dan junk: Press
Florida CD/DVD Reviews by Chris Long
DAN JUNK – Which Way
18 Song CD
Wow, there’s so much going on here that I don’t know where to begin.
For starters let me say that Dan Junk is a supremely talented guy. In fact, with the exception of just one song that he co-wrote, Dan wrote every song and plays every instrument on this eclectic 18 song collection. And eclectic is the key word here. Perhaps a bit too eclectic . The opening track Antartica is an impressive and sophisticated new age number. Unfortunately, just as I began to get totally psyched about discovering what I thought was a new Windham Hill-type hero, he switched gears on the next tune, delivering the neighborhood brew-n-cue-ish Let’s Do What We Do Best. In fact, that’s the only downer about this otherwise incredible record. Dan jumps back and forth throughout the entire hour-plus opus between brilliant jazz/new age/fusion instruments and local yocal sounding, vocal rockers, which creates a distraction from his amazing instrumental work. With 18 songs on the record he could eliminate the “distractions” and still have a complete, well produced record’s worth of outstanding, edgy, new age music that would easily appeal to a major label. (www.danjunk.com)
Excellent debut album!
Reviewer: Doug Morris, Founder, Indie Music Appreciation Group (click for website)
This is a heck of an effort for a young man to do it all and have it come out so well! My selections for "best songs" on this album would be "Antarctica", "Side Step", "Love Has Found Me", "Bag Of Tricks", "Illumination", "Heat Of Passion", "After Sundown", and my choice for best vocal track is "The Mighty Warrior." All in all, I think this is very fine album, especially for a debut album and especially considering that it was one person doing it all, composition, instrumentals, and vocals! I can recommend this album to anyone who likes good guitar mixed with wind and keyboard instruments in a relaxed, easy-listening format. Well done Mr. Junk!
"Along For The Ride" - This second album is a little different from the first in that, it doesn't have any vocal tracks, it's has more of a pop/rock feel to it, and it leans more on Dan's electric guitar work. To be sure, it does have drums and keyboard accompaniment, they just aren't brought to the forefront as much as in the "Which Way" album. There are 14 tracks on the disc and Dan wrote all of them and played all the parts himself. Usually I have difficulty trying to pick out a "favorite" from an instrumental album because I like instrumental music so much. However, with this album I found a favorite right away. It's track numer 13 and is titled "Amor." I like the way it opens with a soft, gentle guitar melody, then gets an easy kick about 13 seconds in, with the drums coming in and the melody shifting to a lower scale while the opening guitar assumes the supporting background. There is also a nice little jazzy guitar riff that kind of takes flight about 2 minutes into the piece and again at the 3 minute mark. It's a really fine piece of music that I completely enjoyed!
I like your stuff Dan! Keep it coming!!