Tim Korenich is a Pittsburgh based musician who has been around awhile, but the thing that is special about his latest release Change of Pace is that it is the first collection of songs that Korenich has released on his own. Judging by the quality of the six songs on this EP, he should have gone solo a long time ago. According to the description for Change of Pace these six songs were all composed for indie movie soundtracks. Not exactly sure what movies these songs were originally intended for or if Korenich was just inspired by watching certain movies, but whatever these films were they must have been some serious Oscar winning cinema.
Right from the get go Korenich draws you in with the minimal and slow building opening track “We Can Start Again” and follows up with the second jam “Intro” (clever title for a second track), this song functions just as the title would suggest and serves as an emotional instrumental swell. I’m curious to know what motivated Korenich to put an introductory song second on his EP. Regardless of his motivation it works in an original way. The following song is “Rotten Wood” and is the highlight of the EP for me. I love the way the tempo swings and Korenich’s causal vocal lines during the verse to the more emotional sounding chorus pulls at your heart strings. Korenich follows with “Martin’s Theme” a driving song with really great crashing dynamics during the finish. The following song “Mr Brown’s Blues” is a loungey instrumental with an insanely dusty yet smooth, jazz tinged trumpet solo, I could listen to an extended version of this jam for hours, the mood this song sets is stellar. The EP then closes with “Traveling Music” a whimsical track that serves as a heartfelt and sentimental way to finish of Change Of Pace. There’s no lyrics or words in this song just Korenich singing a simple melody backed by some angelic sounding female vocals. It’s a simple, but extremely effective at setting a closing scene for a film.
The six songs on Change of Pace may have been intended for use as soundtrack pieces, but they work surprisingly well as a cohesive unit. Many of the songs are brief and consist of sketches that haven’t quite been built into entire songs, but that only ads to the charm and intrigue when listening through Korenich’s compositions. This debut EP is full of excellent ideas, sounds, and moods with Korenich showing a ton of promise as a solo artist. I can’t wait to see what he does with his next release.