PRESS
-
SWANS - To crush and soar once more
()
Metalhammer | John DoranMy Father... Reviewdownload pdf...
-
Review - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky - SWANS
()
Terroriser | Johnathan HorsleyDownload PDF file...
-
james blackshaw all is falling collected reviews as of 8/26/10
()
various pubs/blogs/authorsUncut magazine / Pennyblackmusic.com / middleboop blog / http://www.theskinny.co.uk / Was Ist Das? http://www.wasistdas.co.uk/Allisfalling.htm / Spin Magazine / Thelineofbestfit /Pitchfork / The Music Fix / The Wire / MusicOMH / http://www.list.co.uk / http://www.americana-uk.com /http://drownedinsound.com /www.groovemine.com/ The Observer UK / http://www.popmatters.com / www.bowlegs.co.ukUncut magazine http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&p=1515&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#mor e1515 James Blackshaw: "All Is Falling" 2010-06-17 11:45:29 In some circles, it’ll be construed as heretical behaviour: James Blackshaw not touching an acoustic guitar for the duration of an entire album, favouring instead a 12-string electric. For someone who’s been proclaimed, not infrequently here, as some kind of saviour of folk guitar or whatever, it’s something of a shock. Truth be told, though, Blackshaw’s latest album hardly measures up as a rock record. Instead, “All Is Falling” continues on the trajectory established by Blackshaw’s last two albums, “Litany Of Echoes” and “The Glass Bead Game”. Here, again, the virtuoso solo pieces that earmarked Blackshaw as a British relative of the New American Primitive movement are more or less subsumed into formal compositions, where Blackshaw’s guitar takes equal space as the violins and cellos. Still, though, it feels very much like a logical progression from his earliest records like “Sunshrine”: the instrumentation may vary and become......
-
lisa germano / magic neighbor review
()
the wire / tom ridgeshe’s resumed her solo career with a sense of continuity and freshness. Tom Ridge/The Wire December Issue 2009 It can’t be easy being a female singer-songwriter when you’re either being expected to bare your soul or be consistently off the wall, or possibly both at the same time. If, like Lisa Germano, you’ve been around a while, label-hopping and then fading out of the mass ‘alternative’ consciousness, then you’re up against the sheer marketability of, say, Florence And The Machine. Germano is, however, far from being an artist in retreat. Once signed to 4AD, she later dropped out of sight while remaining a musical collaborator on various projects. Now signed with Michael Gira’s Young God label, she’s resumed her solo career with a sense of continuity and freshness. Magic Neighbor is her second album of new material for Young God. It’s a short work, but it never feels slight. Here Germano is part confessional artist, part unreliable narrator. And while the opening instrumental “Marypan” is indicative of some vaguely mournful, wistful mood, it is swiftly followed by the sucker punch of “To The Mighty One”. Here the shift in focus is from a kind of......
-
lisa germano / magic neighbor review
()
pennyblackmusic.com / lisa toremGermano’s compositional talent on piano bears mention – her passages are sometimes brittle, sometimes brief, but completely engaging and mood-provoking. Sometimes the melodies swerve out of control along with veering tempo adjustments, but her reassuring vocal tones continually bring us back to the start.pennyblackmusic.com / lisa torem Lisa Germano: Magic Neighbor Reviewed By: Lisa Torem Label: Young God Records Format: CD Indiana-born singer-songwriter Lisa Germano’s second album ‘Magic Neighbor’ was produced after a period of self-examination and an unexpected musical awakening. The opener ‘Marypan’ contains instrumental melodies that twitter like fairy tales on wings and stream through violin passages. Like many of the subsequent tracks, Germano plays with time – some tunes are short like this one and others trail off into a nostalgic neverland. ‘To The Mighty One’ features her warm vocal drone – she rhapsodises about wanting to be in control - "Sitting all alone here/ waiting to be new/so I’ll make up a story/I am in control today." She explores this new feeling and then asks "How does it feel?/It’s a beautiful day." Her lyrics drift into non-sequitors and back to cohesive thought, all the while engaging us in liquid imagery embellished once......