Distant Cuzins released its third album, Songs About Girls, last summer — which, it turns out, marks the end of an era. The band that twice won the Rockonsin statewide garage band competition changed its name to The Cuz in the fall, and the four members have scattered following graduation from Oregon High School. The band never split up, though, and hopes are high that The Cuz will play live whenever they can.
The first member of The Cuz to release a solo album is drummer Ben Lokuta, who is now studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston. The six songs on Capricious (available on all major streaming services, as well as on CD) live up to the album title, as these progressive-fusion pieces are a far cry from The Cuz’s searing and snotty punk-rock output.
Lokuta wrote, produced and mixed the 37-minute album, but he isn’t reluctant to share the spotlight. The Cuz’s Nick Tierman provides lead vocals on the sweeping, bluesy prog of leadoff track “Unreality,” which is highlighted by a chilling guitar solo from Nirupam Carteick, who hails from India. The instrumental “A Passing Storm,” meanwhile, features Oregon High School’s senior orchestra, and sounds like an outtake from Peter Gabriel-era Genesis.
The other four songs are instrumentals, too, and they find Lokuta playing synthesizer and giving Carteick another stunning solo (“Drae’s Song”), accentuating the drummer’s more sophisticated side (“Dulce Dolor”), emphasizing his percussive influences (“Pow Wow”), and showcasing steel pan (“A Day at the Beach”). The drummer says he hopes to schedule a better-late-than-never CD release party this summer.
Capricious is a diverse and impressive debut that should serve Lokuta well as his career as a professional musician evolves.