I'm a pretty big fan of instrumental music. I find it to be good music to listen to while doing homework or reading and I've been doing a lot of that recently so I've compiled a little playlist of some of my favorite instrumentals. I'm mostly focusing on "indie" types of instrumentals ranging from folk to electronic. Some songs are from bands that are exclusively instrumental while others are just one of the few instrumental songs that a band has (many are aptly named "Instrumental"). Sometimes I like to let the music speak for itself and in this case that's [...]
James Blackshaw - Stained Glass Windows
Con el año a punto de finalizar, aquí estamos de nuevo para traeros lo que, en nuestra opinión, ha sido lo más destacado e interesante de esta temporada. Si antes esto ya era una tarea dificil, ahora que somos dos lo es todavía más. Aunque creo que el resultado final vale la pena. Cómo siempre una lista para curiosear, descubrir, escuchar. En definitiva lo que nos gusta de todo esto. Por que al fin y al cabo, en un año dónde al fin a la industria se le empiezan a abrir los ojos, la música demuestra volver a [...]
End-of-year lists aren't my thing. I'll save them for those people who actually get to hear music as it's being released, rather than several years later. That seems to be about my speed. That doesn't mean that I don't love to read them however, and one name I keep seeing this year is James Blackshaw. Blackshaw is a young British guitarist, with something of a mystical bent. His latest album is The Cloud of Unknowing , named after an unusual 14th century text on Christian mysticism 1 . I think it's a [...]
We debated about whether or not to publish an end of year list, but we couldn't resist. As we've both said before, Lonesome is a bit like a published version of the kind of chat we'd have anyway, so here we are to share it with you. So picture us all down the pub, (two pints of Guinness, please), and take this list as our way of asking "have you heard this?". Catherine Howe - What a Beautiful Place Easily the most listened to in the car, for the [...]
1. Panda Bear - Person pitch ( Paw tracks ) MP3: Take pills Despite its psychedelic density and abuse of looping techniques and reverb, Person pitch rarely sounds willfuly complex or menacing and is ultimately a frothy and gorgeous pop record that keeps on revealing the more you dive into it. Noah Lennox has achieved something magical with this album and it's truly worthy of every accolade heaped upon it. 2. Radiohead - In rainbows ( self released [...]
Photo credit: Mark Sullo Last week's part one featured some excellent electric guitar playing in various styles. It was a reference to Sir Richard Bishop's fantastically titled album While My Guitar Violently Bleeds (released on Locust Music earlier this year, make sure to get the vinyl version if you have a record player, just for the beautiful artwork alone) although it did not have anything to do with the actual record itself. This second part however explores the sound of acoustic guitar instruments and comes a [...]
Wrapped up inside (double-cross when found): [ ] San Francisco rises in America, as it always has, from the East. [ ] Liquid and aleatoric. As pocket-sized storm. [ ] Pianos y flautas. Y flautas y pianos. Y pianos y flautas. [ ] The calming/unnerving scapes of a passing tumbleweed/boat in the desert/the ocean. [ ] They were calling you on the phone to tell your grandmother had died and you told me not to pick it up. [ [...]
Cause baby don't you know Baby don't you know I'll love you 'til the end of my time Baby don't you know I'll love you 'til the end of my time Baby don't you know Baby don't you know Baby don't you know - Richard Hawley . " Acoustic Wednesday No.54 " 01. Joan As Police Woman : The Ride , Real Life (Cheap Lullaby Records, 2006) 02. James Blackshaw : [...]
Patrick and I most recently attended the Jose Gonzalez concert in Chicago (10/4), and perhaps there may be a review pending (but I feel that that just might be boring for you readers!). Opening for Jose, though, was UK guitarist virtuoso James Blackshaw. I noticed quite immediately that his instrumental guitar-playing didn't match up with his seemingly boyish look or his nonchalance on stage. Watching his blurring fingers, each one plucking the strings so effortlessly, quickly-as if each of his phalanges was operated by a different person. And the sound produced by those nifty appendages was profoundly beautiful. [...]
Dragon lizards are born with beards, and male turkeys have the innate tendency to grow chest hair which we affectionately call a "beard". We, like mountain goats, must brave this brazen landscape of follicular transcendence and nurture them to their fullest potential, all the while hoping for the best, most vikingest of beards to bristle forth from our chins. Imagine to everyone's surprise when they find out that the spirtually tuned James Blackshaw, like myself, can't hardly even grow one. He can, on the upshot, play a mean 12-string though. I've been [...]
I've recently gotten around to checking out the acoustic solo sounds of James Blackshaw . The guy's an instrumental folk guitar genius; he makes me ashamed to say I attempt to play guitar. His playing is textured yet soothing- it's the ultimate background music, and I mean it in a good way. You can do homework, read a book, stare at the stars, or do just about anything while listening to this. But, it can also be listened to with your full attention to unlock the intricacies of his sound. His latest, [...]
Ah, the cloud of unknowing, how familiar it is to me. Along with the fog of nested parentheses, the cumulus of poorly-formatted html, the haar of pointless alliteration, and the haze of all-too-cursory internet-based research (seriously, thanks once again to my legion of unpaid proof-readers out there). Ah, The Cloud of Unknowing by James Blackshaw, that too feels familiar to me. Probably because I went through a phase the other week of revisiting some 12 string favourites – John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Sir Richard Bishop, Six Organs of Admittance, Jack Rose – and this nestles right in there [...]
Image: Shoko Ishikawa River of Heaven - James Blackshaw James Blackshaw has a remarkable new album ( his sixth, he's 25 ) of 12-string guitar instrumentals. But nothing on it shimmers as sustained or rings so clear and resounding as this earlier compilation track. Spellbinding and -bound. [...]
Harold And Maude in the cemetery was a good time last night. The crowd was packed in, it was a very cool experience. I am anticipating nothing short of complete bliss when I get to see Holy Mountain next Sunday. That Mix Tape might have to be postponed if I'm going to be out late, getting drunk and soaking in a few hours of surrealist Jodorowsky goodness. I spent the early part of today reading in Echo Park. It was a perfect day outside, and very conducive to relaxing with a good book and a [...]
james blackshaw running to the ghost 2007 (française version) "Ne pensez pas avant ce que vous devez dire, ne préméditez jamais mais ce qui, à l'heure dite, vous est donné : exprimez le" J'ai lu cette phrase cet après-midi. Il m'a semblé l'avoir déjà lue, ailleurs, autrement écrite. Juste après, j'ai écouté un disque de James Blackshaw . Ce qui m'a semblé, à cet instant, la meilleure chose à faire. [...]
1. The Trees Community - Psalm 42 ( The Christ Tree / 1975 / reissued by Hand Eye in 2007 ) 2. Deux Filles - She Slides ( Silence And Wisdom / 1983 / Humbug ) 3. Klaz* - Saftinind ( Kachtil / 2007 / WM Recordings ) 4. Malcolm Fisher - Untitled ( unreleased ) 5. David Darling - Sweet River ( Eight String Religion [...]
I've been enamored with the fingerpicked style of guitar for quite a few years now and it always amazes me how such a similar technical style can yield so many varied undertones of emotion. For such a young player James Blackshaw seems to have really carved out a place for himself amongst his peers. His style is marked by a restrained beauty and calm wonderment that sometimes surpasses older players who give up style for intensity. Blackshaw's latest record The Cloud of Unknowing expounds upon his circular style of playing and fills each repetition with a sublime joy [...]
I'm exhausted. The nights are getting later and the days ahead are filled with arduous tasks that will demand my full attention. There's no sense in sharing all the gory details. It's quite inconsequential, really. You're just hear for the music anyway. RULES for the uninitiated noobs : With 100MB of webspace, I give birth to a weekly compilation for your iPods or Zunes or Kingklangs or whatever the industry is currently pushing on you. Sometimes there will be themes that link all the songs together, other times I'll just throw songs at a wall (not [...]
Or more correctly skylark herald's dawn (my comments don't like the apostrophe) this comes courtesy of a piece in the Observer that tweaked my interest about 12 string instumental folk - I've long... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit MyWebsite.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Indie Muse
Der Schwarze Salon
...and the world smiles with you
Doklands
lonesome music
motel de moka
Bricolage Fantasy
Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream
Tunes Consumed: the Poutine Silver Platter
The Yellow Stereo
mapsadaisical
Shake Your Fist
Swan Fungus
So the wind won't blow it all away
Raven Sings The Blues
Beach House covers Queen
Video: Nas – “Daughters”
The Bee Gees – Tragedy (Equateur Remix)
Ryan Smith - Waiting
