Kraak have just released the latest entry in the label's ongoing split double 7" single series titled God Damn, I Hate The Blues featuring Amen Dunes, Ignatz, Marissa Nadler, Nathan Bowles, Warm Climate, & Bridget Hayden. It's easy to take the name of this compilation at face value as the haunting specter of the blues tradition continues to filter into alternative and popular musics. The handful of musicians included in this release have been chosen wisely though and their musics seem to offer winks towards the past as well as opening up the genre's particularly downbeat notions.
Amen Dunes contribution is a take on a traditional Ethiopique song that has been taken for a strange ride. The track assumes the particular guitar styling that Damon McMahon has become known for over the past few years while his vocals quiver and wail above following the loping guitar lines. This may be one of the most satisfying Amen Dunes recordings I've heard to date actually and will become a refreshing musical moment for the winter days ahead.
Ignatz - She gets all she wants by KRAAK_records
Ignatz mellow country-folk groove "She Gets All She Wants" comes off as a lost John Phillips classic. I say this because the track's distinctly lo-fi sonic characteristics, complete with enough crackling hiss and tape warbling to make someone believe this could be a Phillips bootleg taken from the odd home recordings. Luckily Ignatz quickly bypasses the lingering feeling of anothers work and establishes his own voice and emotional structure that the song unfolds into.
God Damn, I Hate The Blues is available now via Kraak records.
God Damn, I Hate The Blues is available now via Kraak records.
