CD Reviews
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday June 26, 2009
Evan MillerBEESWAX EPHEMERA (Preservation)Rating: 3.5/5Drone and melody, Indian and American, hints of devotional and plenty of folk. Those are the essential elements of Iowa guitarist Evan Miller's album, though they only tell part of the story. There are circular raga motifs and intricate fingerpicking, which make for quite hypnotic tracks, but there's also the kind of delicate acoustic atmospheres that make for simply attractive ambience. And even some vocals occasionally. Theoverall feel is definitely more rustic thanurban, from track titles like Deep In The Comb and The Twigs (one of the prettiest pieces) to the way you can almost feel the sun rise in I Will Turn Your Money Green. City-dwelling Eno fans might also dig the spare soundscape of Honey Loop.Bernard ZuelDave GraneyKNOCK YOURSELF OUT (Cockaigne/Fuse)Rating: 3/5For a while in the 1990s, Dave Graney was almost a household name but his music has become increasingly avant-garde, opting for surreal spoken-word satire on top of jazzy cabaret. So, on Knock Yourself Out, Graney has taken on the role of prize fighter talking himself up before a big fight. "Even when I was on the inside I was an outsider,'' he claims before name-checking a list of his songs and concluding that "I am the best shit high in a pan full of turds''. From there he embraces his love of smoky old-school R&B production, with plenty of fuzz, reverb and delays. On beat-driven song Bodysnatcher Blues and the swampy Throwin' One Into The World it is nice to see he has got his groove back.Patrick DonovanSimon & GarfunkelOLD FRIENDS (Sony)Rating: 3/5Released originally in December 2004 and now repackaged with the addition of the words "Australian & NZ Tour Edition 2009" on the cover, this is basically a CD and DVD distillation of Simon & Garfunkel's concerts at Madison Square Garden, which were performed and recorded in December 2003. Talk about cashing in on a tour! There's a guest appearance from the Everly Brothers offering a quite respectable live version of Bye Bye Love and Simon and Garfunkel work their way through some two dozen of their hits. They are in good voice (The Sound of Silence is particularly impressive) but, in fairness, concert versions of songs nearly four decades after the original recordings can only be pale nostalgic shadows of the studio hits.John Shand
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
