As promised -- with just TWENTY-SIX DAYS left before the release of Crypto's twin summer releases David Witham's Spinning The Circle and The Nels Cline Singers' Draw Breath -- we have "pre-reviews" for your dining and dancing pleasure. [WARNING: Mixed metaphors will be used]
First up is Draw Breath:
"CAVED-IN HEART BLUES" Probably the one most Nels/Singers fans are already familiar with, as it was the first track from the new record that we leaked a couple of weeks ago. Nels once told me he wasn't sure he would be able to even fit it on the album, which would have been -- in his words -- "tragic and heartbreaking" considering it was the emotional centerpiece. And what a centerpiece! A slow, lumbering, doom-laden funeral march up the side of a mist-covered mountain -- at least that's how it starts out. (We even rented Werner Herzog's Aguirre: Wrath of God and watched that spectacular first shot while listening to "CIHB" on headphones -- it works perfectly!) Drum Scott Amendola provides a sternum-rattling pulse over Nels' simple but hypnotic riff. Then Devin Hoff comes in with some punchy, forceful contrabass lines, after which comes a rainstorm-wash of sinister film-noir loops and delays. I have no idea what mood Nels was in when he wrote this, but it must have been a humdinger.
"ATTEMPTED" A but of a shock to the system after the dirge-like "CIHB," this track begins tumbling jazz guitar workout followed by an intense roaring build, where Amendola's drums sound like strategically placed gravel-on-cymbals and Hoff's plucking sound like four thumbs going at once. The tune turns from whimsical to pissed-off as quickly as changing the channel, and devolves into a whirligig of fuzz.
"CONFECTION" Wow, the most "rock" tune on the record, we think. (Could Le Wilco have rubbed off on our lad?) Has a great melody that the Foo Fighters or Television would love -- you may actually find yourself humming it in the car! Devin Hoff's bowed bass solo is underscored by Nels and Amendola's clock-ticking pulses during a midsong "break." If played live, "Confection" could bring the first mosh pits known to Improvised Music.
"AN EVENING AT POPS'" This is the track that will stop many Wilco fans dead in their tracks. Blips, bow squeaks, angry fuzz, collapsing percussion -- it sounds like hobgoblins loose amidst fiberoptic cables. Fifteen minutes and fifty-nine seconds of unsettling but liberating Noize, with a primeval sludgy Black Sabbath riff growing out of the primordial ooze like some marching zombie army. We'd tell you more but we don't want to spoil the end!
"THE ANGEL OF ANGELS"/ "RECOGNIZE I" / "RECOGNIZE II" This trio of hushed pieces are parts of a mood-changing whole. "AOAA," dedicated to the bewitching visual artist Angela Decristofaro, who did the artwork for Draw Breath, starts off this part of the record; it's a delicate, contemplative piece that unspools like smoke and demonstrates the Singers' acuity with ballads (or, as close to "ballads" as they get). Of course, there's weirdness aplenty -- like the ghostly backward-looped guitar during the song's coda. The "Recognize" two-fer is dedicated to Nels' parents, Don and Thelma Cline, who played an invaluable role in encouraging their scary-talented twin sons to pursue their musical horizons. It is Nels at his most expressive, and acolytes can get a good assessment to the man's acoustic-picking acumen. "R1" is a moonlit bauble of near-flamenco flourishes and whispering brush drums, while "R2" recalls Michael Hedges at his most subtle or Gustavo Santaolalla's work for The Motorcycle Diaries and Brokeback Mountain.
"MIXED MESSAGE" Whoa! Back to the free jazz, 'Trane style. The Singers are woodshedding this one with a few handicaps: during the first 4-minute part of what was originally titled "The Megasuite," they vamp on a set of five chords, which builds slowly and then just STOPS; for the second part, Amendola was told to abandon live drums sounds AND pre-loaded loops and to use the tail end of whatever was being played at that moment to build his solo, which yields a swampy, claustrophobic interlude. Then comes the pounding climax: Nels's solo twisting around itself like Cheez Whiz while Devin Hoff spins some sort of Mission: Impossible backbeat around Amendola's unhinged cymbals.
"SQUIRREL OF GOD" The last but not very least track, taken with "CIHB" and "MM", makes us think this has got to be the Singers' most "tribal" record to date -- all three sound like they were etched out on the walls of caves. Converse to the drums beginning the primitive pulse of the song on "CIHB", it is Hoff's bass that starts off the time-keeping, devolving into woozy bowing that is quickly dusted with junkyard percussion by Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche. Then, Nels' strumming takes up the pulse as an acoustic guitar joins it, building to a ending with Kotche's sparkling flourishes of glockenspiel. Given the dark portents of the opening cut, this is almost like ending on a high, hopeful note.
STAY TUNED...Our "pre-review" of pianist David Witham's Spinning the Circle, as well as an exclusive multi-part interview with Mr. Witham, who's currently on the road with George Benson and Al Jarreau. Check out the Crypto Tour Page for more info.
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