One complaint about Wovenhand: either there's a space between "woven" and "hand," or there isn't. It's as simple as that; make up your damn mind.Wovenhand is one of those bands that my friend Kevin came across and immediately latched on, force feeding the music down all his friends' throats. My usual response to this sort of behavior is to tell whichever friend has done this, "Yes, I'll check it out," then leave the mp3s they send me to sit on my desktop for a couple months before deigning to give them my attention for even a minute. This time, I waited about three days before getting around to listening to what I was being force-fed; this is one of the rare occasions where I go back for seconds instead of passing it off to some forgotten file folder on my computer.
I'm having difficulty describing this in a way that would be accurate to what I'm feeling. It's like taking a bourbon-tanked horse ride through a dusty dream landscape where song manifests reality, compatriots are hard to come by, and inner passion rules as king. Trying to express what I'm feeling while listening to this is incredibly difficult. Powerful music is what you get on Ten Stones. If strong songwriting is what you're looking for, then this is your album.
Picking favorite tracks isn't very easy either. "The Beautiful Axe" opens the album the way an album opener should. But, "Horsetail" really grabs me too. And "Iron Feather," and -but- -graaa! Can't pick favorites! The only track I'm not really wild about is "White Knuckle Grip." For some reason, probably the very blues rock beat to it, it reminds me of a George Thorogood song, at least at the beginning. But the well-placed accordion (?) saves it, raises it, and makes it quite good actually. Comes off a little like The Birthday Party, in a way. "Quiet Night of Quiet Stars" is a calm and breezy little thing that calls about a vaguely "Girl from Ipanema" vibe, if it were from a dark sunset in a Terry Gilliam film (okay, I have no idea what that was meant to mean either; it sounded good at the time, so we're running with it). "Kingdom of Ice" carries a great epic tone. I especially like the untitled bonus track at the end. You know what? The whole album is great; just shut up and get it already.
Although Wovenhand is typically filed under alt-country, I'd say Ten Stones straddles the line between alt-country and a thrashy rock noir. Fans of Crime & The City Solution, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and Carla Bozulich would do well to check this out. It especially draws comparison to Crime & The City Solution.
Otherwise, Ten Stones is damn awesome. Just off a first listen, it rocketed into my top ten for the year. Subsequent listens will probably drive it into the top five. To answer the question regarding whether or not a recent release makes me interested in backtracking an artist's prior releases (including other associated acts), I'd put down a yes vote. Yes, I will be going back for seconds. And most likely thirds.
Wovenhand website and myspace, and label site for direct ordering of Ten Stones
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As previously mentioned in my review of The Raveonettes' latest full-length, they are releasing a series of digital EPs this fall. The first is a freebie, and consists of three remixes from Lust Lust Lust. Unfortunately, the remixers in question did everything that makes me hate remix albums. The 80KIDZ remix of "Dead Sound" is nothing but a lightly-sampled-from-the-original techno sh*tpile. The only thing recognizable is a clip of the vocals that do that annoying and incomprehensible stuttering crap that plagues the whole techno genre. Nic Endo's variation on "Aly, Walk With Me" strips it of all that made it good in the first place and replaces it with a minimal beat. Most of the lyrics are chopped out, and there's this 8-bit video game sound effect that keeps jumping in. Trentemøller's treatment of "Lust" does it no favors. Instead, it drags on for 7 minutes of masurbatory and repetitive techno-beat.All in all, I could have done without this remix release. Free is the appropriate price, but I suppose some out there are incredibly excited about these remixes, and is no doubt enjoying them very much. They can enjoy them all they want; I'll stick to the original album myself.
3 comments:
quick correction. i started this woven hand craze by way of dan. been into sixteen horsepower since 05, picked up his newer stuff, turned dan on to it, and i think dan passed it to kevin properly over some beer.
glad you're loving ten stones so much, though. it's definitely going to sit among the top few releases of the year. very much looking forward to the vinyl. i assume your cd arrived quickly?
Chris, your description is perfect! I guess in part due to the song titles, in part due to the Morricone strains, in part due to the driving rhythms, I cannot escape visions of horseback, wild under stars west, desert and dream and whisky and mystics and men.
I hear you on the Thorogood thing, though I like it a lot. That song is the only song I ever skip. As in, out of all the times I've listened to the album, I've only ever skipped a song once, and that was it.
You like the ambient noise at the end more than I do. I agree that "The Beautiful Axe" is the way to open an album. I think "His Loyal Love," track TEN, is the way to end an album, especially one called TEN Stones.
The Woven Hand/Wovenhand thing is annoying. Going by the way it appears on most of their album covers, I'm sticking with Wovenhand, but then I'm partial to that joycething of jamming words together to make newwords.
You are in for a huge treat in checking out all their previous albums: Wovenhand, Blush Music, Consider the birds, Mosaic, and Puur. Unfortunately, perhaps, none of them rock in the way this one does.
To pick up on what Frank said, yes, he turned dan onto the band, and then dan sent me the song "wintershaker" online one night while we were talking on the phone, because he had a picture up of Mosaic and he thought I would be into it. I listened to it right there and then and knew I was hearing a band with the rare power to completely obsess me for months. But I held off for a few days or maybe weeks—I forget. Then, one day, I decided I needed to have everything. I bought the first, second, and third all-original LPs from the iTunes music store, who calls them Woven Hand, and had Frank hook me up with a copy of Blush until I could afford a tangible copy. Just heard Puur for the first time last week. Russian!
Anyway, I missed your blog on Thursday, and am glad to see a double post here. I was hoping you would review Ten Stones and I'm very pleased you like it so much and that you wrote such a fine review of it.
i kind of love 'white knuckle grip' despite it's bad to the boneness. it's probably my least favorite song on the record, but i never skip it. it's good to know that blues and rock CAN sound good together.
i'm glad you're into them. as kevin says, you're in for a treat you may very well enjoy their earlier work more.
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