despite comparisons to Kate Bush, you don't have to be a Bush fan to love this (I'm not): all you have to be is a fan of good music. If you are, buy this album.

  • Worth the wait, and then some
    author: Adam K.

    Extraordinary voice, extraordinary music, fragile, haunting and rhythmic, this is, without a doubt, her most consistent, most accessible and most entertaining album. Despite comparisons to Kate Bush, you don't have to be a Bush fan to love this (I'm not): all you have to be is a fan of good music. If you are, buy this album.

  • Exceptional voice, exceptional music
    author: Robert Post

    Everybody who listens to this album is blown away. Happy's voice is phenomenal is the purest sense of the word, and the music is both beautiful and thought-provoking. The more I listen to the songs, the more I like them. They show a really deep emotional sensitivity, and empathy for some of life's losers. Paradoxically, they don't sound like they were written by someone whose life has been "Happy", but they are beautifully conceived and realized. This is a very well-crafted collection of songs.

  • Beautiful
    author: Sean Judge

    Every time I listen to this woman's music, I simply can't understand why her name is a household name. This album was a long time coming. I wish she'd come to Houston and perform.

  • Worth the loooong wait!
    author: Lorenzo Cervantes

    It seems forever since Happy's last release "Many Worlds Are Born Tonight". At times, I was doubtful that "Find Me" would ever see the light of day. When I got my copy of "Find Me" in my hands (thank you CDBaby), I gave it a kiss out of reverence. "Find Me" was well worth the wait.

  • EVERYONE SHOULD BUY THIS!!!!!!
    author: tom theurer

    I must give Kudos to Happy Rhodes for another brilliant album!!!! The musicianship on this one is superb. I have been a huge fan of Hansford Rowe's bass playing since I saw Happy with Project Lo a few years back. I'm glad to see/hear him on this Cd. also, the brilliant Bon Lozaga appears on here as well (although not enough of him). And through my jealousy I must admit the drummer is totally great as well. Every part he plays is PERFECT for the songs. This is by far the best and most cohesive album she has done. I LOVE IT !!!!!!! Now when's the tour?

  • Sonic Treasure
    author: Sharon Nichols

    Fans of cult artist Happy Rhodes ("Ectophiles") have been foaming at the mouth for the past nine years awaiting her 11th studio record, but at least she didn't make them wait 12 years like Kate Bush did. Perhaps the comparisons have become a bit hackneyed since Rhodes broke onto the scene in 1984, but the ghost of Kate will always be found in the upper range of Rhodes' stunning four-and-a-half octave vox. However, that's where comparisons end. On _Find Me_, Rhodes' has created her most mature album to date while still retaining her quirky, trademark electro-textures. Best to use headphones with this artist-- she's embedded unexpected sonic treasures in stellar production since her mid-career releases. _Find Me_ is no exception, and Rhodes' wastes no time commanding attention. On track one, her jolting man-voice punches you in the face on the 3rd beat of the song, percussion, electronics and bass weighing heavily. The heartbreaking title track heralds back to Rhodes' gentler, early acoustic works, spotlighting her sky-scraping vocals and pleading lyrics. Groovy tracks like "Little Brother" and "She Won't Go" will remind listeners of previous Billboard charters "Roy" and "Collective Heart". ???Rhodes' audience has always been a perplexing cross-section-- fans of female singer-songwriters like Tori Amos, as well as those of prog rockers Genesis, Yes and King Crimson (her fans are two-thirds male). Regardless, Rhodes' diehard disciples will gather relentlessly at their "EctoFest" conventions to honor her distinctive and enigmatic sound.

  • Can't get enough!
    author: Alexander Johannesen

    It's a strange feeling for me to write a review as I normally don't do that, yet I'm compelled to let the world know about this music. And even more strange is it to love it so ; I don't listen to this kind of music, I'm into baroque and classical music, yet Happy Rhodes just blows my mind! And Find Me blows it further! She tickles something within me, there's something about the vocals, the arrangements, the tones, the temperament. I can't get enough of this, and I have no idea why. The music is trans-categoric, multi-faceted, and - above all - superbly beautiful. Happy is a perfectionist, and every subsequent listen brings out more and more detail and hidden gems. The wait for this album was - strange as it might sound - a stretch on a torture instrument, and yet worth every longing wretched minute. Thank you, my dear Happy. I just love you. And I have no idea why.

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