PRESS
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Devendra Banhart, Rejoicing in the hands
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MusicOMH.com (UK) | by Steve HandsAn ever-more familiar and welcome sight over the next few yearsIt says much for the enduring ubiquity of the guitar in Western music that the outré folk of the last ten years sounds more obtusely contemporary in 2004 than it has done since its protest-era heyday, and its Smithsonian-curated history. Modern influential proponents of lo-tech plucking such as Will Oldham have reinvigorated the genre by returning to the primacy of earthiness, superstition and foreboding implicit in folk's initial evolution, while applying found-sound production techniques to traditional instrumentation. It is out of this milieu that an artist such as Devendra Banhart arrives with us fully formed. Rather than rely on the comfort of tape-hiss, co-producer and ex-Swan Michael Gira chose to give Banhart the full benefit of a modern studio for these sessions all recorded in a 10-day stint. The prolific Banhart provided 57 songs for consideration, and a second album, Nino Rojo arrives later this year. Gira also gathered together a small group of backing musicians who perform so sympathetically with Banhart that it comes as some surprise that the results are not simply the singer's own overdubs. At times, Banhart's staccato voice resembles a......
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DEVENDRA BANHART | Rejoicing in the Hands
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Popmatters.com | by Kevin JagernauthOne of the best albums of the yearThe newest stars of rock 'n' roll aren't lead guitar players, sexy front men, the quiet bass players, or the anonymous drummers. The new rock star elite are producers, the frazzled geniuses twiddling knobs, guiding and defining a band's vision. Dave Fridmann, Nigel Godrich, Rick Rubin, and Steve Albini are all names that bands eagerly seek for their skill, sound and of course, the prestige their name lends to sell copy. I would argue that we are going to see the return of album-oriented rock that marked some of the great albums that came out of the '60s and '70s. Some of the most critically acclaimed albums of the last few years have been complete statements. OK Computer, The Soft Bulletin and Is This It? if anything, are unified by a sound is completely unto itself. However, the last few years have also seen another new trend emerging more quietly from the rock underground. A new breed of singer/songwriter has emerged, each with their own distinct voice, moving them beyond the cliché coffeehouse or emo tag that lesser artists would be stuck with. Arguably following the path forged by......
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Devendra Banhart: Re-hoping in the hands
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Deo2.com (UK) | by Sasha9 out of 10A quiet bolt of lightening is the best way to describe the impact of hearing Devendra Banhart’s album, ‘Rejoicing In The Hands of the Golden Empress’ [to give it its full title], for the first time. It is a total revelation, liberation and salvation you had no idea you needed. This 23-year-old New York-based (via San Francisco) artist sounds simply as no-one else around: an antidote as much as a narcotic, as his US label boss [Michael Gira of Young God Records] and the album’s co-producer remarked. ‘Rejoicing In The Hand…’ is Banhart’s second album [Oh Me Oh My’ was issued in Oct. 03] but first to be noticed widely despite being another precious gem in front of the completely-preconditioned pop-market. Each track is worth treasuring like the air you can inhale outside city limits… Pure, cleanly recorded to hear every breath, including a screwed-up song intro, words enunciated clearly… Communication per excellence. Song titles such as ‘Dogs They Make Up The Dark’ and ‘This Beard Is For Siobhan’, delivered chiefly by voice’n’guitar [with a very little help of piano and strings], works in a surreal manner. By that we mean an individual......
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The Black Rider (DAVID COULTER - musical director) | Storm in a pawnshop
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The Guardian | John L. WaltersWith its drunken piano, pocket trumpet and musical saw, The Black Rider is obscure-instrument heaven. The songs of Tom Waits are inherently visual - not just in their words and themes, but in the way they sound. Just as film footage of a lake, or a country house acquires mystery and glamour when underscored by a chugging Nymanesque riff, images of cheap house-fronts and dusty streets take on extra gravitas when accompanied by Waits's ragged tracks. Check out Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law and Night on Earth, or Francis Ford Coppola's fabulous One from the Heart. The band currently playing in the Barbican Theatre pit have the challenge of re-creating Waits's distinctive instrumental timbres every night. "There are certain things you need to play his music," says associate musical director David Coulter, chatting backstage. "There's upright bass, of course, and pump organ and drunken piano; lots of things that are slightly out of tune with each other, or 'sour', to use Waits's own word." Coulter, a musical-saw virtuoso who plays another 20 instruments, is the man who put together the band for The Black Rider, the show by Tom Waits, Robert Wilson and William S......
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Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the Hands
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The Evening Standard | by David Smyth 3 out of 3 Song titles such as Dogs They Make Up The Dark and This Beard Is For Siobhan are an early indication that New-York based Devendra Banhart may be too eccentric for the mainstream. Yet other signs suggest that he could soon be very popular. This is his second full-length album but his first for influential label XL, which has already made stars of equally onorthodox talents such as Dizzee Rascal and The White Stripes. For Rejoicing, he has reined in the more extreme vocal tics of his past work, which should make him more palatable to a wider audience. Banhart sings in a wavering, ancient-sounding voice over acoustic guitar with the barest dabs of piano and strings. The Body Breaks and Fall have a timeless, magical quality that should garner this incredibly talented artist a cult following....