MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JON AND ROY - LET IT GO

I'm pretty stoked to be living in a time when a basic guitar-folk song album like this can get put out, after years being shunned.  Jon Middleton and Roy Vizer are a guitar and drums duo, with the emphasis on the song - the guitar is acoustic and the drums are there for rhythm, not pounding.  Add in an equally mild bass, and that's pretty much it.  They can make it a bit bigger at times, but on the Spinal Tap scale, they'd only be at 3 out of 10. 

The B.C. duo has had a couple of discs out before, and has been around since the middle of the 2000's, slowly (and quietly) building a buzz for their coffee house vibe.  It's not so much the fact they are doing stripped-down stuff, it's what they are doing with it.  Breezily moving from style to style, here you get some jazzy stuff, sleek instrumentals with a classical flair, lots of world beat touches, a reggae number, whatever is brewing.  And while sometimes the guitar and drums work themselves up, Middleton's vocals never leave the mellow zone.

I suppose there's a bit of the Jack Johnson thing happening, but it's much more adventurous music, with only a slight jammy feel.  However, as much as this would be ideal in small, funky halls, I could easily see them become festival favourites with this disc.  I smell a breakthrough disc!