Album review: 'Blue Spark'

By Amanda Fintak

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Lost Wax Collective

"Blue Spark"

Self-released

facebook.com/lostwaxcollective

To describe Lost Wax only in terms like jazz, soul, or Afro-beat would box the band into something it clearly can't fit in. This new nine-piece, polyrhythmic, future-soul collective of talented musicians — from several Rochester bands, including Mosaic Foundation, Haewa, and Got Herb — takes advantage of each member's experienced individualism without ever compromising the larger sound.

Right from the opening notes of "Almost Pt. 1," the first track on Lost Wax's debut album, "Blue Spark," there is a colorful sense of deep groove, with funky keys, a resounding brassy fanfare, and multi-dimensional jazz percussion. Each instrument ebbs and flows into one another, passing riffs back and forth seamlessly and building to an explosion of sound. "Deceit," my favorite track, lured me in like an old sailor's siren song. Alivia Ruiz's vocals are rhythmic and intimate, and gave me the feeling that I was the only one in the room she was singing to.

"Blue Spark" begs to be listened to with headphones. Each song melts into the next and complements the last. If this is what Lost Wax Collective can do for a debut album, it would be an understatement to say it is going anywhere but up.