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22 December 2023
Look, I know it\'s kind of cheating, what I\'m about to do. I mean, yes, these are just CDs, and thus CD reviews. But these are no ordinary CDs. These are things that I feel you humans actually need. Allow me to introduce you to:
1. The new Saul Williams album
Lay your wounded souls upon the hospital bed, brothers and sisters. This is your brand-new blood transfusion, straight from Saul Williams\' heart and brain into your hollow, thirsty veins. It, like everything he does, is distinctly and uniquely his. There is nothing else out there remotely like it; I don’t care how eclectic your record collection is.
So, what makes this plastic circle of sound and word so important? When was the last time you got immediate goose bumps from a record? We’re talking less than two minutes in, Saul opening himself up wide like a shotgun wound, spitting and spilling over dark, echoey piano-- no drums-- with the dramatic punch typically induced by distorted guitar or blasting percussion replaced by the vibrato falsetto of an opera singer (the Serj Tankian-produced \"Talk To Strangers\"). And every hair on my body is standing on end. The words alone are one marvelous, resonating thing. But to have music match it so perfectly is a feat unlike most of what’s currently committed to record. And it happens 12 times over.
This is Williams as an interplanetary musician; not just striking chords deep inside you, but using them as musical instruments. It’s music as a force of nature, tearing through your city like a tornado, painting smiles on your faces like a rainbow. And it will make you want nothing less than the same from nearly every other artist you listen to.
2. Tin Hat Trio - Book Of Silk
And here’s where you get to rest, almost meditate, after experiencing the beautiful, invigorating force of nature that is Saul Williams. Tin Hat Trio is your sandman. They’ve built you a bed out of banjos, violas, dobros, accordions, and countless other instruments not typically heard in your everyday pop music passings. They’re tucking you in beneath a patchwork quilt made of universal musical scraps. And they’re lulling you to sleep, to dream, about living in the pages of the Book Of Silk.
Each song is a big, beautiful page, where the title and soundtrack gives you the skeleton, and you yourself provide the meat of the story. At times, you’re night sailing in a small rowboat along the Seine in Paris (\"The Longest Night\"). Other times, you’re on the dustiest Old West town, passing wooden porches and dirty saloons, reminiscing about your stay there (\"Pablo Looks Back\"). And in a Tin Hat debut, violin/viola player Carla Kihlstedt bids the album adieu with a love song so beautiful and bittersweet, you wouldn’t mind if the world stopped completely right then and there.
If you’ve never been swept off your feet by a record, or felt like you were falling in love with music-- literally falling in love with it-- you’ve never heard Tin Hat Trio. And you should. You need to.
CHECK OUT SAUL HERE.
CHECK OUT TIN HAT TRIO HERE.
1. The new Saul Williams album
Lay your wounded souls upon the hospital bed, brothers and sisters. This is your brand-new blood transfusion, straight from Saul Williams\' heart and brain into your hollow, thirsty veins. It, like everything he does, is distinctly and uniquely his. There is nothing else out there remotely like it; I don’t care how eclectic your record collection is.
So, what makes this plastic circle of sound and word so important? When was the last time you got immediate goose bumps from a record? We’re talking less than two minutes in, Saul opening himself up wide like a shotgun wound, spitting and spilling over dark, echoey piano-- no drums-- with the dramatic punch typically induced by distorted guitar or blasting percussion replaced by the vibrato falsetto of an opera singer (the Serj Tankian-produced \"Talk To Strangers\"). And every hair on my body is standing on end. The words alone are one marvelous, resonating thing. But to have music match it so perfectly is a feat unlike most of what’s currently committed to record. And it happens 12 times over.
This is Williams as an interplanetary musician; not just striking chords deep inside you, but using them as musical instruments. It’s music as a force of nature, tearing through your city like a tornado, painting smiles on your faces like a rainbow. And it will make you want nothing less than the same from nearly every other artist you listen to.
2. Tin Hat Trio - Book Of Silk
And here’s where you get to rest, almost meditate, after experiencing the beautiful, invigorating force of nature that is Saul Williams. Tin Hat Trio is your sandman. They’ve built you a bed out of banjos, violas, dobros, accordions, and countless other instruments not typically heard in your everyday pop music passings. They’re tucking you in beneath a patchwork quilt made of universal musical scraps. And they’re lulling you to sleep, to dream, about living in the pages of the Book Of Silk.
Each song is a big, beautiful page, where the title and soundtrack gives you the skeleton, and you yourself provide the meat of the story. At times, you’re night sailing in a small rowboat along the Seine in Paris (\"The Longest Night\"). Other times, you’re on the dustiest Old West town, passing wooden porches and dirty saloons, reminiscing about your stay there (\"Pablo Looks Back\"). And in a Tin Hat debut, violin/viola player Carla Kihlstedt bids the album adieu with a love song so beautiful and bittersweet, you wouldn’t mind if the world stopped completely right then and there.
If you’ve never been swept off your feet by a record, or felt like you were falling in love with music-- literally falling in love with it-- you’ve never heard Tin Hat Trio. And you should. You need to.
CHECK OUT SAUL HERE.
CHECK OUT TIN HAT TRIO HERE.
artid
2630
Old Image
7_1_shityouneed.jpg
issue
vol 7 - issue 01 (sep 2004)
section
entertainmental