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Recommended by us on 27th May 2010
...according to our Brian on Thu 27 May, 2010.
I struggle with these retro-tastic singer songwriter types yer know. Not always sure about this guy but when I came in the office a few months ago only to hear these wonderful, hazy songs swaggering out of the stereo, I somehow knew it was Kurt Vile. He's got that....something. He's also got a clever way with a tune that sort of mashes up country-rock & psychedelia & textural exploration with a strong homespun porch-folk ethos. The 2nd song on here (comin' on like this awesome wallowing centrepiece) is fucking great - like Robert Pollard, early Smog & Jim O' Rourke.....this sauntering hypnotic odyssey that just spills with an easy-going attitude to cool guitar minimalism & remarkably trippy experimentation whilst keeping a beauty mellow groove trucking on. He can still do the sad-eyed folk troubadour, as displayed on the rustic lo-fi flip-side tracks. There's even a sleepy instrumental kosmische-like experiment on here that is quite charming.
Philadelphia singer-songwriter Kurt Vile returns with a stepping-stone 7-song EP between Matador's reissue of his privately circulated Childish Prodigy album last fall and his upcoming new album recorded with John Agnello. Square Shells depicts some aspects of Kurt's music not immediately accessible on his last album, from dreamgazey jams to plaintive, folky melodies. Recorded in a brighter, less homemade sound, Kurt's extraordinarily evocative songwriting explores themes of friendship, loss and desolation.
As the title suggests, Square Shells is also something of a collection of curios. Opening track ‘Ocean City’ instantly grasps you with its charming, sunny melody - completely undercut by its loner lyrical vibe. If past Kurt Vile records channeled private-pressing downerfolk via early Pavement and Cass McCombs, this song layers Leo Kottke on Van Dyke Parks. Subsequent tracks move past the acoustic sound into beautiful layers of guitar and vocals. It provides a perfect holdover for Kurt fans to bridge them to the upcoming proper full- length in fall 2010.
‘Square Shells EP’
12” - OLE 9361
1. Ocean City
2. Invisibility: Nonexistent
3. Losing Momentum (For Jim Jarmusch)
4. I Wanted Everything
5. I Know I Got Religion
6. The Finder
7. Hey, Now I’m Movin
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Norman Records,
Unit 20, Croydon House,
Croydon Street,
Leeds,
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Tel/fax: (+44) 0113 245 4399
Email: phil@normanrecords.com
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