Vertigo Blue Continues His Evolution

Vertigo Blue Continues His Evolution

By Jef With One F Tue., Mar. 15 2011 at 8:00 AM

Vertigo Blue on Facebook

Vertigo Blue live at Numbers, where the Houston-area DJ will open for Peter Murphy Saturday night.

Truth be told, Rocks Off just didn't care much for Area 51, the last album by Mike Naus, better known as Vertigo Blue. Frankly, the fault must lie with us, since he was recognized on the Entry List for Nominations for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards with the title track in the Dance category as well as receiving five Revolutions Awards including Best Album (Electronica) in 2009.

Maybe it was because we felt the album in no way captured Naus's truly dynamic live performance style. You may not believe that one man trapped behind a keyboard with a Vocoder could be as high-energy and physical as a Red Hot Chili Peppers show, but you'd be wrong.

It was our respect for Naus's showmanship that led us to agree to tackle reviewing his newest release, Evolution, an album long delayed due to various health problems Naus has suffered, as well as severe damage to his Galveston home in Hurricane Ike. To our surprise, relief, and delight, Evolution is a phenomenal work.

The album's eight songs tend towards a more light-hearted approach than the darker-themed Area 51. Normally this would count as a negative with us, but here it's absolutely essential to breathing vigor into the often minimalist EBM Naus is performing.

The tracks tend much more towards straight vocalization than the more sample-driven work of old, and you come to discover that there is a pretty talented set of pipes in the big man's throat.

"I am thinking more from Electronica to electro-pop. I definately wanted to go in the direction I went with this album," says Naus.

Electro-pop is a good word, and a fine line to draw in the sand. If you are one of those people who enjoyed the Living in Oblivion compilations that made the rounds, this is a perfect album for you.

Tags:

Houston music, Vertigo Blue

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Ramon LP4 Medina

OK this also brings up a second question. What the hell are the Revolutions awards?

I googled around and found a guy out of Webster with a Myspace page called the "Revolutions Entertainment and Gulf Coast Electronic Music Association".

Not sure how presitgious or legit it is given that all they say is that it is started by a record label and a promotions company both out of Houston. ho those companies are they ever say in the info.

Sounds pretty fishy to me and if my hunches are correct the artist here is just padding an empty resume and hoping a reporter will simply copy what's on the press release without question and spread his BS.

Of course I could be wrong but this just don't smell right.

marv d

ramonlp4, you are such a troll, either you like the album or your hating, are you pissed off because your cd was not recognoized, that's if you are a musician. now ifm you want to clarify your statement, see you at the show sat night. if not well, i'm just saying

Ramon LP4 Medina

Hey Marv,

Reading is fundamental to a discussion. Try it.

Is it inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic to question VB's resume? No, Jef with one F should have done that himself and I'm sorry to ruin the party by asking the obvious.

Now, had you actually read what I wrote, you'd realize that I'm not even getting to the question of the music. What I am talking about is how Vertigo Blue seems to be blatantly padding a thin resume. The article's first paragraph's accolades are pulled straight off of VB's webpage. The thing is anyone with a lick of good sense (or at the least anyone who isn't pressed for time trying to churn out material for an on-line blog) would realize that something isn't right with that resume. To restate what I wrote above...

1) There are grammy entries, there are grammy nominations, and there are grammy awards. "Recognized entries" means nothing. It's double talk. Pure unadultrated PR bullshit that sounds good until you think about it for one second. The idea is if you toss out the word Grammy, that is what will stick with the reader and not the other two meaningless words. What does "recognized entry" mean? It more than likely means it was accepted. Why? Because he met the qualifications. What are these amazing qualifications?

"Albums must be released between Oct. 1, of year one and Sept. 30, of year two, assuming the telecast is in year three. Recordings must be in general distribution in the United States, i.e. sales by label to a branch or recognized independent distributor, via the Internet, or mail order/retail sales for a nationally marketed product."

That is hardly a high bar.

2) He cites winning in the "Revolutions" awards. The natural question that arises is what the fuck is this award? Well, there isn't anything out there. You have to google around until you find some guy in Webster TX (You know "the music capitol of the world"). His myspace page - the "Gulf Coast Electronic Music Association" - says it's run by a Houston Label and a Houston Promotion company. Now first neither is named which is likely because a company and a record label are hardly a good start to an unbiased award. It stinks of the classic "make up your own award and give it to yourself or your staff" scam.

The beauty of both of these items in the first paragraph is that if you get some writer who is pressured to crank out material, he likely won't have time to vet such claims and so when posts it on a paper's website, these dubious claims now become official. Hey that's pretty sweet because now Vertigo Blue can add the Houston Press as a thrid party source for its own claims to its PR kit and its Wikipedia page. Classy.

Look, Vertigo Blue is a guy with ambitions who trying to create some mistique in his quest for some kind of noteriety. The problem is that if you are gonna bullshit you have to be aware that at some point some small little dog is gonna come up and pull that curtain back. Sorry.

Ramon LP4 Medina

"the fault must lie with us, since he was recognized on the Entry List for Nominations for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards with the title track in the Dance category "

What does that mean? Being "recognized on the entry list"?????? Please tell me that is not on his press release becasue (and correct me if I am wrong here but my understanding is that) entries are just that - entries. Does that mean that his entry met the requirements? It sure as fuck doesn't mean it waas nominated becasue he would boast of being nominated.

Here is what the Academy of Texas music has to say...

"What's the difference between an entry and a nomination?Entries are recordings submitted for GRAMMY consideration. Entries that meet all eligibility requirements are then voted on by The Academy's voting members and the results of that vote are the nominations. "

from http://www.academyoftexasmusic...

Please clarify. Thanks