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          From the very outset, there seems to be a strange duality at work: the voice and melody belong to a clean-cut pop sensibility, while the sound, instrumentation, and arrangement of everything else, sounds as if it’s part of a credible indie song-writing outfit. Like the hyperactive “Nourishment Nation” (which features a wonderfully floaty breakdown), the tunes are catchy enough to be tapped out and hopped to, the kind that sound perfect when you’re in the best mood of your life.

            The third track in, “Be Kind – Remind” was the song that originally sparked my curiosity with Rogue Wave; just an acoustic and a sweetly blended melody in an Elliot Smith-like number, here, it more than confirms a case of ‘So far, so good.’ “Seasick on Land” and “Kicking the Heart Out,” however, are a bit more standard and seem like they’re doing less to impress, but when they both finally come into action, they still manage to retain some of that inexplicable ear-candy that’s present everywhere on this album. It’s at this point that it begins to make you wonder: is the pop sensibility taking over in the balance? Or it just a case of these hooks being too good to be true?

            Tracks like “Postage Stamp World,” meanwhile, certainly prove Zach Rogue to be someone deserving to contend amongst the upper-tier of the U.S. charts (alongside the few serious artists there, of course). In general, it’s difficult to fault this album: the songs are good, they’re not repetitive, but there just seems to be that one unnameable thing missing that prevents the work as a whole from selling itself fully as being destined for greatness. In fact, the songs, sung in a crystal clear voice, often seem so sugar-coated and so catchy that you have to double-check that this really is some low-key, independent work being re-released on Sub Pop (an appropriate move for them, given the striking similarities between them and their new label-mates). Perhaps this is the reason that the lyrics seem difficult to digest, and lacking a certain bite. Nevertheless, “Out of the Shadow” is confounding in all the right ways.

Artist / Group:
Rogue Wave
Album:
Out of the Shadow
Label:
Sub-pop
Released:
13th September 2004

Popularity: 1% [?]

I felt it necessary to review these albums in tandem as, due to the fact that they were both culled from the one recording session, and released only a matter of months apart, they are obviously very similar albums.

Devendra Banhart – Rejoicing in the Hands

            “This Is the Way” is a beautiful opener, rubbing its hands together with up-beat excitement – the perfect touch of inspirational sunshine to begin an album. The tremor of some simmering finger-picking brings us into “A Sight to Behold,” clearly one of the stand-out tracks on the album, where the strings add a dramatic, irresistible weight to its candle-lit, bohemian mystique. To think that this is the second track on an original album recorded in 2004, is unbelievably refreshing.

            There’s a soothing quality to the re-assuring words of wisdom of “The Body Breaks,” another lovely skirmish that typifies the album: just an acoustic, straightforward chords picked quickly, and melodies of darling simplicity. Beginning with the sounds of Banhart’s breath, heaving like he has just been resuscitated back to life, a different approach stirs behind the dark, after-hours intoxication of “Poughkeepsie.” A heavy, resonating vibration, the verse barely moves at all (particularly the stutter that makes the CD sound like it’s skipping), until it comes to life with another string-accompanied flourish for the catchy chorus – but, unfortunately, the song ends just as quickly.

            You can almost picture the castles and horses that must have been in mind when for the medieval-sounding start to “Dogs They Make Up the Dark”; there’s a great shift in a moment of Spanish guitar, but again, the song is virtually over before it has begun. Essentially slowing things down for the first time with “Will Is My Friend”, there’s a resigned calm in Banhart’s voice that makes him sound far beyond his years, and the song manages to pour out as if it’s been played in a deserted, dusky ballroom amongst the last remnants of a wedding, after everyone’s left…            ”This Beard is for Siobhán” is definitive of Banhart’s style: there’s a hip swagger behind the music that opens out into a simple, infectious chant (“a real good time, good time, a good time”) – the kind advertising moguls would kill to get their hands on – which is banged out into the track with a fuller arrangement, before ending on another shrill murmur. Barely a note is plucked in “See Saw,” it seems, and it becomes clear that the strength of the wavering melodies are what it all consists of here…just a voice in the dark of the desert at night, croaking: “I always knew, I always knew.”            The speedier “Tit Smoking in the Temple of Artesan Mimicry” takes us into John Fahey and Django Reinhardt territory, getting ridiculously faster, but burning out to meet the same fate as all of the other short numbers. Featuring the same melody on guitar and voice throughout, the duet of the title track feels like a sip from a golden chalice. It’s quiet, it’s steeped in religious ambience, but also, it has the kind of sound that makes an argument for the “soul” of tape fuzz, as opposed to digital recording. The broader sounding, bongo-studded “Fall” has a more flexing rhythm to it (and its melody shares some similarities with Tom Jones’ “She’s a Lady”) – one to shake to.

            The lo-fi element is nevermore clear than on the false-starting, Spanish-sung “Todos Los Dolores,” which, apart from the language, covers previously chartered ground; more great melodies over snappily-picked guitar, but it’s in the same style and there are no surprises. The beginning of “When the Sun Shone on Vetiver,” in fact, could still be the same song (save for the sliding guitar in the background), but a swarming sound like an eerie, screeching wind, eventually puts all similarities to bed.

            It’s difficult to maintain an identical set-up and style for seventeen consecutive songs, but Banhart manages well, short as they are. These tracks would all stand up individually, but lined up one after another, the album risks running into problems (perhaps this is the reason the songs are so short). “Insect Eyes” proves this by sounding too familiar, but other than that, it’s difficult to fault and it develops brilliantly toward the end, and perhaps as a reward for not losing faith, an upright bass adds a much-needed presence. On “Autumn’s Child,” meanwhile, a piano makes a rare solo appearance; its solemn, drawn feel understandably meaning it is placed at the album’s end, but this variety should have come much earlier.

Devendra Banhart – Nino Rojo

            Nino Rojo begins with a sparse, colder version of Ella Jenkins’ “Wake Up, Little Sparrow,” offering words of wisdom to a sparrow in the snow. Banhart chooses to adapt the message sung, moving from casual indifference to a focused, almost teeth-bearing engagement that sounds as if nothing else in the world could be considered more serious. Its tone continues into “Ay Mama,” accompanied by near-inaudible singing, and while there’s a sense of crazy, swirling black eyes behind it, the melody is left to do all the work. When the song shifts gear into a different part, Banhart seems to hit the nail on the head: the “oohs” take over in all the right ways, but what’s done with it? It’s not explored, only left as a lyric-less, haunting melody, and the song ends somewhat prematurely.            Slightly more conventional, and a lot more effective, the perfect balance of “We All Know” means the song fits in to the run of things a lot more snugly. It floats effortlessly on until the sound is expanded with a trumpet, and the melody is ba-dum-de-dum hummed to ensure it’s buried permanently somewhere in your brain (again, an advertiser’s dream). “Little Golden Spider,” meanwhile, giddies up on through Banhart’s own take of Old MacDonald’s Farm. Turning it into a psychedelic daydream, he philosophises over the quirks of each of the animals’ colourful existence, warming it all in the chorus of this little serenade.            With his head down, Banhart delivers “A Ribbon” – a tingling twist of dark, to-the-point romantics, but harrowing if thought of the wrong way (sung to you as you’re tied up by a mad man). The voice is doubled-up on “At the Hop,” and maybe that’s part of why the magic works especially well here; it’s another light-hearted, catchy tune, but it breaks away from the mould and tries something different. When we reach “My Ships,” it’s late at night, it’s raining outside, the world can’t hear, and we’re content to list what’s wrong and just not care…

            ”Noah” is a slow jaunt; its far-off tambourine making it sound like it was recorded in a little parish hall, and fittingly, the song itself acts as a waltz in a hymnal dream. Incoherant mumbles clear the way for Nino Rojo’s counterpart to “Insect Eyes” with “Sister,” as an upright bass again adds a welcome hand. Darkness descends, light is suffocated out, as an intervention is sung by the fire-side: “now I reach out, now I feel for…” and then the song simply departs.

            A little bird chirping in the background brings a beautiful touch to “Water May Walk,” a tune as memorable as a children’s lullaby, causing you to wonder just how one mind can come up with so many original, breathtakingly simple tunes. While the first part of “Horseheadedfleshwizard” is guilty of treading into the dangerously familiar, it quickly grows macabre in the verse – bringing to it a sinister depth that grants the song some salvation, but once again, it’s all too brief. “An Island,” on the other hand, passes without really announcing itself; it’s pleasant, but just doesn’t manage to mark its presence on an album where distinction is needed for a song to stand out from all the rest.

            Yet all of a sudden, distinction comes in the form of “Be Kind,” arriving with the totally different sound of a full band, and possibly for the first time on both albums, it sounds like a different guitar is being employed. It’s so much of a welcome difference, in fact, that it’s actually hard to judge its merits objectively. Similarly, “Electric Eyes” also seems to work thanks to a different approach (an overdubbed harmony); however, you expect it to kick off and sprint in a different speed, but it doesn’t, and as a result, it grows a bit stale, finally confirming the suspicion regarding the reason why all the songs are so short.

In conclusion
            It seems as if Young God’s Michael Gira tried to avoid the double-album syndrome of spreading too thinly material that could potentially work as one great album, but, arguably, that’s exactly what has happened here. Clearly, there’s a lot to be said for capturing the songs the way they were written – just Devendra Banhart and a beat-up acoustic – but the quality control needs to be stricter. All the talent is there in abundance, but these albums seem to focus on showcasing his gift for pulling magnetic melodies out of the bag, rather than distilling them into one focused, magic album.            ”Rejoicing In the Hands” will serve well for those after immediate gratification, (it’s littered with more “standout” tracks), but “Nino Rojo” grows with repeated listens and develops its own endearing charm.

Artist / Group:
Devendra Banhart
Album:
Rejoicing in the Hands Nino Rojo
Label:
Young God
Released:
24th May / 27th September 2004

Popularity: 1% [?]

             Known for his lengthy sets (five to seven hours would be considered the norm), it was no surprise to see Mr. Scruff busy behind the decks long before the venue started to fill up. Scruff himself admits that obsessive attention to detail is put in to ensure that every show is different: animated visuals name-drop local boroughs; the Scruff Tent serves up tea and coffee, biscuits and fruit, records and clothes (while donating proceeds to a local charity); and an inexhaustible record collection is drawn upon for a broad, seamless mix of obscure gems to dance to.             Surprisingly, it was dancing that played very much a complimentary role in the night’s proceedings. Normally, most would agree that dancing is at its most modest when it’s done semi-soberly and in a field of body odour. On the floor, however, I found myself shunted without choice into the above-mentioned category, completely over-shadowed by the quality entertainment that was to be found courtesy of some top-notch shape-throwing. One patron in particular repeatedly pulled out a move that was some kind of inspired combination of a holy-trinity blessing, and an imaginary brushstroke thrown into the air extravagantly. This was exactly the kind of thing that drove the crowd on to lose all inhibition themselves – drunken brilliance from every corner.

             The last time I was at the Redbox, the bass could be felt reverberating in the bathroom walls. This time, you could feel it in your Adam’s apple. To put it simply, the show was the greatest music you’ve never heard, and accordingly, most people would be hard-pressed to recognise even a handful of the tunes that were dug out for our listening pleasure. Touching on nearly every genre over the course of nearly five hours, it would be difficult at best to please all with such a wide variety of selections, but the blend of it is what’s key: and at all times, it’s seductively subtle. If only a set-list was made available!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Kraftwerk – The Olympia, Dublin. March 2004

Popularity: 1% [?]

           Few musicians can boast the same kind of experience that violinist Eric Gorfain has amassed across his career thus far — his seemingly endless list of collaborations reads like a who’s who of the music industry (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Dr. Dre, and Ray Charles amongst them). As leader of The Section – a string quartet which features another violin, a viola, and a cello – Gorfain’s gift for arrangement and passion for rock has seen the group record a series of tribute albums (including track-for-track takes of Radiohead’s “OK Computer” and Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”) that have been almost as plentiful and varied as Gorfain’s long line of musical appearances. In 2004, the group released “No Electricity Required,” a collection of instrumental renditions of modern rock classics by such artists as Jeff Buckley, Cream, and Iron Maiden, and have since been gaining further widespread acclaim for their magnetic live perfomances. I caught up with Eric ahead of The Section Quartet’s forthcoming tour of Ireland:

You’ve played in Ireland before, and most recently were here in 2004 with
the Section Quartet, but how did this Irish tour come about?

I first played in Ireland with Grant-Lee Phillips in 2002 and became
enamoured with your country. This tour will be my fifth trip to Ireland
since 2002, so I guess I’m hooked. The Section Quartet performed in Dublin
and Belfast in 2004 and based on that success, at the request of our
promoters Frank Donnelly and Peter Kinsella, we decided to come back and
play a few more towns this time around.

In what’s been a successful series, you’ve recorded a plethora of tribute
albums now with Vitamin Records; obviously they come to you with ideas to
pitch, and you to them, but is there are a part of you now that
automatically starts to wonder “what could I do with this, where can I
take it?” when listening to any music that passes through your ears?

When we were making records for Vitamin, they would come to me with ideas
for artists to cover and I would choose the songs. The craziest I thought they were, was when they came to me with Tool and Nine Inch Nails. However,
I was proved wrong as that material is some of my favourite by The Section
Quartet. Doing Radiohead, especially OK Computer in its entirety, was an
idea I pitched to the label. Now that we are autonomous and pick individual
songs that we want to translate to string quartet, I definitely hear things
that catch my ear and move me to attempt an arrangement.

There’s something about a well arranged performance of a rock piece
through strings that feels like it’s officially “canonising” the song; I
also think that when it’s channelled into such a graceful, eloquent sound,
it can make the listener re-think the song in a certain way, and it
often tends to bring out certain qualities that weren’t there before – so
in those ways, it’s much more of a tribute than a standard cover version
could be. Would you agree? And what objective or ambition do you have in
mind when you sit down to re-record a piece that you’re already a great
admirer of?

I agree that our translations of rock songs bring out different nuances in
the songwriting of the original versions. I never want to re-invent someone
else’s original composition. I just want to play music that I love myself,
and it’s always a challenge to bring that to string quartet.

How difficult is it to replace the drums – the rhythmic backbone of a song–
and the vocal melody in your arrangements?
Removing the drums, vocal melody and lyrics is definitely the hardest thing to do and when it works, it just shows the strength of the songwriting.

I’d also imagine that the above mentioned process works in reverse –
someone who might have never even considered giving Tool or Incubus a
listen may find themselves going through their back catalogue after being
introduced to them via a string quartet – do fans ever relate to you their
accounts of this happening?

My parents went out and bought OK Computer and after hearing our version.
And they liked it! They even listened to some Tool records, though it’s not
quite their cup of tea. We would love for listeners to go back and check
out the original music we’re translating.

The Section Quartet: (l to r) Leah Katz (viola), Eric Gorfain (violin), Richard Dodd (cello), Daphne Chen (violin). Photo: http://www.thesectionquartet.com

Obviously, there must be a lot of satisfaction to be had from delighting and winning
over die-hard fans who know their favourite artists’ works inside-out, but
as an accomplished musician with such an incredible résumé, is there a point
where you set your sights on recording original material with The Section
Quartet or branching into more producing, especially now that the group’s
reputation seems to be spreading all the time?

We have recorded a handful of original songs for some of the Vitamin tribute
albums, but we’ve decided to leave that for something down the road. We
enjoy bringing rock music to the string quartet and are incorporating new
songs into our set all the time. We’re also considering several full albums
to re-create, as we did with OK Computer and Dark Side of the Moon. I do
produce albums for rock bands and pop artists, both here in LA and also in
Japan, where I lived for four years.

You were very much an integral part of the sound behind Grant Lee
Phillips’ “Virginia Creeper” album, and as a consequence, when Grant and
the “Virginia Creepers” performed a session for KCRW at the beginning of
their tour in 2004 (from which you were absent), the sound seem emptied of
something, particularly with “Mona Lisa” (Grant even commented on this
himself). I must add that Grant and the band had their own way of coming
together and working around that by the time they finished the tour in
Dublin (and I know that The Section appeared with them at the London
date), but what is it like being involved from the very outset in the
song-writing process, and then in the studio, but not being able to
continue out on the road?

I love working with Grant-Lee. In fact, I just played with Grant-Lee and the
band last weekend in Santa Barbara, California. I wish I could accompany
Grant-Lee wherever he goes, but my own schedule with The Section Quartet
doesn’t make it completely feasible. Making Virginia Creeper was an amazing
experience; Grant would play the songs for us and we would add our parts on
the spot.

The paths of rock or guitar-based music and classical instrumentation seem
to be increasingly converging. Outside of certain types of modern music
written in a classical way (I’m think of Frank Zappa here), in your
experience, has there been a substantial shift between a violinist or a
string section being used in a more complimentary or supporting role (as
with groups in the 60’s and 70’s) to becoming engaged at the very core of
the sound of an increasing number of contemporary artists (such as Beck or
Andrew Bird)?

The guitar in rock music has been taken to every extreme, both minimalist
and over-the-top, so perhaps violins or strings are the next extension of
that guitar-based culture. It’s always great to hear a well-written string
arrangement on a rock song, but perhaps I’m biased!

The Section Quartet. Photo: Debby Wang.

L.A.’s Largo, where you have performed quite a bit, seems to be a bit of a
hotspot at the moment for overlapping circles of different musicians (Jon
Brion, Fiona Apple, Grant Lee Phillips amongst them); as a frequent
collaborator with big-name artists, how often do you find your career path
being shaped by all the connections and opportunities you make along the
way? And are there any dream collaborations at the top of your list that
you’d still like to do one day?

Being part of the Largo family is an honour and a thrill every time I walk
through the door. With the encouragement from Grant-Lee and Jon Brion, I’ve
been able to further my musical development as a violinist, arranger and
a band leader, because working with such talented people raises my own game
to new levels. In the future I’d love to work with Peter Gabriel. But
there are so many dream collaborations out there that I hesitate to mention
them all!

Finally, it seems to have been a whirlwind time for you and the group
lately, how have you found it, and what lies on the horizon in the near
future?

In the last year alone we have toured Ireland and the UK, performed at the
Coachella Music Festival on an 80 foot stage in front of thousands of
people, rocked out with Tenacious D and Dave Grohl, recorded with a variety
of artists and generally had a great time! We never know what the future
brings, which is part of the thrill of what we do for a living. We will be
recording new songs after our Irish tour and perhaps explore the Internet
more as a method of getting our music to listeners.

Popularity: 1% [?]