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JAMES BLACKSHAW/THE GLASS BEAD GAME/Review
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NPR.org / by Lynda SmithHis music seems to have a church-like quality. His guitar mimics an entire orchestra.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• NPR.org http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105986417&ft=1&f=1039 James Blackshaw: A One-Man Orchestra Lynda Smith Twelve string guitarist James Blackshaw got his start in music by playing in a punk band. The Glass Bead Game is the latest album from James Blackshaw. All Things Considered, June 28, 2009 - Listening to James Blackshaw perform, you would never guess that he got his start in music by playing in a punk band. The 12-string guitarist is best known for his lush, symphonic compositions. Blackshaw recently sat down with NPR's Guy Raz to talk about his musical style and his latest album, The Glass Bead Game. Blackshaw is often likened to John Fahey for the experimental quality of his music, but the comparison only goes so far. Blackshaw cites a broad spectrum of influences, including American minimalism and liturgical music. It was his love for the latter that drew him to the 12-string. "It was like an immediate shift in the way that I played," Blackshaw says. "The instrument really rings out." His music seems to have a church-like quality. His guitar mimics an entire orchestra. The lushness of his......
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JAMES BLACKSHAW/THE GLASS BEAD GAME/Review
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Fact Magazine UKIt's a hypnotic 18-minute rush that's like vomiting gold, rainbows and unicorns out of every orifice in your head (in a good way), and it's one of the greatest songs made so far this year.Fact Magazine UK http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2837 &Itemid=84 James Blackshaw: The Glass Bead Game Tuesday, 23 June 2009 By Robin Jahdi Format: CD/LP / Label: Young God London 12-string guitarist and pianist James Blacksaw looks young, but between his solo work and contributions to groups like Brethren of the Free Spirit, he's got over fifteen albums behind him. I'm sure you'll have seen some news piece or other mentioning the fact he used to be in punk rock bands, but he grew out of that, and took a lot of time getting really, really good at his instrument. Of course, the knock-on effect of growing up is running the risk of blandness, and 'Cross', the first song on Blackshaw's new album for Michael Gira's Young God label, The Glass Bead Game, is a case in point. Lavish in its complex arrangement, a magnificently controlled wordless vocal pipes up that is at once beautiful and disconcertingly reminiscent of that Lloyds TSB ad. Fortunately, the musical whole is so......
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JAMES BLACKSHAW/THE GLASS BEAD GAME/Review
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Knoxville Daily Times / by Steve Wildsmith The way guitar prodigy James Blackshaw sees it, there isn't a lot of difference, really, between his teenage years as a punk rock musician and the sweeping, ethereal arrangements he plays now on his signature 12-string.Knoxville daily times http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20090618/ENT/306189955 Guitar prodigy James Blackshaw ruminates on spirituality, repetition By Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times Staff June 18. 2009 10:45AM The way guitar prodigy James Blackshaw sees it, there isn't a lot of difference, really, between his teenage years as a punk rock musician and the sweeping, ethereal arrangements he plays now on his signature 12-string. Granted, his current repertoire doesn't boast the same angst and aggression that it did when he shredded in various British punk bands, but there's still a little work required to get into both genres, he told The Daily Times this week. "I played in punk rock bands up until I was between the ages of 14 and 19, but at the same time, I was interested in a lot of different kinds of music," he said. "Obviously, punk rock, a lot of the time in nature, is kind of quite an aggressive music, but it also has a......
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JAMES BLACKSHAW/THE GLASS BEAD GAME/Review
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The Line Of Best Fit / by Matt PoacherBlackshaw’s releases to date have been studies in the possibilities of repetition and iteration; and despite the baroque flourishes and the obvious flair, his work belongs in the realms of the compositionialists and minimalists: Steve Reich, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass...The Line Of Best Fit http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2009/06/james-blackshaw-–-the-glass-bead-gam e/ James Blackshaw, Young God Records James Blackshaw – The Glass Bead Game 17 June 2009 by Matt Poacher In an interview in 2007 James Blackshaw stated that he ‘would really like to make a piano based album, but in truth’ he was ‘just not able to’. Humility? A throwing down of a gauntlet to himself? Whatever the reason for the statement, The Glass Bead Game, his first for Michael Gira’s label Young God, is evidence that Blackshaw emphatically is capable of making a piano-based album. It’s also evidence that he is a capable arranger, as the album is easily his densest in terms of instrumentation, featuring violins, cellos, a harmonium and even some wordless vocals from the otherworldly Lavinia Blackwall. Despite the endless, and often misguided, references to the Takoma school of finger picking (the now holy trinity of John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Leo Kottke),......
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JAMES BLACKSHAW/THE GLASS BEAD GAME/ Review
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trebelzine.com / by Tyler ParksHis 12-string guitar playing, plucking, picking sets the wind blowing and the sunlight swirling, in our heads.Treblezine.com http://treblezine.com/reviews/3164-James_Blackshaw_The_Glass_Bead_Game.html James Blackshaw The Glass Bead Game 2009 Young God Tyler Parks 06.17.2009 Someone (I can't remember who) once criticized Erik Satie's music for being too literary. Evidently, this someone was certain that it is doubtlessly a bad thing for music to be literary. We are talking, here, about music without words and if music without words is literary that is because it makes us insert ourselves into a narrative. Not a full-blown story, but a brief series of connected images. I close my eyes when listening to the Gymnopédies and, for instance, have a brief but resonant vision of floating on a softly flowing river and watching the passing scenery reflected on the water's surface. Perhaps, what rankled Satie's critic was the openness of such music, that located in its hazy register the listener (and every listener differently) was bound to imagine something else with each repeated listen. Rather than guide the listener to a specific experience intended by the composer, it unlocks an endless stream of possibilities. James Blackshaw's music is definitely "literary" in this way, sometimes......