PRESS
-
James Blackshaw / The Glass Bead Game / Review
()
TinyMIxTapes.com / by parallelliottJames Blackshaw compels his listener to become a detective. His music forces us to do something that we are seldom forced to do: stop, think, and investigate. TinyMixTapes.com http://www.tinymixtapes.com/James-Blackshaw,8899 James Blackshaw The Glass Bead Game [Young God; 2009] 5/29/09 by parallelliott James Blackshaw compels his listener to become a detective. His music forces us to do something that we are seldom forced to do: stop, think, and investigate. Many turn to instrumental music so that it can function as non-threatening background sound for whatever seemingly more important task they are performing. Similar to the oppressive alignment that gradually occurs between the monotonous movements of the factory gears or keyboard strokes and the once vibrant human body, many listen to instrumental music because it is so compatible with “paying the bills” or “doing homework” or “falling asleep” or “zoning out.” Blackshaw’s music has no such utility. In fact, it radically resists being put to such a conservative use. If one attempts to listen to The Glass Bead Game, or any Blackshaw album, while paying the bills, they will almost instantly notice their mind, at the demand of the music, wandering away from the chore. Eventually, the listener will......
-
JAMES BLACKSHAW/THE GLASS BEAD GAME/ Review
()
www.amoeba.com / Brad Schelden The album is nothing short of beautiful. While it manages to break my heart every time I listen to it, it also mangages to heal it every time.www.amoeba.com http://www.amoeba.com/blog/2009/05/pen-is-mightier-than-the-sword/out-this-w eek-5-26-.html James Blackshaw - The Glass Bead Game by Brad Schelden May 28, 2009 One of my other favorites of the week is the new James Blackshaw. This guy has been around for a while but I have never actually gotten around to listening to him...although it is very possible that I did listen to him before and it just didn't hit me until now. I honestly always thought this guy was some 60 something Irish dude playing old timey folky ballads. I pictured him with a long white beard and maybe in a wheelchair -- not unlike Robert Wyatt. I was amazed to find out he was actually born in 1981, and he is from London...so I was not so far off on his location, just a bit off on my guess of his age. He has been putting out albums since 2004. He made his way to the label Young God for this new album called Glass Bead Game. Like the albums of Grouper and......
-
James Blackshaw/The Glass Bead Game/Review
()
Other Music Newsletter / by [AB]Nearly every year, we wind up gushing about the newest album from London guitarist James Blackshaw, and by the next year, he's blown past all previous expectations with something more eloquent and grandiose.Other Music / Newsletter Othermusic.org 5/28/09 James Blackshaw - The Glass Bead Game By [AB] Nearly every year, we wind up gushing about the newest album from London guitarist James Blackshaw, and by the next year, he's blown past all previous expectations with something more eloquent and grandiose. Such is the case with his first album for Michael Gira's Young God imprint. While last year's Litany of Echoes showcased the steel-string maestro branching out to the piano, here he brings all his talents together, commingling his guitar and piano playing with violin, viola, and wordless vocals into something stunning and spellbinding. Opener "Cross" is about the closest modern thing we've heard to reach the peaks of Italian composer Luciano Cilio's mid-70s masterwork, Dell'Universo Assente. Recommended....
-
James Blackshaw / The Glass Bead Game / Review
()
Anthony D'Amico / Foxy Digitalisfoxydigitalis http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/reviews.php?which=4345 James Blackshaw "The Glass Bead Game" Young God By Anthony D'Amico (27 May, 2009) 9/10 Rating James Blackshaw has always been a staggering talented 12-string guitarist, but “The Glass Bead Game” continues his rapid evolution away from his Kottke/Basho-inspired folk roots towards a territory that is more uniquely his own. Of course, there are still a few tracks that fall within the traditional Blackshaw sound (the somewhat underwhelming "Bled" and the extremely beautiful "Key"), but they are largely eclipsed by the warmer and more adventurous tracks that bookend the album. The opening track ("Cross") is based upon an elegant arpeggio progression that somehow manages to sound both joyous and bittersweet, but is elevated into otherworldly perfection by the addition of melancholy strings from Current 93's Joolie Wood and John Contreras and some rather mesmerizing wordless vocals by Lavinia Blackwell. It is an absolutely perfect and heartrending piece and probably the best thing that Blackshaw has ever recorded. Its closest competition is probably the album's almost twenty minute long closing epic ("Arc"). Though regrettably marred by a somewhat forgettable introduction, it soon evolves into a masterful and inspired foray into piano-based avant drone. Much like......
-
Fire On Fire / The Orchard / Review
()
gigwise.com(UK) / Janne Oinonenan absolute must-hear for anyone keen to discover just how much high voltage acoustic instruments can whip up... ...'Orchard’ is something totally, refreshingly different.Gigwise.com. (uk) http://www.gigwise.com/reviews/albums/51023/Fire-on-Fire---The-Orchard-Young -God-Released-010609 Fire on Fire - 'The Orchard' (Young God) Released 01/06/09 an absolute must-hear for anyone keen to discover just how much high voltage acoustic instruments can whip up... by Janne Oinonen May 26, 2009 Some bands’ biographies are just a bit too perfect. Take Fire on Fire as an example. Their back-story – the five-piece sharing a run-down blue farm house in the deepest, darkest rural Maine like some psychedelically mangled Monkees, with a battered mandolin in one hand and a jug of lethally potent moonshine in the other – sounds suspiciously like the type of make-believe crafted by a label in the hope of infusing some magic to the mundane. For once, the music matches the far-fetched scenario. Whilst Fire on Fire’s self-titled, excellent 2007 debut EP was still audibly indebted to the then-fresh US odd-folk sounds, ‘Orchard’ is something totally, refreshingly different. Imagine an outfit armed with an uncommonly well-stocked junk store’s worth of arcane instruments - harmoniums, banjos, dobros, accordions - existing in a hermetically sealed, candlelit......