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────┤ Info ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Artist | Ryley Walker
Title | Golden Sings That Have Been Sung
Genre | Indie Format | Album
Source | CDDA Time | 40:38
Label | Dead Oceans Store | 2016
Catalog | DOC121 Rip | 2016
Bitrate | 192 kbps Size | 58.83 MB
Freq | 44.1 kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4
┌────────┐
────┤ Tracks ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
01. The Halfwit In Me 5:54
02. A Choir Apart 3:11
03. Funny Thing She Said 6:27
04. Sullen Mind 6:32
05. I Will Ask You Twice 2:02
06. The Roundabout 4:41
07. The Great And Undecided 3:39
08. Age Old Tale 8:12
┌────────┐
────┤ Notes ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Ryley Walker is an accomplished fingerstyle guitarist, singer, and
songwriter from Chicago. After a few years cutting his teeth on the city's
indie and experimental music scenes, he began giving solo live performances
with his acoustic guitar. The first recorded aspect of his complex musical
persona arrived with the cassette-only EP "The Evidence Of Things Unseen",
issued in limited edition from Plustapes in 2011. Its artwork was
deliberately reminiscent of John Fahey's Death Chants Breakdowns & Military
Favorites, and inspired by the American Primitive lexicon of Takoma
Records.
When singer, songwriter, and guitarist Ryley Walker released 2014's "All
Kinds Of You", his playing style openly referenced Jack Rose, the "American
Primitive" Takoma sound, and British innovators such as Davy Graham and
Bert Jansch. His musical structures were loose and full of improvisation. A
year later, on "Primrose Green", the American primitive notions slipped
from the radar, but the Brit folk had been fully integrated, and his love
of Tim Buckley, John Martyn, and Terry Callier were woven into more
expansively textured songs. "Golden Sings That Have Been Sung" offers
another change-up.
These eight songs offer more proof of Walker's evolution as a writer, and
his referential focus has shifted again. He's not showcasing his playing
abilities as much here, but readily evokes the Chicago scene of the 90s
that gave us Gastr del Sol, the Sea and Cake, and Tortoise. The set was
produced by multi-instrumentalist/arranger Leroy Bach (Wilco, Liz Phair,
Rob Mazurek). Most of the remaining cast (also Chicagoans) have worked with
Walker before. Opener "The Halfwit In Me", with its deadpan title and
lyrics, underscores the influence of Jim O'Rourke and Gastr del Sol. The
vibe is breezy, quirky, lithe pop with tight charts offering interlocking
grooves in shifting time signatures.
Clarinet, electric piano, and lap steel guitar (all from Bach) wrap
themselves around gentle percussion and fingerstyle acoustic guitar. "A
Choir Apart" offers a shifting dynamic with its ominous tom-toms that
bridge modal psychedelic chamber pop and more experimental rock terrain (α
la Tortoise). "Sullen Mind" is a more full-bodied articulation of sounds
Walker's explored before, and features stellar interplay between electric
piano, droning acoustic guitar, and Brian Sulpizio's poignant electric lead
lines. "The Roundabout" is a midtempo folk-rock tune built around a single
- and yes, circular - guitar vamp.
Walker's lyric juxtaposes pain disguised as self-deprecating humor (think
Mark Eitzel) at a local watering hole: 'Can I buy you a drink/Though my
credit is quite shit, And you cry like you've never seen water/And come to
think of it I think my dad wanted a daughter'. Closer "Age Old Tale" is the
longest and loosest thing here, with jazz overtones and sweeping autoharp -
evoking Alice Coltrane's early Impulse! recordings - and engages Anton
Hatwich's rumbling bassline as strummed electric and acoustic guitars move
at a cough syrup pace. It's a modal vamp that doesn't really go anywhere -
though there is a nice clarinet interlude near the end - but it doesn't
need to; its deep-nod vibe is enough.
There are a couple of duds here, including the dirge "The Great And
Undecided" (that pays self-indulgent homage to Mark Kozelek's journal-entry
confessional songwriting). On one level, "Golden Sings That Have Been Sung"
delivers the most advanced music Walker's released to date. That said,
despite his growing confidence and excellent production and arrangements,
the singing and lyric writing still need work. This is a snapshot of where
he is at the moment. It's a solid effort even with its flaws.
┌────────┐
────┤ Group ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘