John Vanderslice reminds me of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius and New Zealand pines. Mainly the first two, though; because I can pretty much only think of driving to Pompeii on a tour bus and it was so so green and the mountain was so huge and I had his other, older album on my headphones. His new album Emerald City is green, a deep shade, surprisingly fertile, even with the shiniest of production. It’s digitally organic, a tree made of pixels, weirdly clinical. Pixel leaves fall away from his vocals, blown by guitars distorted in a signature way, clean and controlled. It's best for headphones, there are a lot of little particularities going on. He sings about things I know, theyre familiar, a frangipani tree, a kookaburra, although I don't really know many of those, even in Brisbane, where it’s really warm and sunny in and it smells like Spring even though it’s July. I like John Vanderslice because he uses these quite regular sounding melodies then it drops into ones that sound unique to him. I’m beguiled; he’s not to melodramatic, not too delicate that it’s heavy-handed. He is surely a perfectionist. Has he been to Australia? New Zealand?
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
White on white
John Vanderslice reminds me of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius and New Zealand pines. Mainly the first two, though; because I can pretty much only think of driving to Pompeii on a tour bus and it was so so green and the mountain was so huge and I had his other, older album on my headphones. His new album Emerald City is green, a deep shade, surprisingly fertile, even with the shiniest of production. It’s digitally organic, a tree made of pixels, weirdly clinical. Pixel leaves fall away from his vocals, blown by guitars distorted in a signature way, clean and controlled. It's best for headphones, there are a lot of little particularities going on. He sings about things I know, theyre familiar, a frangipani tree, a kookaburra, although I don't really know many of those, even in Brisbane, where it’s really warm and sunny in and it smells like Spring even though it’s July. I like John Vanderslice because he uses these quite regular sounding melodies then it drops into ones that sound unique to him. I’m beguiled; he’s not to melodramatic, not too delicate that it’s heavy-handed. He is surely a perfectionist. Has he been to Australia? New Zealand?
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