Dec 06 2008
Karl Blau – Nature’s Got Away (2008)
Karl Blau is one of those lo-fi, folky musicians from the Pacific
Northwest similar to Phil Elvrum, Mirah, Woelv, and Calvin Johnson. The All Music Guide has this to say about Blau: “working out of the small town of Anacortes in northern Washington state, Karl Blau has released several cassettes, as well as a CD, Shell Collection, on the small Knw-Yr-Own label. Shell Collection, from 1997, is comprised of four-track recordings that are among the more intriguing and versatile sounds to have come out of the lo-fi indie underground. With a vibe that is both down-home and whimsical, Blau grafts parts of winsome folk-rock onto lazy jamming blues, vintage rocksteady reggae, high ’70s soul harmonies, and ceremonial-sounding flutes in his unpredictable and shifting mixture of elements.”
Here’s what Blau has to say about his new album:
Invoking the fates and listening deeply into the forces present– the room, the instruments, the players, listening to the microphones, listening to the wood grain– the director of a musical piece may find that the less heavy handed one can be, the more one can approach hands free and even getting out of the way of a ‘happening.’ And if you use your hands to guide you in the forest on a clouded night you will not forget this experience.
If that description was a little unclear and esoteric, then it’s best that you just listen to the music and find out for yourself. Below are two new tracks from Nature’s Got Away. There’s some nice guitar work in here: nice tone and nice solos. It almost sounds like the slowed down the recording just a little bit so the whole album is a couple pitches then what it was actually recorded out. This gives his voices a very unique and haunting quality that it difficult to describe.
I hope you enjoy them.
MP3: Karl Blau – Mockingbird Diet
Hi, no I didn’t slow down the recording. It just came out that way. .”Mockingbird Diet” was recorded live all but the lyrics that I overdubbed over the scratch vocal take. I (Blau) play the electric leads, Eli Moore(LAKE) on guitar, Lindsay Shief (LAKE) on drums, Markly Morrison(LAKE, Departed Dog) on celeste, Greg Olin (Graves) on bass, Nate Ashley(Nate Ashley) on piano. I think that’s how it went down. Thanks for posting this.