Recording in his apartment, playing all the instruments himself, Devilsplender has managed to complete three albums in the last two years, with two released in the last year alone. He's kept a low profile, gigging sporadically but mostly keeping to his home studio, existing in the margins of the local music scene. While that kind of standoffishness often results in self involved, impenetrable noodling, Devilsplender has not only been actively releasing music, he's also dramatically changed throughout the process, especially with this album. Working alone, isolated from regional influences (country rock, pop punk) he lives in a universe where a static, found noise track like Air Waves can bump erratically against the sweet, shambling melancholy of Sinking Ship and feel exactly right. There's a lot of experimentation going on here, and a seeming desire to cast off any stylistic preconceptions. How else to explain a once committed rocker starting the album with the slow building, elegiac eight-minute instrumental Happiness, or drenching his vocals in distortion for Intoxicated E-mails? Slowing down, absorbed with texture and melody, the jerky, uneasy feel that always seemed implicit in his music is now made explicit. The points of reference widen, from jangly confessional songwriting to droning, methodical post rock and beyond. Outside influences aren't just in the songwriting; for the first time, other musicians can be heard. Eric Newby pops in with a nifty melodic solo on the unabashed pop rock of Later Tonight, while Robin Hunter's eerie, transfixing lap steel occasionally swims to the surface of the apocalyptic Far Too Long. Having turned a corner with this album, it should be interesting to see what Devilsplender comes up with in the future, whether as a full fledged band or working on the more experimental aspects of his sound.
Stay tuned, if you can find the station..... Tom Murray
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.devilsplender.comTrack List:
1. happiness
2. intoxicated e-mails
3. how do i get out?
4. another holiday
5. later tonight
6. airwaves
7. sinking ship
8. far too long
9. rich boy blues
10. afriad to grow
Other Genres:
