Album Reviews

Slinky “world music” with a distinctly American desert underpinning, yet incorporating Arabic tonal modes, Another Green World Eno-esque rhythms and an eclectic, dizzying array of instruments, acoustic and electronic, Califone’s latest album will literally leave you gasping for air as you vainly attempt to absorb even a pathetically small percentage of what’s thrown at you musically and sonically on what is a stupendous production and an even more remarkable recording.

Oldsters will remember the grey Califone record player trotted out by teach during A/V augmented teaching lesson, so clearly these guys have vinyl on their minds, and when this album was first issued Fall of 2006, it came in a limited to 1000 vinyl edition with a gorgeous hand silkscreened cover by Gina Kelly at Weathermaker press in L.A. (I think in her kitchen, actually)

that quickly sold out. That’s correct: 1000 copies of the obsolete format snapped right up away.

I guess bandleader Tim Rutili or Thrill Jockey convinced Ms. Kelly to silkscreen another 1000 because that cover also came with the second pressing and you won’t find it on the CD.

I doubt you’ll find the stunningly three-dimensional, dynamic sound on the CD either. Man, is this recording sensational!

It would be a shame if it was otherwise considering the busy instrumentation: drums, clarinet, piano, organ vibraphone, bells, melodica, violin, banjo, guitar, bass loops, Zuni rattle, gourds, shakers, glass, oak chimes, viola, electronic field recordings (etc.) all of which have been expertly and luxuriously folded into the mix.

Engineer and mixer Brian Deck (with assistance from a few others) adds synth, vibraphone and a lot of electronic bleeps and blops but above all he’s produced a stunningly clear, three dimensional, transparent and effectively layered production that manages to brilliantly communicate the instrumental textures and tonalities, whether it was recorded digitally or analog.

These guys have been at it for a very long time, with more than a half dozen records in the catalog. In fact Rutili was formerly in another Chicago-based outfit (Califone recently relocated to L.A.) called Red Red Meat that recorded for Sub Pop way back in 1994. Deck was in that band as was Califone percussionist Ben Massarella.

Mr. Rutili’s low key crooning sometimes sounds as if it’s being played backwards and you’ll have to listen beyond the delicious distraction of the instrumentation to get to his dream-like vocals and oblique lyrics that are, like the music, collage-like and fragmented. Sometimes he sounds like Stephen Stills on Valium, other times like a mellow Kurt Cobain.

The mélange of ethnic, world, folk, jazz, electronica and kitchen sink everything is roots without the rock and experimental without the shlock. You can dance to this, or sink into the sounds, or both. You can find out more about the band here:
http://www.pastrysharp.com/discography/
and even download some MP3s, but to really hear what this record is about, buy it on vinyl.