New Music Review: SHADOWMAN ‘Shadowman’

Rating: 8.5 / 10 Stars

SHADOWMAN is: John J Presley – Vocals, Guitar, Danielle Perry – Piano, Backing Vocals, Ben Hillier – Drums, Production

Additional Musicians: Pete Wareham – Saxophone/Brass, Marcus Hamblett – Brass/Additional Instrumentation

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REVIEW – SHADOWMAN does not sound like a band interested in sanding away the rough edges. The self-titled debut from John J Presley, Ben Hillier, and Danielle Perry is built around instinct, atmosphere, and the belief that the first emotional reaction is often the most important one. Across ten expansive tracks, the trio creates something that feels nocturnal, cinematic, fragile, and occasionally overwhelming without ever sounding overworked.

The project began almost accidentally. After a tour, Presley bought a 1970s Guild acoustic guitar and found himself writing with a renewed focus on songs rather than tones or production tricks. Those early ideas eventually made their way to Ben Hillier at Agricultural Audio in Sussex, where Perry joined the sessions and the chemistry between the three musicians quickly transformed the experiment into SHADOWMAN.

That spontaneity became the foundation of the album.

With engineer Dan Crook capturing the performances to 2-inch analog tape, the musicians deliberately worked fast, often keeping material from within the first three takes. The goal was not to remove every crease or human imperfection. It was to preserve the energy before overthinking could flatten it.

You can hear that philosophy immediately.

“You Are The Love” opens the album with a sparse, late-night vulnerability. The song unfolds patiently, allowing Presley’s guitar and the layered vocals to occupy enormous amounts of space. There is something almost weightless about the arrangement at first, but the emotional pull grows stronger the longer the track develops. Rather than forcing a dramatic payoff, SHADOWMAN allows the atmosphere itself to become the hook.

“Don’t Assume” introduces more movement and a darker groove. A heavy Rhodes-driven foundation gives the song a hypnotic pulse while the vocals drift through gothic, almost haunted textures. Saxophone and brass add another layer without overwhelming the arrangement. The result feels like something heard through the walls of a nearly empty club at two in the morning.

“New York In Spring” stretches close to nine minutes and gives SHADOWMAN room to fully embrace its narrative side. Built around resilience and triumph through adversity, the song moves with the patience of a short film rather than a conventional rock track. The instrumentation grows gradually around the story, creating something that feels hopeful without ever becoming sentimental.

“FLOWERS” carries a different emotional weight. Inspired by a chance encounter involving a friend’s former partner, the track develops through melancholy rather than confrontation. The arrangement is spacious and slow-building, giving every vocal phrase and instrumental shift time to settle before the next arrives. It is one of the clearest examples of SHADOWMAN allowing a song to breathe instead of chasing immediacy.

At more than ten minutes, “Wedding Singer” becomes one of the album’s most ambitious pieces. The track unfolds like a scene that keeps changing around the listener. Intimate moments give way to wider cinematic passages, while the arrangement moves between restraint and tension without losing direction. There is no rush to get anywhere, and that patience becomes part of the experience.

“On Fire” brings more physical weight into the record. The guitars become more pronounced, the rhythms push harder, and the song carries a darker momentum. Even here, SHADOWMAN resists the temptation to overfill the mix. The spaces between the instruments remain important, allowing the louder moments to hit harder when they arrive.

“Waiting On The Old Songs” feels appropriately reflective. There is nostalgia in the title, but the track is not trapped in the past. Instead, it feels like looking backward from a completely different version of yourself. The music moves carefully through those memories, allowing the emotional weight to build gradually.

“Look At You Now” continues the album’s patient storytelling. The vocals sit inside the arrangement rather than dominating it, and the track relies heavily on dynamics. Quiet sections create tension before the instrumentation expands, making every shift feel earned.

“Blonde (Demo Mix)” is especially revealing because of the rougher presentation. The demo-like texture feels completely at home on an album built around instinct and first reactions. Rather than making the song feel unfinished, the lack of excessive polish reinforces what SHADOWMAN is trying to preserve: the moment before a song becomes too familiar to the people performing it.

“Summer Sun” closes the album with more than ten minutes of gradual movement. It feels expansive without becoming excessive, allowing the record’s recurring themes of memory, darkness, intimacy, and distance to converge. The song does not rush toward resolution. It simply lets the final atmosphere hang in the air.

That patience defines much of Shadowman.

This is not an album built around instant gratification.

The songs are long.

The arrangements take their time.

The hooks are often emotional rather than obvious.

But that approach is exactly what gives SHADOWMAN its identity.

John J Presley provides the foundation through guitar, songwriting, and vocals, but the project becomes far more interesting because of what the other musicians bring into the room. Danielle Perry’s piano and backing vocals expand the emotional range of the material, while Ben Hillier provides both rhythmic grounding and an experienced production ear without allowing the record to become overly controlled.

The additional contributions from Pete Wareham and Marcus Hamblett are equally important. Their saxophone and brass work introduces textures that can sound smoky and intimate one moment and almost processional the next. At times, the music takes on the character of a New Orleans death march wandering through a post-rock soundscape.

Dan Crook’s engineering also deserves credit. Recording to tape helps reinforce the tactile quality of the performances, but the real success comes from the decision not to erase the humanity from them. Small imperfections remain. Dynamics are preserved. Quiet sections stay quiet, and louder passages are allowed to arrive with real impact.

The result is an album that feels visual.

Shadowman creates scenes rather than simply songs.

Empty train platforms.

Late-night streets.

Hotel rooms after everyone else has gone home.

A city through rain-covered windows.

Summer light remembered long after the season has passed.

That cinematic character never turns the album into background music because there is always something emotionally specific underneath the atmosphere.

There is also something refreshing about hearing musicians with this much experience choose restraint.

Ben Hillier could easily have turned these songs into enormous studio constructions. John J Presley could have covered every open space with guitar. Danielle Perry’s arrangements could have been pushed further toward orchestration.

Instead, SHADOWMAN leaves room.

That room is where much of the record lives.

The album’s alt-folk foundation is continually stretched by proto-punk grit, post-rock expansion, motorik rhythms, piano, Rhodes, brass, and cinematic orchestration, yet the songs never feel like exercises in genre blending. Everything serves the atmosphere.

The longer runtimes may demand patience from listeners accustomed to faster gratification, but that is part of the point. SHADOWMAN is asking the listener to stay inside these songs long enough for the details to reveal themselves.

And they do.

What began with an old acoustic guitar and a handful of demos has become something much larger without losing the intimacy of its origin.

Shadowman sounds like three musicians catching something before it disappeared.

Raw enough to feel human.

Expansive enough to feel cinematic.

And confident enough to leave the imperfections exactly where they belong.

For more information on SHADOWMAN, visit:

www.Facebook.com/JJP.Shadowman
www.Instagram.com/JohnJPresley
www.TikTok.com/@JohnJPresley
www.YouTube.com/@JohnJPresley7