Co-producing with keyboardist/arranger Leroy Bach, Walker surrounds himself with a familiar cast that includes guitarists Bill MacKay and Brian Sulpizio, bassist Matt Lux, drummer Mikel Avery, synthesist Cooper Crain, and others. In his press release he claims he wanted to escape the "jammy acoustic guy" in favor of recording something that better represented the various sonic territories that continually intrigued him. Despite the fact that it was all recorded in a studio, this is the guy you are likely to experience on-stage on any given night. While it's true that none of his previous recordings could neatly sum up all he brought to the table, Deafman Glance takes the stranger and more relaxed approach from Golden Sings and goes down the rabbit hole to emerge with a record that sounds more "like him" than anything previously issued. He was moving toward something too: a music, however fragmentary, of his own design. While 2016's Golden Sings That Have Been Sung was a marked step away from the American Primitive persona displayed on 2014's All Kinds of You and the following year's neo-psych Brit-folk of Primrose Green. Pre-order it here, and seriously, follow the guy on Twitter.Ryley Walker is a restless bugger it always seems like he's moving down the musical line faster than you can sum up or neatly categorize where he's been. That’s the sound I hear, all the time, ringing in my ears.ĭeafman Glance is out 5/18 on Dead Oceans. Chicago sounds like a train constantly coming towards you but never arriving. And I think I succeeded in that way - it’s got some weird instrumentation on there, and some surreal far-out words. I was always trying to make something like this I guess, trying to catch up with my imagination. I just wanted to make something weird and far-out that came from the heart finally. I didn’t want to be jammy acoustic guy anymore. I wanted to make something deep-fried and more me-sounding. I was under a lot of stress because I was trying to make an anti-folk record and I was having trouble doing it. There’s a looseness to some of the songs I guess, but I didn’t want to rely on just hanging out on one note. I think more than anything the thing to take away from this record is that I appreciate what improv and jamming and that outlook on music has done for me, but I wanted rigid structure for these songs. Just listen to lead single “Telluride Speed” and see if you don’t catch my drift - and if you aren’t ridiculously stoked to hear the rest. Best of all, no matter how far out there Walker’s influences get, each complex song-suite remains deeply approachable. #Ryley walker twitter fullNot that Walker’s latest could be contained to one geographical or stylistic reference point: There are shades of Nick Drake, Jim O’Rourke, King Crimson, Steely Dan, Beck’s Sea Change, Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born, and a whole CD tower full of Mudvayne psych, folk, prog, jazz, and post-rock records. “That’s the sound I hear, all the time, ringing in my ears.” “Chicago sounds like a train constantly coming towards you but never arriving,” Walker writes. In a statement accompanying the album announcement, Walker says he hoped to get away from jamming and improv this time around in favor of carefully arranged compositions: “I didn’t want to be jammy acoustic guy anymore.” He also aimed to make something “more Chicago-y sounding,” which he’s definitely achieved the Midwest metropolis’ rich musical history is an unmistakable element of Deafman Glance’s exquisite genre cocktail.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |