Ball is a phenomenon unto itself. An artist grounded in techno beats (a la Crystal Method) who branches out and flexes his artistic muscle in Pop, R&B, & Rock. The cover of the album, This Is Serious Business, depicts a “balded” artist in a three-piece suit surrounded by baby (male) dolls dressed in his likeness. This New Jersey based artist performs all vocals, keys, and pianos while various instrumentalists (Brett Aveni, Bumblefoot, Scott Marositz, Steve Savona) add guitars, drums, and bass respectively. The production is solid, the packaging is direct, and the performances are fluid.

 “His name is Goliath” starts the disc off with a party like atmosphere drifting into the title track which marries R&B like verses with a contemporary rock chorus. “Baby You Drive Me Crazy” has the potential to be a modern rock hit that would grace mainstream radio with it’s catchy refrain in the chorus (reminiscent of The Goo Goo Dolls and Third Eye Blind) . “Music And Pizza Boy” begins with a sample from the Jeopardy game show before mutating in a bass heavy dance groove. My favorite track on the CD was the hard-edged punk tune called “Baked On A Freeway” (been there, still DOING that).  The track rivals anything released by The Murder or Rancid with it’s combination of aggressive drumming/guitars and vocals comprised of sheer fury. As mentioned previously, these songs are recorded immaculately allowing each to take the listener into various musical realms.

 The only issue I find with this disc is its eccentricity (which most artists would take as a compliment). Due to the various approaches taken to the writing of each song, labels may have a hard time trying to market QBall, while listeners may have a harder time trying to define him. At times this collection of songs almost seems like a collective archive of demos from an artist searching to discover himself. Perhaps more detail and concentration to the techno direction (which is established clearly in the first few tracks) would be advantageous in promoting this artist and his work. It would definitely increase the chances of commercial appeal and therefore success.

All in all, a fine collection of songs that can be enjoyed by music lovers of every genre, which is ultimately what QBall is striving for.