EXIT ZERO
Musical Tribute to the Mother of All Jersey Shore Towns - Cape May
Truly, is there anything that compares to the feeling of waking up at the shore? Even with only a slightly opened window, one can smell the sea breeze, a refreshing, dewy almost palpable fragrance that’s like no other. Even from blocks away, one can detect the sound of waves crashing onto the beach; the melodic, gentle, incessant, insistent beckoning. The sound threatens to lull you back to sleep but the lure – the siren’s song of the surf - summons you to get up, to take in the CAPE SUNRISE, which happens to be the name of the first song on Michael Regina’s latest album, EXIT ZERO.
Regina is a transplanted Jersey boy, one who has deep roots in classical music and a solid history in both classic and hard rock. While he started his music career as a rocker, he is most recently a composer of New-Age electronica. Born in the Bronx and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, Regina has spent much of his adult life in South Jersey, including summer forays to the beach.
In EXIT ZERO, Regina once again takes us on a musical journey, but this trek is more akin to a brief respite - and it’s to none other than the iconic Jersey shore. This is not, however, the “down the shore” childhood adventure from your memories – this getaway focuses on Cape May, the stately, sophisticated “grande dame“ of the Jersey shore family of towns. To get there, once you leave the AC Expressway and head south, you pass a whole brood of Jersey Shore enclaves: the edgy and gritty “uncle” that is Atlantic City; the “remote aunts” - Brigantine, Loveladies, Margate; the innocent, fun-loving “cousin” Ocean City; the sophisticated “sister towns” of Sea Isle, Stone Harbor and Avalon; the streetwise-yet-down-to-earth “big brother” Wildwood. Yes, you pass the whole clan and find yourself at the end of the world, or at least the end of the Garden State Parkway – to the improbably named Exit Zero, to the splendid Victorian “matriarch” that is Cape May. You can’t go any farther, at least not without a boat, and why in the world would you want to?
As Regina does so often with his elusive musical musings, CAPE SUNRISE infuses an ethereal sacred calling to the shrine – in this case, to the beach at sunrise – to behold the fact that morning has indeed broken and that it’s a splendid thing indeed. Hear the tenuous angelic moans, the organ music heralding a fresh, new, glorious day.
His next song, DAY AT THE BEACH, captures what’s best about any visit to land’s end – the stroll along the water’s edge, the sensation of warm sand on bare feet, the wistful cry of a gull, the discovery of a perfect seashell, the feeling of time gently unfolding. With Regina’s deft composition, we’re transported. Think of the heavenly heights at the top of the lighthouse, overlooking the gray expanse of undulating ocean. Imagine the peaceful low of being sprawled on a beach blanket at earthly sea level glimpsing the blindingly blue summer day sky. There’s a lovely melancholy to this song … memories of beach days gone by, a contemplation of how many beach days lie ahead. The insignificance of our mere being juxtaposed with the vastness of the sea. The beat feels understated and epic at the same time. Here’s the takeaway: It’s good to take time to ponder big picture notions, and no better place to do it. No better place to get a handle on our fleeting existence in the world.
THE MIGRATION, the next song on the album, implies so very much about this special place that is Cape May. It’s known for the birds that visit seasonally, staying put for a bit and then heading off to places far away for the winter. Serious birders flock from all over to witness the emigration, the nesting, the exodus of the magnificent feathered friends. But Regina’s song hints at another kind of migration altogether – of people on a temporary migration; day-trippers seeking mental and physical repose, grown-ups seeking a return to the delights of their youth, kids enjoying carefree adventures as only kids can do, retirees seeking a dream-come-true retreat after years of toil. All migrating in some way to this place that promises serenity, even for just a bit. Transitory escape put to music.
Regina certainly knows Cape May, its many sunny charms and the darker legends attached as well. It’s not just birds and birdwatchers who clamor in droves to Exit Zero. Modern-day ghost-hunters have long been summoned to seek out the dearly departed at one or another of the dozens of Victorian mansions that grace this city by the sea. In his song HAUNTED VICTORIAN, Regina explores the mythology of ghostly sightings and things that go bump in that inky-black, star-studded Cape May night. It’s a brooding melody, eliciting goosebumps and evoking spirits from yesteryear – even possibly a few contemporary demons and angels. The song feels mysterious and oh-so-enjoyable. Throbbing, trepidatious, anticipatory, a bit manic. Replete with otherworldly ramblings and cackles. Perhaps Regina is suggesting that such conjurings are what happen after one too many of Cape May’s famous brews, that come in the form of beers, wines and distilled hard stuff. Ah, but surely there are lost souls hiding in the song’s melodic beats.
STARLIGHT DRIFT is the sweetest song on Regina’s latest collection. It’s propulsive rhythm ebbs and flows like the waves. Again, there’s that sense of wanting to escape. Yearning. Impassioned. Even a tad desperate. Let’s not leave – let’s never leave. But we have to go. A back and forth argument with one’s own desire to break free and to stay on the lam from life’s demands. And then it drifts away, as all good vacations do – with a sense of memories collected, and an unmistakeable sense of loss. We may never pass this way again, but boy, are we glad we visited.
EXIT ZERO, even with only 5 songs, is another thematic triumph for Regina in his New Age-y quest for musical meaning. It’s a cool collection that nicely captures the loveliness that is Cape May - cooler by at least a dozen miles!
Susan Sherry Miller can be reached at smillermedia8@gmail.com
EXIT ZERO is now available on most download and streaming services.