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Devendra Banhart
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Salon.com | by Thomas Bartlett"Body Breaks," Devendra Banhart, from "Rejoicing in the Hands"Devendra Banhart is only 21, and "Rejoicing in the Hands" is only his second album, but he's already a legend, and those who have been exposed to his music tend to speak of him with reverence and awe. It probably helps that he looks uncannily like the conventional image of Jesus, but there's more to it than that. He has most often been compared to Syd Barrett, but I think this is less due to the way his music sounds than to the otherworldly, brilliant but unstable aura he projects as a performer. Banhart's music, most of it solo guitar and voice, isn't musically groundbreaking, but emotionally, it's unfamiliar terrain. He has a thing for obscure British folk musicians like Linda Perhacs and Vashti Banyan (who sings on one track on this album), and his angular guitar style recalls the great Burt Jansch. But vocally, he's his own man. Before I ever heard his music, I'd heard descriptions of his warbly voice and trembling vibrato and was reasonably sure I wouldn't like it -- few things turn me off as quickly as excessive vibrato. But the moment I......
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Rejoicing in the Hands
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Playboy.com | by Brendan StosuyOne of the year's most singular musical documentsNew York City singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart is possessed with the quavering pipes of a Depression-Era folkie. A homeless wanderer when he signed to Young God two years ago, the prolific vagabond has since released a pair of arresting collections of lo-fi ballads. The third, Rejoicing In The Hands , sounds less homemade than his earlier efforts, but Banhart's ramshackle mystical musical streak survives the upgrade. Resembling a psychedelic Vincent Gallo and evoking a 21st Century Walt Whitman, Banhart celebrates rivers, the sky, friends and winding roads. The lyrics of the album's opener, "This Is The Way," are joyously poetic, lifted up to the heavens with voice and acoustic guitar: "This is the soup that I believe in/This is the smoke I'm always breathing." But Banhart is more than just some idealistic neo-hippy. He also knows how to pull off a foppish cabaret charm, especially on the dust-kicking "This Beard is for Siobhán." The man has molded his own grubby Beatnik Eden outside contemporary trends and, in doing so, has created one of the year's most singular musical documents....
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DEVENDRA BANHART, Rejoicing in the Hands
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Creative Loafing | by Chad Radford The "new weird America" Friends and foes alike fling Tiny Tim comparisons at Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom, contemporaries under the "new weird America" veil of modern psychedelic folk. Whether the reference is pot shot or a sincere compliment is a matter best left to the beholder. All three summon a similar sense of un-self-conscious splendor, but the resemblance ends there. Banhart and Newsom transcend novelty's trappings -- both utilize the tools and traits of an era when music was a vital means of expression, not just an accessory. Banhart (touring in June) channels primitive, patchwork British and American folk and blues through crystalline production qualities, a definitive departure from his 2002 debut Oh Me Oh My ... 's four-track fuzz. His nonsensical, non sequitur crooning serves as textural counterpart to sparsely strummed melodies, creating a warm and world-weary environment. Songs spill alluringly into the next -- making an unexpected musical hiccup in "Todo Los Dolores" all the more jarring. Throughout The Milk-Eyed Mender , Newsom's elfin voice is guided by fantasy-filled writing. Her instruments are piano and harp, alternated with subtle simplicity. Newsom weaves a tapestry of effortless poetic verses that unfold as......
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Devendra Banhart, Rejoicing in the Hands
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Splendidzine | by Jennifer KellyPuts you in the room with one of most original singer/songwriters working todayBanhart's Oh Me Oh My was one of the oddest and most compelling records I've ever heard. Fragile and otherworldly, warbly and laced with fuzz, it was as direct and personal and spiritually uplifting as music can be, especially music that is recorded on answering machines via trans-Atlantic telephone calls. Accordingly, I was concerned when I heard that the follow-up would be a more conventionally produced affair, recorded with real equipment and including not just Devendra and his guitar, but other instruments, other people. How could this more formal, grown-up recording technology do anything but crush all that was unique about Devendra? However, far from slicking over what I loved about Oh Me Oh Me, Rejoicing in the Hands realizes the promise of that astounding (and, in some ways, off-putting) album. Here is Devendra Banhart, not encased in studio gimmickry but freed to pursue his idiosyncratic vision. The music is just as pure and personal and unintermediated as before, but it sounds better in every conceivable way.The first difference you'll notice is Banhart's voice, which is stronger, more assured and more resonant than before.......
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DEVENDRA BANHART, Rejoicing in the Hands
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www.slugmag.com | by Jon BeanRaw emotionOne vital thing to consider about Devendra Banhart is the life he lived and who he was discovered by. This offers insight into what his voice and music a cut above the typical drool that poisons today's airwaves. If you pride yourself on knowing anything about music, you will appreciate the importance and beauty of the Swans and its brainchild, Michael Gira, who produces fresh new talent with his label Young God Records. Gira, in a quest for new talent, stumbled upon a disheveled, homeless Banhart, who evoked the same raw emotion that hadn't been heard since the days of Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, Robert Johnson, or Marc Bolan and T Rex. The music is as simple as it gets, only a few acoustic guitar tracks at most, to complement Banhart’s honest, but not too overly sentimental voice. The only true criticism I could offer is that Banhart sounds a bit too much like Robert Johnson—as if he were doing it on purpose—and he is not exploring anything too innovative musically, but the ethos of the album is still strong. Banhart's story is of the artist's struggle to overcome poverty. His life is proof that......