runoutgroove said about 4 years ago or at 1:05PM on Thursday, May 31 2007 in music
i quite like this guy. a bit of a mention of him in the John Fahey thread. I've been listening to O True Believers a bit lately. really love that record.
his new album "The Cloud of Unknowing" is due next week on Tompkins Square.
here is a a bit from Tompkins Square....
Performing and recording since 2003, his name is frequently mentioned as one of the foremost modern solo acoustic guitarists. Now at the age of 25, Blackshaw, an untrained musician born and still residing in the suburban environs of Greater London, draws as much inspiration from early religious music, South-Asian folk music and composers such as Arvo Part, Simeon Ten Holt, Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine as he does from John Fahey, Robbie Basho and the early Takoma Records roster, constantly breaking boundaries in what could be conceived as a somewhat limited medium. In his part improvised and part written songs, Blackshaw makes expert use of Eastern and Western scales, chord changes reminiscent of European classical music and incredibly intricate fingerpicking patterns to make a sound that is both challengingly minimalistic, yet warm and approachable to anybody who might hear it, with a rare sensitivity that conveys both immense beauty, hope and sadness.
sweet. had 'O True Believers' for a couple of years now. Made Imaginarylion buy it and I think she doesn't like it.
Appreciated.
Naaahhhhh................. it's OK...
new album is being issued on (reasonably priced) vinyl too. those first couple of records cost a fortune!!
i'm loving this.
i'm loving the 2 tracks i found via scouring the interwebs
pretty pretty beautiful
the Sharron Kraus album Tompkins Square released is sweet.
so amazing when i saw him live i almost threw up. shall be very interested in hearing this new one!
jess.
amazing to the point of vomiting? holy cow
holy cow indeed.
this has probably been my favourite album so far this year.
pitchfork were nice to james this week
It'd be cool if he toured. Do you think people would come?
I think I might pick up The Cloud Of Unknowing today, good ol' pay days.
I'm hassling him to tour. Also bothered a friend who's friend is booking Woodford Folk Festival to get him here as well as trying for an interview. I think he's amazing though I've still not heard much of The Cloud Of Unknowing. So glad that you guys have heard of him. Must be able to get him here somehow. I see he's touring with Jose Gonzalez. I'm guessing those early recordings are only going to get more expensive.
Sorry, touring Europe with Jose Gonzalez, not here.
that is a nice double header of Blackshaw & Gonzales!
I'm guessing those early recordings are only going to get more expensive.
true. i'd kill for an original copy of the Celebrate Psi Phenomenon CDR release of Celeste. those UK vinyl pressings are just too expensive i'm afraid...
new compilation curated by Jimmi Blackshaw.
VA - The Garden Of Forking Paths - CD - Important Records
The Garden Of Forking Paths was compiled for Important
Records by guitarist James Blackshaw. Compositions were recorded specially for this collection by Helena Espeval (Espers), James Blackshaw, Jozef van Wissem and
Chieko Mori. Beautifully assembled, The Garden Of Forking Paths serves as a singular and particularly unique musical statement.
a couple or reissues due this month on Tompkins Square
Love this guy.
have you heard these earlier albums aaaron? I've got the digitalis release of Sunshrine but keen to get a hold of the others.
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new album due August 24th.
a review courtesy of John Mulvey:
In some circles, it’ll be construed as heretical behaviour: James Blackshaw not touching an acoustic guitar for the duration of an entire album, favouring instead a 12-string electric. For someone who’s been proclaimed, not infrequently here, as some kind of saviour of folk guitar or whatever, it’s something of a shock.
Truth be told, though, Blackshaw’s latest album hardly measures up as a rock record. Instead, “All Is Falling” continues on the trajectory established by Blackshaw’s last two albums, “Litany Of Echoes” and “The Glass Bead Game”. Here, again, the virtuoso solo pieces that earmarked Blackshaw as a British relative of the New American Primitive movement are more or less subsumed into formal compositions, where Blackshaw’s guitar takes equal space as the violins and cellos. Still, though, it feels very much like a logical progression from his earliest records like “Sunshrine”: the instrumentation may vary and become richer, but the melodic quirks, the balance between sacred minimalism and romantic expressiveness, remain constant.
“All Is Falling” is ostensibly one long piece, divided into eight tracks. “Part One” finds Blackshaw sketching out the themes on overlapping Reichian pianos, before “Part Two” establishes the major thrust of the overall piece; courtly, delicate electric guitar lines threaded through the sort of string arrangements that were showcased at the ensemble show at the Vortex last year. “Cross” from “The Glass Bead Game” is a useful reference point, as perhaps are “Actaeon’s Fall” from the last Six Organs Of Admittance album, “Luminous Night”, and some of Robbie Basho’s “Venus In Cancer”.
It’s around “Part Four” and “Part Five”, however, that Blackshaw really starts flying. I sometimes wonder whether he can be a little self-conscious about his own soloing skills, and consequently organises his music in an increasingly self-effacing and controlled way. But when he lets go, as here, it’s quite wonderful. It seems churlish to criticise an album as crafted and satisfying as “All Is Falling”, but I do hope that at some point in what will undoubtedly be an exploratory future, Blackshaw returns to a solo, at least partially improvising model.
The pleasures of “All Is Formal”, of course, are more formal. But that’s not to say it’s unrelentingly prettified: by the end of “Part Seven” – another expansive exercise in Glass/Reich-style systems – the violins are wailing like sirens. And the closing “Part Eight” is a distinct departure: a lunar drone piece of shaped guitar feedback, which codifies the devotional intensity of Blackshaw’s music in a new form.
Agreed. Have been meaning to check out more of his work. Keen to see the DVD of him and Glenn Jones (http://www.strange-attractors.com/catalog/saah058.html). Any recommendations for a good place to start, album wise?
Dive in - it's all good!
Regarding James Blackshaw - no contact whatsoever has taken place since the last cancelled tour. If I hear any news, I'll post it here.
Can't wait for the new album. Excited to hear that he has switched to electric.
PLEASE TOUR.
Ah, was just playing 'O True Believers' an hour or so ago! That said, do not bump this thread without tour news! Unless, I suppose, it's for pro-touring messages.
I have been watching this video and the one posted above obsessively.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqbvT55Khy4
Heavier than Electric Wizard.
PS. Sorry!
http://stereogum.com/390171/james-blackshaw-all-is-falling-part-7-edit-stereogum-premier/mp3s/
Track from the new album. So good.
Yeah errr I think someone has made his ''masterpiece''. The chiming electric sounds SO GOOD.
sounds great
Just getting into him. Absolutely fantastic! Very, very impressed.
Anyone got the new album? I've pre-ordered it, but i was hoping to listen to a leak while I'm waiting. Strange that it's not on any blogs.
gmizzle
far out. it's beautiful.
Sure is! Excellent study music. WHEN WILL SOMEONE BRING HIM TO AUSTRALIA? Heavens to betsy, it's one man with one guitar. He can crash at mine. He'd be suitable for almost any festival you can name from Brunswick Music Festival through to Woodford and he'd BLOW MINDS. Once he finishes is current US tour with Swans of course.
Amusing interview where he talks about his guitar to a guitar nerd gear site who then proceed to show a picture of an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT GUITAR whilst James rabbits on about how he likes using a cheap 12 string.
James's single Holly has been out for a while now and deserves a mention for being yet another piece of total genius. A return to his earlier less experimental and folky side. I think it's the best thing he's done yet, which is saying something.
Actually just got Holly yesterday. I've only had a chance to listen to it twice but it is excellent. Nice to hear him on a nylon string.
God, I would kill for a tour.
His new album is due shortly too. I still haven't caught up with Holly yet. Like Heinrich, a tour would be great in 2012.
New release!
Written at a time of great emotional disquiet, the hauntingly beautiful and bittersweet ninth full-length studio album, 'Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death', from British guitarist-composer James Blackshaw was recorded at Soma Electronic Music Studios, Chicago in December 2011 by engineer Andrew Hernandez (Balmorhea). The six original pieces contained on the album (whose titles are lovingly misappropriated from those of short stories by the late, great science fiction author James Tiptree Jr AKA Alice B. Sheldon,) are based alternately around nylon-string classical guitar and grand piano, with spare and subtle vibraphone and B3 organ parts overdubbed by Blackshaw himself. Geneviève Beaulieu
(Menace Ruine/Preterite) adds her stunning and powerful voice and words to track 'And I Have Come Upon This Place By Lost Ways'. 'Love Is The Plan' is an incredibly warm and intimate recording and perhaps Blackshaw's most concise, consistent and overtly melodic to date.
Only just found out about the new album last night. It's very pleasant. Nice to hear him on a nylon string for a whole record. He mentioned on his site that there was ANOTHER record done. A collaboration with a pianist.
And for the 87534957304th time - tour.