One of the biggest keys to an artist's success is arriving
on the scene in a timely fashion. Those incapable of arriving
on time, those perpetually late party crashers, tend to rely
on eye-catching bravado and extra pieces of flair to make up
for the fact that the party already started, and the line is
two blocks long. Well, folks, I am proud to announce that Matt
Batey, sans bravado of any kind, has been at the party for quite
some time, and hes not going anywhere until everyone in the
room knows who he is.

With a release as strong as Bateys "The Devil and the Deep Blue
Sea," it wont be very long before eyes start looking his way.
The album is a lush soundscape of acoustic indie pop powered by
a flawless sense of melody and spot-on vocal harmony that
represents all the good things the post-nineties Seattle scene
strives to achieve. This is saying quite a bit, considering that
for almost all of the nine tracks that comprise this record, the
only instrument to support Bateys floating harmonies is an
acoustic guitar.

On his MySpace page (www.myspace.com/mattbatey), Batey laments,
"There is a Band-Shaped Void" in his heart, yet this is not the
case for our ears, as the very attentive production of the record
does a wonderful job of filling out the sound of every song in a
distinctive way. For instance, there are some very cool vocal
tricks employed on the tracks "In Your Hands," and "Outro," that
lend a digital quality to the songs that offset their pseudo-folk
nature.

But it is the little things in the record's production that make
the album strong. The guitars are beautifully rendered to sound
like you're in the room with them, yet in no way do they encroach
on the presence of Bateys vocal performance. Songs like "Stopping
and Going," masterfully balance the interaction between Batey and
his guitar, making the songs brevity somewhat regrettable.

Indeed, brevity seems to be an operating guideline for this
collection. Only one song crawls above four minutes ("Pontiac
Fiero," a very poetic opening number, which the asks the question
"Where do we begin to believe in something other than the
weakness in our knees?"), and the record only clocks in at 23
minutes and change. If anything, the length of this EP works to
Batey's advantage, since it can only be a good thing when a
listener is left wanting more.

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