King Darves - The Sun Splits For... The Blind Swimmer

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

5...according to our Brian on Thu 17 Feb, 2011.

This guy got some attention in the office yesterday. He's got an off-kilter croon that manages to evoke imaginings of a love child betwixt Neil Hannon, Calvin Johnson & Michael Gira, which is surely a startling nightmare/comedy scenario to have in your mind at any time of the day. This album is a hearteningly lo-fi thing. Built from the bare bones of shambling porch-folk, possessed sea shanties & rattly acoustic indie laments, this album - snappily titled 'The Sun Splits For... The Blind Swimmer' - has a distinct charm and swaying soul that you'll probably find hard to resist. I know not who he reminds me of but the overall vibe of this album screams both intimacy & eccentricity! The songs will totally worm their way under your skin, played with a rustic warmth & a feral looseness that lets everything breathe in harmony - you'll not be able to get this off your turntable after a couple of spins. A most pleasant excursion into a one-off man-mental's spangled homely vision!

So i would imagine that you'd have one look at the photo of King Darves we have here and think "Oh brother! Another guy with a beard getting over what looks like a bad case of the clap and an acoustic guitar. Where's my axe?" so we're not gonna put it up here. (Mystique, dig?) But it's really not like that, i tell you! The bedrock of King Darves' New Brunswick based concoction is certainly folk based but there's no headband and he's not singing of pixies in the moss. This is somewhere between rolled cigs and the foggy vision of Big Pink from somewhere on Jersey Avenue, or maybe a one-manned Meat Puppets. This kid has really cobbled something together in his kitchen sink! The Sun Splits For .. The Blind Swimmer will shock and please when the prettiest sound of his deep, rich voice comes out of yr headphones, and it'll make you tap yr toes and nod yr head like a little goil.
~ T Rettman
Bed - Stuy

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