Dan Mangan + Blacksmith
Club Meds
CREATE/CONTROL
Canadian artist
Dan Mangan’s latest album continues on from where his Juno award-winning 2011
release, Oh Fortune, left off; a
collection of experimental, swirling, layered and intricate tracks which
sometimes build and explode, sometimes lay almost dormant for their entirety –
always intriguing, never boring.
It’s a far cry
from his first two records, which were more in the singer-songwriter vein, but
his collaboration with a slew of Vancouver-based free-jazz artists which began
on Oh Fortune carries on even further
here, hence this being his first record credited as himself and Blacksmith.
Lead single,
‘Vessels’, swells and gets bigger and bigger; ‘A Doll’s House / Pavlovia’ sees
his distorted voice swirl over a simply plucked guitar with electronics
creating heat behind, which is a theme throughout the record – a soundscape,
always considered and complex, is created but the focus is on his voice,
melancholy yet direct, bringing the focus to his thoughtful lyrics. Not an easy
listen, but a rewarding one if you put in the time.
3/5
Samuel J. Fell
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