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2CD
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YG 036CD
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"Nobody makes records like Lisa Germano. This music seeps into your system with a warm glow like alcohol gently working its way into the bloodstream through the lining of an empty stomach. From the first moment you're drifting weightless through Germano's gossamer world, where everything's infused with a woozy, fairytale melancholy, and maybe just a hint of the sour taste of last night's wine. Liquid Pig is beautifully and richly orchestrated, but also so intimate and saturated with a peculiar sadness (that can suddenly shift to joy or whimsy) you get the feeling you're drifting through the dreams inside her head, led along by the soft breeze of her breathing. Germano says that if you removed the breath from her voice there'd be nothing there. That particular quality is perhaps what draws you in -- the sound of a lover whispering a song or a secret in your ear. These songs are intimate, even 'confessional,' but they're certainly not limited to the personal. Seems that any human being with a sense of their own frailty ought to find a place for themselves in this beautiful and seductive music."
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CD
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YG 028CD
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"The music veers from gentle American country folk to unabashed electronic noise, to gathering and erupting crescendos, to extended skronk improvisations that suddenly cut to an LSD version of a backwoods barbershop quartet or a Louvin Brothers spiritual -- sometimes all within the course of one ridiculously long 'song.' Their enthusiasm for pure sound too is evident in instances such as a squeaking chair played by Miles Seaton, all four Akrons simultaneously violently beating their chests, the resulting percussive sound being the air released from their mouths with each beat. As the band recorded with Michael Gira and Jason La Farge, a song would sometimes be described as 'too red' or 'not aluminum enough' or some other arcane reference, but inevitably, corrections made with the aid of a screwdriver or maybe the sanded metal rails of a staircase resulted in an unpredictable but 'correct' result."
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CD
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YG 025CD
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"Culled from the same sessions as Rejoicing In The Hands, Niño Rojo is a companion album -- essentially the second part of a double album. Devendra Banhart is so amazingly magical, unique, and genuine that people just gravitate naturally to his music; best friends' grandmothers relate to it, hard-ass experimentalists enthuse about it, even country/bluegrass purists recognize the man's talents. He emanates joy, generosity, whimsical imagination, superb guitar playing, lyrical complexity, and an absolutely one-of-a-kind voice. Niño Rojo does have a little more orchestration than Rejoicing, but that's more by coincidence than anything else, and simply adds a little color to the songs. Not even strictly necessary at all. Everything was there on tape when originally Banhart performed it."
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YG 024CD
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"With songwriting and guitar-playing that have progressed since Oh Me Oh My The Way The Day Goes By The Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs Of The Christmas Spirit, and determined not to be ghettoized as a low-fi crank, Devendra Banhart and Michael Gira agreed it was best to move on to professional recording studios. Banhart sat on a stool in that living room for ten days, twelve hours per, playing constantly, sometimes with a chorus of cicadas when they recorded at night with open windows. Overdubs were later added back in NYC. The title tune, a duet with the legendary '60s English folk gamin (one of Banhart idols) Vashti Bunyan -- is an obvious highlight, but Banhart's uncanny ability to transport the listener through words, voice, and pretty amazing finger-picked acoustic guitar is where the album's magic lies."
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YG 023CD
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"Six new tracks, plus two from his critically lauded Young God full-length album. UK release made available stateside. Six new tracks from the floating and constantly replenished pool of songs at Banhart's disposal (about 100 from which to choose at any given moment), and complemented them with two favorites from Oh Me Oh My... to make The Black Babies (UK)."
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