Tag Archive for "The Travelling Wilburys"

SWEET LIGHTS

We’re not really sure where songs shift from sounding ‘dated’ to sounding ‘retro’. What causes the move from being behind the times and out of touch, to becoming reflective and inspired? Perhaps it’s the length of time between the originators and the new work that it influences which allows it the benefit of any doubt? Well, today we recommend an artist who has skipped through the major artists of the 60s and 70s like a child through a flowered meadow and not only retained credibility, but produced one of the most beautiful album’s of not just recent times, but any.

Shai Halperin was once known to us as a member of The Capitol Years and War On Drugs, before he stepped away to create his own solo compositions, Sweet Lights. The results of this independent work resulted in the self-titled debut album, which arrive towards the end of last year. At it’s heights it’s nothing short of breathtaking, showcasing this songsmith’s talents off as it twists and turns throughout.

It’s with this album that the reflective influences are poured into every crevasse, from The Beatles, on more than one occasion, but none more so than the second track, Are We Gonna Work It Out, which hovers so closely to the similarly-titled Beatles tune it only avoids a lawsuit because it seems like such a tribute. The inspirations are further in evidence with the album’s lead track, Message On The Wire, which could have been plucked from the song sheets of Gilmour and Waters.

On it goes with his latest track, The Shortest Man On Earth, due out on April 1st, which sounds like it could have been made by any of The Travelling Wilburys. Like almost all of his other work , it drives along at a steady pop rock pace, seeming to transcend time itself. Like all the classics that helped carve out Shai’s work, this is music with a very, very long shelf-life. Immortal and adorable, blending solid pop, rock and folk song structures with atmospheric vocals and storytelling lyrics, this is an artist that you just know will run and run.

Shai self-produced and self-released the debut album on his own, recording most of it in a small room from home, with only a little help in the studio from Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, War On Drugs). We may have to wait a little longer for the any subsequent singles to get an official release here in the UK, but he tells us he’s working on getting a few singles out here around July on a small start up label. Although he’s played the likes of Glastonbury with his former bands in previous years, there’s no plans to re-visit the UK for shows quite yet, but he promises to let us know and we will of course shout about if we hear any news.

What is perhaps most refreshing, after drinking in all of Shai’s heavily-saturated work, is that it’s not really possible to be over-influenced. There’s not an artist in existence today that is without the genetics of music’s rich history, so it’s a fallacy to use inspiration as a negative. OK, so Sweet Lights’ work occasionally dances very close to the line from which beyond is a world of imitation, but it’s never stepped over, and that’s ultimately his music’s best trick. After having re-visited the masters of years gone by, he’s managed to remain standing and we believe that his new work unlocks the same difficult device as they did – timelessness. (MB)

SWEET LIGHTS – ARE WE GONNA WORK IT OUT

SWEET LIGHTS – MESSAGE ON THE WIRE

SWEET LIGHTS – THE SHORTEST MAN ON EARTH

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Published: March 31st, 2011
Author: Mike Bradford
Category: The Recommender
Tags: Are We Gonna Work It Out, Kurt Vile, Message On The Wire, Sweet Lights, The Capitol Years, The Shortest Man On Earth, The Travelling Wilburys, War On Drugs

THE RECOMMENDER – NUMBER 81 – GAYNGS

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Super-groups or collectives always make us a little wary. There’s perhaps something insincere about them, or maybe it’s that it gives the impression their individual parts simply aren’t that good to start with, making them join up in the hope that it improves them (don’t even look up last year’s Chickenfoot). In fact, quite often the separated parts were fine before hand (Velvet Revolver, The Travelling Wilburys), so clumping them together often creates something similar to a 3 year old’s painting, that kind of brown durge. Well, if you needed any reasons to drop the cynicism then we might well have found it. Gayngs is a 20+ collection of musicians, utilising several members selected from a variety of bands, such as Bon Iver, Solid Gold, Ryhmesayers, Leisure Birds and Lookbook, amongst others, all headed up by Ryan Olsen, a producer from Minneapolis. Accumulating such a strong and varied cluster of artists was an achievement in itself, but they’ve seemingly managed to create something that transcends them all, making music that steps out from each of their individual pigeon holes. Tunes this smooth, atmospheric and creamy haven’t been done this successfully since the likes of Zero 7′s Simple Things, or Air’s Moon Safari. The music takes it’s time with every track, wafting into the room like a hazy smoke, building each instrument in layers, before the vocals supply the sweetest of cherry’s on top. They’ve now completed their album, Relayted, with a release date set for mid-May on the JagJaguwar label. The entire piece has a slow, majestic, ambient groove throughout the album, tipping it’s gentlemanly thanks to the likes of 10cc, the 70s pop pioneers, to whom they openly acknowledge have had a large influence on their work. It’s not an incorrect description, but music often defined as ‘chilled’ perhaps misses the sexual energy and warmth found on work as good as this. Talking of sexual energy, they’ve also released three stylish teaser trailer videos (see below) in the build up to the albums launch. For having accomplished the difficult task of successfully extracting the talents of a collective, whilst leaving their egos out of it, Ryan Olsen has perhaps re-cast the template for all future supergroups. (MB)