Kevin Bronson on June 30th, 2016

0

Adam Topol has stories to tell, probably more than he possibly could have fit onto his debut album as a singer-songwriter, “Regardless of the Dark” (out July 22 via Everloving Records). Topol is drummer who has backed the likes Eddie Vedder, Joey Santiago, Ziggy Marley, Jimmy Cliff and David Gilmour, and who has explored a vast range of styles — Afro-Cuban rhythms in Ritmo Y Canto, electro-reggae in the Culver City Dub Collective and soul-jazz on his 2014 instrumental album “Blue Painted Walls In Faraway Places.”

His new work — 10 songs recorded over three years while on the road, in random studios and in his garage in Venice — is about the narratives. For inspiration, Topol credits the music of artists such as the Kinks, Pavement and Jonathan Richman, and the writings of Junot Diaz, Cormac McCarthy and Haruki Murakami. The album features contributions from the likes of Mason Jennings, David Ralicke (Dengue Fever), the Pinker Tones and Raul Pacheco (Ozomatli). Calamity on the high seas plays out as the metaphor in the shuffling charm of Topol’s first single “The Captain.” As the singer reminds us, “the ocean floor is filled with forgotten gold” — not unlike, perhaps, the minds of longtime sidemen whose stories are waiting to be told.

||| Stream: “The Captain”

||| Live: Adam Topol plays at the Ham and Eggs Tavern in downtown L.A. on July 12.