Some musicians are so obsessed by their own music that they finish inside their own universe, stuck in otherworldliness, with codified rules, exuberance, sometimes ending as loners if condemned to dead ends, or sometimes, if talent never stops to bloom and develop, finally founding doorway to singular artistic recognition.
It's unclear which side of the road Jeffrey Wentworth Stevens will finally get, but through his discography and even more with this present release which avoid too much experimentalism through his luxuriance, he seems potentially destined to write and record film scores (and is in fact already working on one for a documentary, see the video below).
"Highway Driveway" smells of the seventies, of long drive through the desert, of alcohol and psychedelia, but avoids pure nostalgia, turning everything instead in something both modern, well balanced and yes, terribly American and influenced by movies, with his pantagruelism about instruments, from trumpets to samplers, slide guitars, field recordings and various vintage synthesizers.
This ep is based on the concept of a town mouse, crossing dessert on highways during a return trip. Six tracks for 22 minutes, with a large richness of sounds, full of images. I feel under saturation most of the time, but not to the point of rejecting it and feel unable to enjoy it somewhat, but I'm mostly blessed by the last track "Flashbeagle is Home", which is all about happy return, appeasement and this inexpressible internal joy of being back home after a long trip.
Hanna Ranch Trailer from Mitch Dickman on Vimeo.
No comments:
Post a Comment