Posted on 2007.08.29 at 17:50
Current Music: Eliza Lumley - She Talks in Maths: Interpretations Of Radiohead
Tags: alt. country, amandine, broken family band, esmerine, frankie sparo, fugazi, godspeed black emperor, hangedup, lambchop, smog, sufjan stevens, vic chesnutt, will oldham
Vic Chesnutt – North Star Deserter (Constellation)
A quite exquisite release from the ever reliable Constellation label, featuring a host of guests namely all seven members of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, along with Guy Picciotto (Fugazi), Chad Jones & Nadia Moss (Frankie Sparo), Eric Craven & Genevieve Heistek (Hangedup), Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Esmerine) and T. Griffin (The Quavers) and quite frankly you can hear their influence, particularly A Silver Mt Zion on tracks such as the epic Everything I Say and You Are Never Alone, both building up storms of sound, dark and yet hopeful, epic and yet easy on the ears along with the near full on post rock assault of Debriefing.
Vic is perhaps sadly better known for the fact that he is a paraplegic rather than for his great song writing talents, hopefully this album will make a difference. In addition to the earlier comparison fans of Lambchop, Will Oldham and Smog will not be let down by what’s on offer hear, the lovely slow and comparatively short Wallace Stevens for example, Splendid too, very much alt. country and undeniably familiar in sound yet not afraid to venture of into more experimental waters, kicking in again after seven minutes with a lovely Silver Mt Zion-esque vocal refrain. An album that will no doubt feature highly come the end of year polls.
http://www.cstrecords.com/cst046.html
MySpace
www.vicchesnutt.com/
Amandine – Solace in Sore Hands (FatCat)
Quite lovely album from Swedes Amandine, a lovelorn collection of songs falling mainly into the alt. country bracket but with enough pop sensibilities to appeal to a much wider audience. Silver Bells is a delicate pop song song of desperation and strong feelings that relationships can bring to the fore “honey, distance brings us closer/ and honey hardship makes us strong” and carries a hint of Concretes style horns that melt themselves into your brain.
No doubt this will appeal to those who have in recent years fallen for the likes of Sufjan Stevens and The Broken Family Band. Go let yourself be woo-ed by the gorgeous Americana on offer here from the opening Faintest of Sparks to the gorgeous closer, all six minutes sixteen seconds of New Morning.
Amandine – Secrets MP3
Amandine Website
Amandine Myspace
FatCat Records
FatCat Myspace
0 comments:
Post a Comment