Hear more and see scenes from my movie at downersthemovie.com and you can see some of my artwork at miltonhall.etsy.com. Thanks for looking! Tongue-in-cheek sincerity? Classic indie rock? Multi-instrumentalist or musically challenged? Maybe Milton Hall is all of the above. You will, however, find it all in his latest offering “First Burn”. Drawing on diverse influences ranging from Donovan to Robert Pollard, “First Burn” melds old with new and comes up with something you can’t put your finger on. “When I’m at home in a record playing mood, I can play Broken Social Scene after a John Denver record and make it work somehow”, He says. That’s what a listen to “First Burn” goes like. Well, not quite that extreme but you get the picture. Taking on so many projects at once set back “First Burn” for several months. Writing, photography and even a modeling gig came in between start and finish of the record but Milton thinks this is his best effort yet. “In some previous albums like ‘Touch the Enemy’ I relied too much on the abstract, but this time around I had enough material so that I didn’t have to lean on that type thing”. Even though these pieces are straight forward you’ll hear some unfamiliar sounds on “First Burn”. The War on Art features Milton on the “dual recorder“. When I asked him about that he explained that it was something he picked up from Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The underlying theme here is that “First Burn” is all about songs. “I left the dancetronica off” Milton says. “and there are no story songs“. (I guess Perfume could fall into that category, but a trip to the store is an odd plot.) What’s left are little pocketfuls of chords and melodies that sketch ideas and get recorded on your mental hard drive. Download “First Burn” by Milton Hall and you might not need to bring your MP3 played any more.