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Album Review
by SashaS
30-9-2004
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More on: Devendra Banhart
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| Devendra Banhart: another set of goodies |
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Devendra Banhart: 'Niño Rojo'
(XL Recordings)
Devendra Banhart: stridently sinuous songs
Many a musicians has told us about songs being like precious items that strike independently of creators volition. They are an impulse transformed into vibrations that touch, engage and involve us in their magic existence. To select few they come freely, regularly and of quality that astounds. To others… let’s not concern ourselves with 95 per cent of ‘artists’…
Hardly months after issuing his 'Rejoincing In the Hands of the Golden Empress' Devendra Benhart releases some more birds from his creative cage. Recorded during the same sessions as the earlier album, and effectively a companion work, ‘Niño Rojo’ offers up even more of Banhart’s near-mystical tunes.
As fresh as lungful of mountain oxygen… Providing plenty of cerebral fodder, evoking imagery that may not be intended - but listening is as individualistic pursuit as living. The man sounds like he stepped out of time and simply like zilch of the last 50 years of popular culture did ensue. And, Deep South has survived, without a hitch, in sonic terms. Blood, sweat, tears and fears.
This simply defies time-coding, it connects to the bygone eras without being retro, it sounds ageless and enduring… This is music by someone who appears to tap into an ancient pool that is simply beyond the discernment, talent and, sadly, interest of far too many. It bridges the very roots of American music and yet it has no colour, it is as ethnic as it’s its antitype. This troubadour is a strange crossroads of Robert Johnson and Woody Guthrie, transcendentally speaking.
Songs about sparrows [‘Wake Up, Little Sparow’, version of Ella Jenkins’s cut, the only one on the CD], mother [‘Ay Mama’], snakes, sleep [with someone], sister, owls (‘Owl Eyes’), evoke such an array of visual/mental associations that if we noted them down, we’d be reported to the thought-police. But, if this man has ever written a hit, it is ‘Little Yellow Spider’, for which an archaic [i.e. silent-era] looking video is included here, as well as the clip for ‘At The Hop’.
Again packaged in a painstakingly detailed artwork, ‘Niño Rojo’ is an excellent son (as the title indicates) to ‘Rejoincing’, at times sounding as if conjured up by Dr John’s kinda voodoo. But sounding as if done effortlessly, feeling like it has meant to be. This beautiful new album features sixteen Banhart-penned tracks plus the wonderful cover, all of which prove that this is a truly exceptional artist.
9/10
SashaS
30-9-2004
Devendra Banhart’s album ‘Niño Rojo’ is released 27 September 2004 by XL Recordings
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