Tuesday 26 April 2011
Powers
In most cases, music becomes a snapshot of the time and place it was recorded in, and of the cultural influences that molded it’s creation. For instance, I can’t think of New Order’s Technique without picturing me in 1989, and imagining the band on Ibizia soaking up the sights, sounds, and substances that would eventually seep into their best album ever.
But Jennifer Castle and her new record, Castlemusic, is not so much a snapshot, but a moving picture, set firmly in the present, living, breathing, and taking shape as you’re listening to it. It’s an animate, evolving record offers a new experience each time you listen to it.
The dark and haunting “Powers” undulates up and down on the waves Castle’s voice creates, like waters being blown by the first winds of an approaching storm. on the next song, “Way of the Crow” her voice soars above the clouds, using her upper register to take the listener airborn, presumably on the calmer currents of air above the storm hinted at in “Powers”. Then once you get to the album’s penultimate track, “Poor as Him”, Castle sets you down on a hot and humid beach to shake and shimmy along with the ghosts of kids in polka dot bikinis and surf shorts. It’s heady, sometimes trippy listening.
And so it goes through this record. It was recorded so that the natural reverb and sonic textures of the room were preserved, and throughout Castlemusic, you get the impression that much of what you hear happened exactly as it was recorded. This kind of live recording technique is nothing new, but even a live a recording can be caluclated, rehearsed and practiced to the point where all the spontaneity is gone; Jennifer Castle has captured an unaffected, genuine simplicity on these songs, and it is really something quite special.
Castlemusic is released by Flemish Eye today, April 26.
MP3: Jennifer Castle “Neverride”
Facebook: Jennifer Caste
Myspace: Jennifer Castle
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 26th, 2011 at 8:35 am and is filed under MP3, QBiM SPiNS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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