Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon on CD

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Product description Our product to treat is a regular product. There is not the imitation. From Japan by the surface mail because is sent out, take it until arrival as 7-14 day. Thank you for you seeing it. Amazon.co.uk The prolific Banhart is a one man Facebook, with his uncanny ability to network with an apparently endless series of collaborators, so it’s not entirely surprising that "Cristobal", the first track on Smokey Rolls down Thunder Mountain, should feature an unlikely guest vocal from Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal. Clearly being bilingual in English and Spanish--Banhart grew up in Venezuela--doubles the names in his address book. Though not as instantly appealing as 2005’s sprawling Cripple Crow, Smokey Rolls down Thunder Mountain is a genuine grower, starting slowly and giving up its secrets reluctantly. Arrangements that initially seem sparse feature more and smarter details than his previous records, his full band appearing throughout. So "Tonada Yanomaminista" ends with a spray of stinging lead guitar reminiscent of the Bay Area’s original hippie outfits. "Samba Vexillographica" mutates from a traditional South American rhythm into something much stranger and heavier while "Seahorse" shifts from bluesy ballad to cool jazz section (owing plenty to Dave Brubeck’s perennial "Take Five") before concluding with a heavy white soul outro, Banhart for once ditching the ethereal voice. The component parts are hardly original but the combination certainly is. Elsewhere "Lover" is a straightforward, yet irresistible homage to sixties Stax soul, "Carmencita" a jolly Latin rave-up, "The Other Woman" sparse, gender-bending reggae. "Shabop Shalom" is this album’s faintly contentious throwaway, nearer to Jonathan Richman’s ‘Egyptian Reggae’ than political comment. It’s silly really, but it’s Banhart’s lack of self-consciousness that makes him so engaging. --Steve Jelbert Review The mystical love-child of the nu-folk movement, Devendra Banhart exerts an inexplicable pull on the music world. People that don't like folk, like Devendra Banhart. People who think long-haired hippies belong in the sixties, like Devendra Banhart. People who think singer/songwriters belong in Room 101, still lap up anything by this free-spirited folkster. So it's with a degree of trepidation that I approach his new album. Are my critical sensitivities going to stand firm, could I dare to criticise the international pin-up of the folk scene? Thankfully, I don't have serious cause to. Yes, it's slightly over-long - weighing in at a weighty 16 tracks - but Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon is his most sophisticated, sprawling work so far. Recorded late at night in the hills of hippy Californian haven, Topanga, it's infused with caffeine-fuelled nocturnal energy. Banhart dances from genre to genre, lingering long enough to record the odd ten minute epic and then skipping off again through reggae, rock, jazz and Latino rhythms. His distinctive, lilting growl guiding you through to this entrancing musical jumble. Reference points abound - there's a nod to his Venezuelan roots on the lush, tropical sounding 'Samba Vexillographica', a dash of 50s doo-wop with a Jewish twist on 'Shabop Shalom' (listen out for the dubious lyric: 'When I'm ever in a foul mood/ I've gotta see you in your Talmud'), and a psychedelic smattering of sixties influences: a drop of Leonard Cohen here ('Seahorse'), a touch of Donovan there ('Lover') and the odd Beatlesy flourish ('Bad Girl'). Banhart shrugs off the freak-folk label so often applied to his warblings, preferring to define his style as 'naturalismo' - reflecting his view that the organic and the artificial aren't so far apart in music, life and, possibly, the universe. Musician, poet, philosopher is there anything this man can't do? --Serena Kutchinsky Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window See more