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James Blackshaw/The Glass Bead Game/Review
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All About Jazz / David RickertBlackshaw uses his twelve-string guitar to create giant waves of chords that repeat motifs, creating a harmonious and meditative musicwww.allaboutjazz.com The Glass Bead Game James Blackshaw | Young God Records (2009) http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=33824 By David Rickert Had Ira Gitler not encountered John Coltrane and heard James Blackshaw instead, he might have used his famous "sheets of sound" to describe the guitarist's music. Blackshaw uses his twelve-string guitar to create giant waves of chords that repeat motifs, creating a harmonious and meditative music that is like new age music for the intelligentsia. New age has such a negative stigma that I hesitate to use that word in describing what Blackshaw does, but there's no denying that that's the musical category where he would be lumped in. Blackshaw began as a guitarist in punk bands and cites John Fahey as an influence (what self-respecting acoustic guitarist doesn't?), yet The Glass Bead Game bears none of the qualities of either, except for a certain audaciousness associated with the former and a tunefulness associated with the latter. Blackshaw is after something spiritual here; these songs are long meditations filled with repeated motifs that are strung together as they develop......
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James Blackshaw/The Glass Bead Game/Review
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JAMBASE / DENNIS COOKMeditative but never somnambulant, James Blackshaw's latest merges the the comforting acoustic layering of early, excellent Windham Hill albums with the more highfalutin' fingerpicked guitar machinations of Sandy Bull and Robbie Basho.Jambase.com http://www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?storyID=19342 8/19/2009 James Blackshaw - The Glass Bead Game By: Dennis Cook Meditative but never somnambulant, James Blackshaw's latest merges the the comforting acoustic layering of early, excellent Windham Hill albums with the more highfalutin' fingerpicked guitar machinations of Sandy Bull and Robbie Basho. The Glass Bead Game (released May 26 on Young God Records) builds from the tintinnabulous base of Blackshaw's exquisite 12-string guitar, adding empathetic strings, wordless vocals, splashes of piano and other subtle touches. He's joined by Current 93 members John Contreras (cello) and Joolie Wood (violin, clarinet, flute) and classically trained vocalist Lavinia Blackwall (Directing Hand), and the ensemble generates a highly visual landscape perfectly suited to mornings or far away journeys, the spaces where less noise crowds in and we're able to open up to something this achingly sumptuous....
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James Blackshaw - King James Version -
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Mark Bentley - Guitar MagazineLondon's 12-string acoustic virtuoso James Blackshaw is adding a European twist to the spiritual American Primitive style of John Fahey and co, as Mark Bentley discovers Page 1 Page 2 Page 3...
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James Blackshaw/The Glass Bead Game/Review
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THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD / BY Scott KaraThe Glass Bead Game is one of the year's best and most beautiful releases to date.New Zealand Herald BY Scott Kara http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/music-reviews/2009/8/8/james-blackshaw-glas s-bead-game/?c_id=1501119&objectid=10589231 James Blackshaw - The Glass Bead Game 4:00AM Saturday August 8, 2009 Rating: * * * * * At just five songs over nearly 50 minutes in total, The Glass Bead Game could be mistaken for classical music - and the ebony and ivory maelstrom of 18-minute last track Arc is more akin to a set of Chopin preludes than anything like folk, rock, or whatever genre guitar virtuoso James Blackshaw's music might fit into. But this bloke used to play in punk bands, and it shows in his gutsy yet poised playing, and his simple yet inspired instrumental combinations. With a 12-string guitar, a piano, and a bellowing harmonium (similar to an accordian, only not as annoying), Blackshaw conjures up sprawling sonic journeys that are tranquil and cinematic, but with brief and telling moments of discord. On this, his seventh album, he is also joined by string and woodwind players Joolie Wood and Jon Contreras from British post-industrial experimental band Current 93. On opening track Cross his lush and......
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James Blackshaw / The Glass Bead Game / Review
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THE RED ALERT / by Adam McKibbinMuch is made of James Blackshaw’s age (he has yet to hit 30), but this is one case where it doesn’t seem to be mere reflexive laziness on the part of the press: it really is something that someone so young has become such a master of the 12-string. The red alert 01 / 08 / 2009 http://www.theredalert.com/reviews/blackshaw.php James Blackshaw The Glass Bead Game (Young God) Record Review by Adam McKibbinbr /> Much is made of James Blackshaw’s age (he has yet to hit 30), but this is one case where it doesn’t seem to be mere reflexive laziness on the part of the press: it really is something that someone so young has become such a master of the 12-string. Even Blackshaw, who seems perfectly modest and polite, has admitted to Pitchfork that he’s come to a point where he’s not quite sure what’s left to do on his instrument of choice, while he did come across one new prospective challenge during a piece on NPR: scoring a horror movie. The Glass Bead Game, his seventh studio album, is a product of Blackshaw asking himself “What’s next?” In particular, he’s become smitten with......