Powered by Google
Home
Listings
Editors' Picks
News
Music
Movies
Food
Life
Arts + Books
Rec Room
Moonsigns
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Personals
Adult Personals
Classifieds
Adult Classifieds
- - - - - - - - - - - -
stuff@night
FNX Radio
Band Guide
MassWeb Printing
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About Us
Contact Us
Advertise With Us
Work For Us
Newsletter
RSS Feeds
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Webmaster
Archives



sponsored links
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
PassionShop.com
Sex Toys - Adult  DVDs - Sexy  Lingerie


 
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend
 

CHRIS WHITLEY
SOFT DANGEROUS SHORES
MESSENGER

Cut in Dresden, where Whitley’s been hanging when he’s not touring, this disc does get a post-apocalyptic sound from his ghostly voice, his murmured stream-of-consciousness lyrics, and his taste for loops and programming blended with the tumbling momentum of his guitar. There’s also producer Malcolm Burn’s expansive textural approach: Burn produced Whitley’s 1991 debut, Living with the Law, and their instincts are still twined. The layers of percussion and sampled hum compound the power of Whitley’s visceral takes on love and death; they also give the bass/drums/guitar trio more density. The effect is transfixing and hallucinogenic — like Skip James jamming with Brian Eno. On the perverse road poem "Last Million Miles," the sonic treatment does swallow Whitley’s voice (his most affecting instrument), but that’s a quibble. Like Whitley’s past half-dozen albums, this one’s a script of frayed nerves and jagged emotions that plays out like a raw, opium-fueled dream.

BY TED DROZDOWSKI


Issue Date: July 29 - August 4, 2005
Back to the Music table of contents
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend
 









about the phoenix |  advertising info |  Webmaster |  work for us
Copyright © 2005 Phoenix Media/Communications Group