2008 October at james devane

Archive for October, 2008

My Album Reviewed at Mapsadaisical

“Any fans of Christian Fennesz and Tim Hecker reading this? Uh-huh, one there…there’s another…I think there’s another with his hand up standing behind the pillar…and another…another standing in Moldova (I almost didn’t see you there)…and another…

Actually I suspect that most people reading this are fans of both Christian Fennesz and Tim Hecker. The sum total of number of days by waited by readers of this piece for a new album from either of those two would be..well, lots. Years. Decades. *gets calculator out* Actually, centuries, bashing on towards a millennium. I hope they feel guilty, the workshy fops.

Well, dear reader, I have two pieces of good news for you. One: a new Fennesz album is imminent. Two: in the mean time, those who are deficient in vitamin processed-guitar to the point of dizziness can suck on this fine extract from the same root, the new album by James Devane. For free.

This new album from Californian James Devane makes its case belligerently by opening with one of those huge Hecker-esque collapsing-city symphonies, crackling guitars intermeshed with organ drone, feedback whine tangled in gale force electronic winds. That track, “00-08” rumbles on for a good eight minutes, a very good eight minutes if you turn it up till the floorboards shake beneath your feet. The less abrasive moments are reminiscent in mood of Fennesz’s Endless Summer or even Stars of the Lid, guitar ebbing and flowing like waves under your feet, wash trickling up to the sand between your toes. Gorgeous, glitchy grandness. The ambience of this sound-world is enhanced by the use of field recordings, with bird song and random-but-not-random-at-all scrapes and thumps punctuating and perforating the pulchritudinous atmosphere.

Given the asking price, not downloading this album would be an act of wanton folly on your part. You may only be looking for something to tide you over til the new Fennesz, but you’ll find yourself in possession of a whole lot more.”

See Post here.