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LIONS, is possibly the best Sahib Radio album to date. The songs VISITED BY ANGELS, and BOTTOM OF THE WELL, have received numerous reviews and airplay on internet radio. It is another Sahib album filled with strange people and places. Tales of a plane crash in a swamp where the survivor falls prey to the inhabitants. A girl who see ghosts. Long ago secrets at the bottom of a well. Angels, lions, ex-cons, and dead soldiers. A ship sunk at sea with no survivors. A killer looking for his next victim. Just a few of the tales that Sahib offers up along with his mind numbing music. The songs on this album are what earned Sahib the title as the Crooner of Darkness. Enjoy.

Written and produced by: Sahib Radio
Copyright 2005

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Bandfreaks review of BOTTOM OF THE WELL

I was pleasantly surprised with "Bottom of a Well" when I first heard it through. Surprising, because I wasn't so sure what to expect from the way North Carolina's Sahib Radio came off on his Funender page. It is, however, not entirely surprising that I like this piece ... I mean, after all, I AM a Tom Waits fan. The similarities between Sahib on this song and most of the Tom Waits catalog are so many, it's hard to tell if it was purely intentional or just an accidental parallel between two like-minded crooners of darkness.
"Well" is the story of a man with something to hide. It sounds like a body. Possibly little Timmy's body. Hence, the darkness. The song's narrator paints a clear picture of his calculated journey to a Well down the path by Crystal Lake to dump a body. However, let me not simplify thing too much ... "Bottom of a Well", between Sahib's deep, scratchy vocals, the slowly-paced (and decently arranged) backing keyboards and the spooky background harmonies, is a vastly visual piece. In fact, it's for this that I would compare him to Waits and Leonard Cohen (the old Leonard, not the younger version) -- Waits and Cohen have always been deeply visual writers; weaving stories (usually dark stories) thick with imagery and leaving their traces all over your psyche. And aside from its disturbing story and dark overtones, "Well" is an easy song to listen to. Well put together, great instrumentation, and a good tone. It's also really short (2:36 total). I kind of felt the length worked for this song; it kept things simple and the story precise.

However, the lyrics themselves really could do more, I thought. Very, very simple lyrics and rhyming patterns. There are also some harmony/backing effects near the end that, although nicely chaotic and giving off the psychotic vibe of "many voices speaking at once" or "speaking into a Well", I really feel like this could have been done a bit cleaner. The effect itself seems more like a factory-shipped digital effect than something really worthy of this song. These two things really knocked off a few "points" for me. And though the tone and the telling was perfect, to be fair I really don't think the story was that original. And for that matter --

Waitaminut -- this guy wrote a song about knocking somebody off and throwing them into well.

Sahib Radio's "Bottom of a Well" is a flawless tune. With it's awesome imagery and cool tones, I'd recommend anyone who's into songs about vastly misunderstood loners doing things that are none of my business download "Well" at your earliest convenience from Sahib's awesome Funender page.

I gotta' go.

Stone Bayliss
(address withheld)
BandFreaks Staff Reviewer