PRESS
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Devendra Banhart, Rejoicing in the Hands
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Kitty Magik | by Amy PhillipsIt's all about that voice, and the sheer beauty of Banhart's melodies and arrangements Being a hippie is cool again. Didn't you get the memo? It's OK to have long hair and wear dashikis-all the punks aren't going to laugh at you anymore. In fact, they're going to think you're pretty cool. Take Devendra Banhart. He's a twenty-three-year-old singer/songwriter worshipped by hipsters, despite the fact that he looks like Charles Manson raised on a free-love commune. He also sings in an unstable cackle/warble and plucks an acoustic guitar like he's sitting next to a campfire. So why is Devendra Banhart cool? Well, this whole new folk revival thing might have something to do with current events, which would make anybody yearn for a little peace and love. But for me, a hater of most things Nick Drake-like, it's all about that voice, and the sheer beauty of Banhart's melodies and arrangements. Rejoicing, his second record for Swans main man Michael Gira's Young God records, sounds like a transmission from some sort of utopia, where animals and people live as one, everybody's happy, and Vashti Bunyan is the reigning goddess/queen (the '60s folk earth mama duets......
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Devendra Banhart, Nino Rojo
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Kitty Magik | by Bart SchanemanThe line between reality and fantasy is constantly blurredA unique voice can carry a lot of weight, distinguish an artist, make him instantly recognizable. Folkie Devendra Banhart's voice is like nothing I've heard before. Sometimes it sounds old, but he's in his twenties. Other times it sounds like a woman, but he's a man. Sometimes he even sounds pretty traditional-it all depends on the tone of the song, and the tones of his songs shift as dramatically as his voice. The songs on Nino Rojo have been polished, but they're still stark, acoustic, and carry the association of Nick Drake, in the southern Florida swamp standing on a rotting corpse, picking the same old guitar until his teeth fall out. See, the thing about Devendra is that the line between reality and fantasy is constantly blurred, making the meaning of his crazy lyrics slippery. Almost as slippery as attempting to describe what his voice sounds like....
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Devendra Banhart, Rejoicing in the Hands
()
Kitty Magik | by Amy PhillipsIt's all about that voice, and the sheer beauty of Banhart's melodies and arrangements Being a hippie is cool again. Didn't you get the memo? It's OK to have long hair and wear dashikis-all the punks aren't going to laugh at you anymore. In fact, they're going to think you're pretty cool. Take Devendra Banhart. He's a twenty-three-year-old singer/songwriter worshipped by hipsters, despite the fact that he looks like Charles Manson raised on a free-love commune. He also sings in an unstable cackle/warble and plucks an acoustic guitar like he's sitting next to a campfire. So why is Devendra Banhart cool? Well, this whole new folk revival thing might have something to do with current events, which would make anybody yearn for a little peace and love. But for me, a hater of most things Nick Drake-like, it's all about that voice, and the sheer beauty of Banhart's melodies and arrangements. Rejoicing, his second record for Swans main man Michael Gira's Young God records, sounds like a transmission from some sort of utopia, where animals and people live as one, everybody's happy, and Vashti Bunyan is the reigning goddess/queen (the '60s folk earth mama duets......
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Devendra Banhart, Nino Rojo
()
Kitty Magik | by Bart SchanemanThe line between reality and fantasy is constantly blurredA unique voice can carry a lot of weight, distinguish an artist, make him instantly recognizable. Folkie Devendra Banhart's voice is like nothing I've heard before. Sometimes it sounds old, but he's in his twenties. Other times it sounds like a woman, but he's a man. Sometimes he even sounds pretty traditional-it all depends on the tone of the song, and the tones of his songs shift as dramatically as his voice. The songs on Nino Rojo have been polished, but they're still stark, acoustic, and carry the association of Nick Drake, in the southern Florida swamp standing on a rotting corpse, picking the same old guitar until his teeth fall out. See, the thing about Devendra is that the line between reality and fantasy is constantly blurred, making the meaning of his crazy lyrics slippery. Almost as slippery as attempting to describe what his voice sounds like....
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Devendra Banhart, Nino Rojo
()
Kitty Magik | by Bart SchanemanThe line between reality and fantasy is constantly blurredA unique voice can carry a lot of weight, distinguish an artist, make him instantly recognizable. Folkie Devendra Banhart's voice is like nothing I've heard before. Sometimes it sounds old, but he's in his twenties. Other times it sounds like a woman, but he's a man. Sometimes he even sounds pretty traditional-it all depends on the tone of the song, and the tones of his songs shift as dramatically as his voice. The songs on Nino Rojo have been polished, but they're still stark, acoustic, and carry the association of Nick Drake, in the southern Florida swamp standing on a rotting corpse, picking the same old guitar until his teeth fall out. See, the thing about Devendra is that the line between reality and fantasy is constantly blurred, making the meaning of his crazy lyrics slippery. Almost as slippery as attempting to describe what his voice sounds like....