It’s tough to get heard when you’re all the way out in Montana. Fortunately for rocker Luke Dowler, he has a small but extremely loyal fanbase that enabled him to blow his recent fundraising campaign out of the water, allowing him to make a series of four EPs and hopefully get back on the road. West is the first of these projects, which are planned to be named after all four cardinal directions.

Dowler’s album Polarized was a straightforward, vocal driven rock record. West continues somewhat in that vein, but deviates in two directions a bit more. The five song project is part emotional stripped down compositions, part experimental progression. I’ve been on an Andrew Belle kick lately, so my inclination is to draw this comparison to the latter direction – although plenty have been going this route lately. Leagues is another good example.

My favorite tracks are “Firewater Revelation” and “Halfway,” though that’s more out of personal preference than any lack of music chops in the meat of the record. If anything this is cool. The two favorites bookending West encourage me to listen through the whole thing. After all, it’s only five songs.

Luke sings with a tone that is both brutal and sincere in “Hold Up the Sky,” while what seems to be your typical stripped down song in “Good Enough” morphs into something with groove. The other three songs, by the way, have unmistakable groove. The melodies are catchy and will be sure to please many who happen upon Luke’s music. Given the massive success of Luke’s fundraising effort, I can only speculate how future fans will react to the music. It has been said that it is more important to create a small number of fans than reach many casual listeners. Dowler is certainly better at the former, and the West EP is evidence of this.

West, while not a huge progression, definitely marks a continuation in the evolution of Luke Dowler.

Score: 3.7/5

Luke Dowler online: Facebook