PRESS
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Banhart Devendra: Nino Rojo
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Ultimate Guitar...a folk music long lost in the depths of time & tribal memorySound: I can honestly say to you that I have never heard anything like Devendra Banhart - the entire album features nothing but him and an acoustic guitar with the occasional hippie friend lending a friendly double bass or harmonica. Having grown up in Venezuala with nobody to teach him anything of guitar technique, Banhart has developed his own unique style, a darkly beautiful sound reminiscent not of the fifties/sixties america that is so popular among acoustic performers, but of a folk music long lost in the depths of time & tribal memory. The album, like it's predecessors "Rejoicing In The Hands" and "Oh Me Oh My" has been treated with the greatest respect to Banhart's pure tone and resonance; unlike most of the over-produced and orchestra-smothered albums pouring out of the shops these days. Nino Rojo maintains a natural feel, originating from the unconventional choice of recording studio - producer Michael Gira's living room. As for the music itself, the melodies are inspired and moving, but short. Many of the songs only play for no more than 2 minutes, although there are a sufficient number of......
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Devendra Banhart, Niño Rojo
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Pollstar | byAlthough he's a seasoned performer at 23, indie singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart had a tough crowd his first time out. "I'm from Caracas, Venezuela," he told Pollstar. "It has the highest rate of plastic surgery in the world. It's to the extent of giving pets plastic surgery, so we gave our schnauzers plastic surgery to look like my grandmother. "And I remember I wrote a song about it called 'We're All Gonna Die.' I was about 8 years old and I sang it in front of the family - uncles, cousins, aunts and the whole thing." "I sang the song a cappella, and they asked me to never sing again." Was it the lyrics or the performance that made such an impression? "Probably both." However, he wasn't deterred. "It created this little secret world of playing, where I would dress in drag and sing to myself in the mirror by candlelight." After a few more years of private solo gigs, the Texas-born Banhart's family moved back to the U.S. He spent his teens in California and continued to refine his craft. "It took until I was about 17 before I felt like I had some songs I could actually......
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Devendra Banhart, Niño Rojo
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Pollstar | byAlthough he's a seasoned performer at 23, indie singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart had a tough crowd his first time out. "I'm from Caracas, Venezuela," he told Pollstar. "It has the highest rate of plastic surgery in the world. It's to the extent of giving pets plastic surgery, so we gave our schnauzers plastic surgery to look like my grandmother. "And I remember I wrote a song about it called 'We're All Gonna Die.' I was about 8 years old and I sang it in front of the family - uncles, cousins, aunts and the whole thing." "I sang the song a cappella, and they asked me to never sing again." Was it the lyrics or the performance that made such an impression? "Probably both." However, he wasn't deterred. "It created this little secret world of playing, where I would dress in drag and sing to myself in the mirror by candlelight." After a few more years of private solo gigs, the Texas-born Banhart's family moved back to the U.S. He spent his teens in California and continued to refine his craft. "It took until I was about 17 before I felt like I had some songs I could actually......
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Devendra Banhart - Nino Rojo
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Subba Cultcha | by Ross Breadmorethis album is strongest when melancholy is the wordRemember Mrs. Doubtfire? Late-nineties comedy proving that divorce was nothing to fear as long as your dad was willing to imitate a fat, annoying Irish hulk. Remember the annoying little girl who would over-pronunciate every word as though it were a biscuit-tin escaping? Well, if she were to grow up, grow a willy and buy a guitar, she would no doubt sound like Devendra Banhart. Not that he sounds like a small girl, but he has a cool habit of twisting his mouth until he has given every letter more time than it surely deserves. Opening track, and albums only cover, Wake Up, Little Sparrow is a sad tale of winged apathy, but minimalist lyrics feel luscious and warm thanks to Banhart’s skill for rounding a word off as though it was it was the last time he would be allowed to sing it. However, his vocal dexterity reaches greater heights on Ay Mama, as he meows and sighs through barely intelligible lines, but manages to make the whole thing sound irresistible. Some of the tracks that follow can verge uncomfortably on amateurish pub-song territory, but clean......
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Making it big underground - artists who haven't sold out yet
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Standford Daily | by Bonnie JohnsonDevendra BanhartFormerly an art student in San Francisco, Devendra Banhart is perfect in his role as the new darling of the acoustic lo-fi scene. His eccentric, pared-down folk style makes it difficult to tell when he’s being tongue-in-cheek and when he means business (if he ever does), but it’s hard not to love the queries addressed to animals and the finger-picking backed by tambourine. As a companion to spring’s “Rejoicing in the Hands,†Banhart has released “Niño Rojo,†the highlight of which is the love song “At the Hop†(it sounds nothing like whatever you imagine you would hear at the fabled “hopâ€). Banhart performed at this year’s South by Southwest showcase. He is currently on tour in Europe....