Burbank, CA based multi-instrumentalist, sound-designer / supervisor / composer, singer-songwriter, and President of TFK Studios LISLE ENGLE has released the official music video for “Disengaged,” off of his newly released album, Medicine Man!
From his new album Medicine Man, the song Disengaged is a bit of a departure from Lisle’s usual straight rock vibe. The sampled percussion and synth loops evoke a symbiotic style coupling of Peter Gabriel and Nine Inch Nails. Built on top of a heavy rock beat and his usual full-throated lead vocals, it is one of the most unique tracks on the album.
Disengaged is a song about feeling isolation and depression as a consequence of Covid lockdowns. The video weaves a tapestry of images showing empty streets, trains, playgrounds, schools and all manner of public places void of the throngs of people that usually occupy them. Also integral and strengthening to the theme is the use of slow motion cuts of older tube television sets and clocks and light bulbs being destroyed by a sledge hammer as a metaphor for frustration at the seemingly stalled out pace that life took on during the lockdowns.
“Disengaged,” like the other tracks on Medicine Man, was recorded and mixed at Lisle’s own TFK Studios in Burbank, California. “I was messing around with some rhythmic synth patches and things just began to take shape. I knew that the guitars needed to be a bit more dissonant than my usual approach so I hit up an amazing guitarist that I know from the Los Angeles fusion trio Altered, Jeff Miley, who laid some super tasty vibes down on top of my original tracks. That got the song most of the way there but it still needed that extra little push over the cliff, so I hit up my friend Reza Moosavi, who just destroyed the guitar solo with his amazing shredding abilities. The track came out with a really cool combo of industrial vibes mixed with my rock vocal and some fusion guitar layers supporting underneath.”
“Disengaged” is the third single to be released from the Medicine Man album. Each song on the record serves as a kind of diary entry about a different subject surrounding Covid and the issues that have swirled throughout global society over the past two years. The album is a collection of Lisle Engle’s insights into this time, as the world has struggled to deal with the consequences of an ongoing pandemic.
Track List:
1. Can You Call Me
2. Do Or Die
3. Experts
4. Medicine Man
5. Sick of Shining the Lights on You
6. Disengaged
7. Painted On
Purchase Stream Medicine Man Online:
APPLE – SPOTIFY – AMAZON – YOUTUBE
“At the end of 2020, I had a couple of weeks off and decided to turn my thoughts about this crazy Covid Pandemic into a collection of songs. Everything poured itself out of me during sessions at home and at my studio and hiking in the mountains above Burbank. These songs cover the gamut of emotions from trying to connect with loved ones in the hospital, to feeling disengaged from life, to hoping for a vaccine, to dealing with people wearing masks, to listening to experts and Instagram pundits talk and talk with conflicting messages, to the political landscape that seemed to intensify the harsh political divisions we are seeing in our country these days. Medicine Man hits all of those things.” – LISLE ENGLE
Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Lisle Engle has been writing and performing for 35 years. He began in the early 80’s, honing his vocal abilities in the local club scene of Savannah with his cover band The Vital Signs. He founded his first original band, The Promise, while attending Boston University. They played many shows on the East Coast, including the Boston clubs The Paradise, The Rat, The Channel, and Bunrattys; as well as NYC dates at China Club, Limelight, and CBGB. After college, The Promise moved to Los Angeles, seeking fame and fortune. They played hundreds of shows all over the city, such as The Whiskey-A-Go-Go, Club With No Name, English Acid, The Roxy, and Lingerie. The Promise later evolved into a project called HEAD, which got very close to the fabled big record deal but ultimately disbanded when they weren’t picked up.
After a short jaunt to Florida to produce a CDROM project, the world’s first interactive, multimedia concept album, Welcome To The Future, Lisle quickly returned to LA to form a new group including the amazing violinist Dorian Cheah, bass player Giuseppe Patane, and drummer Steve Holmes. They played all over the city and had a residency at the Cat Club for a year on the world famous Sunset Strip. They produced an album, California Miles, which garnered critical success but ended as its members pursued other endeavors.
In the last few years, Lisle has played in several band lineups, including a collaboration with well-known LA producer and studio engineer Matt Gruber, which produced the Mad West album, These Are The Terms. Mad West was about to play their first show when the Covid lockdowns arrived, closing all venues. The project ran out of steam over the interim and Lisle decided to once again strike out on his own with his latest solo endeavor, Medicine Man. Inspired by the events of 2020, Medicine Man is a record of observations of humans experience, the media, science, government, and how the events of the pandemic affected and continue to influence our lives.
Medicine Man contains 7 songs and runs 30 minus in length. It is a high-energy, politically and emotionally charged rock record with amazing lead guitar performances from a group of some of the best players in Los Angeles, including Bill Angarola, Reza Moosavi, Jeff Miley, Chris Rife and Richard Dugay, as well as a special appearance from Pete Sjostedt, and vocal appearances by Jenny Lobel and Kristen Kohary; keyboard contributions appear courtesy of veteran Hollywood sound designer and synth collector Charles Maynes. The record was produced by Lisle Engle and mastered at The Manor Studios by Matt Vowels of the goth band Black Angel. If you are looking for some rocking new tunes with insight, social commentary, and emotional power; as well as killer rock production and many “guitar hero” level performances, Lisle Engle’s Medicine Man is definitely an album that you should check out for the new year!
