Sunday 17 June 2012

Thrill Jockey Avalanche #2 - David Daniell & Douglas McCombs, Kandodo,


It has been an excellent year once more for that inimitable label Thrill Jockey (Pontiak, Man Forever, Eternal Tapestry, Plankton Wat, White Hills, Jon Porras), and they ain't finished yet. Here's a couple more recent Thrill Jockey releases that I thought you deserved to hear.


The duo of David Daniell and Douglas McCombs (he of Tortoise fame, amongst a gazillion other ventures) put out their second collaboration in the form of Versions. Essentially six sprawling guitar duets (four studio improvs and two live performances), the album is breathtaking in its audacity and surprising breadth, especially seeing as these tracks are made from the same seven hour improvisational session that made up their first album together, Sycamore. For me this easily trumps their first dig, and this is most likely down to Ken Brown (Tortoise) being given the mixing duties, thus cutting together what he felt were their brightest moments. He's bang on the money there, especially on the roiling classic 'Burn After Reading'. Great stuff.

David Daniell/Douglas McCombs - 30265


Kandodo also whips out an album and it is the most eloquent that Simon Price (lead of The Heads) has put out to date. Price describes them as "fuzzy lullabies", and there really is something warm yet verbose in these guitar-driven woozy interludes. Perfect headspace music (the crackly field recordings that drift in and out of the mix crackle and fizz on the headphones).

kandodo - Laud The Hyena

Both records can be grabbed here and here respectively - I strongly urge that you do so.

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