![]() It’s ironic that Walker wanted to tame himself on Deafman Glance - in reality, he’s expanded his range. The reference points are so scattered, it’s hard to keep track of them all: His guitar work can morph from Pentagle to Steely Dan to White Denim at the drop of a chord, and his half-sighed vocal style still recalls Beck in Sea Change balladeer mode. Just take opener “In Castle Dome,” a breezy electric-guitar daydream that blooms with vintage synths, “Strawberry Fields Forever” mellotron and woody double-bass. And his arrangements are more vivid than ever. I really can’t go back to making a Fairport Convention-sounding record. Enlisting former Wilco multiinstrumentalist Leroy Bach (who also helmed 2016’s Golden Sings That Have Been Sung ) as his coproducer, Walker seamlessly flows from lightly psychedelic indie-rock (“Telluride Speed”) to bewitching ambient folk (“Can’t Ask Why”) to an eyebrow-raising concoction of jazz-pop groove and dissonant noise (“22 Days”). It would be unwise to expect a traditional singer-songwriter album that description hardly reflects the album’s dazzling stylistic breadth. in Castle Dome 1.2 22 Days 1.3 Accommodations 1.4 Cant Ask Why 1.5 Opposite Middle 1.6 Telluride Speed 1.7 Expired 1.8 Rocks on Rainbow 1.9 Spoil. But in recent years, he’s grown frustrated with his image as an acoustic jammer, and he’s aiming to redefine himself on his fifth LP, Deafman Glance -emphasizing tightly knit song structures over improvisation. Pre-order it here, and seriously, follow the guy on Twitter.Ryley Walker emerged in the early 2010s as one of indie-rock’s most exciting guitarists-a malleable player capable of intricate baroque-folk fingerpicking and jazzy solos. Telluride Speed is a track from Ryley Walkers second album Deafman Glance which is out on 18th May and edges his anti-folk strumming to a jazzier place. That’s the sound I hear, all the time, ringing in my ears.ĭeafman Glance is out 5/18 on Dead Oceans. Chicago sounds like a train constantly coming towards you but never arriving. And I think I succeeded in that way - it’s got some weird instrumentation on there, and some surreal far-out words. I was always trying to make something like this I guess, trying to catch up with my imagination. I just wanted to make something weird and far-out that came from the heart finally. ![]() I didn’t want to be jammy acoustic guy anymore. I wanted to make something deep-fried and more me-sounding. I was under a lot of stress because I was trying to make an anti-folk record and I was having trouble doing it. There’s a looseness to some of the songs I guess, but I didn’t want to rely on just hanging out on one note. I think more than anything the thing to take away from this record is that I appreciate what improv and jamming and that outlook on music has done for me, but I wanted rigid structure for these songs. Just listen to lead single “Telluride Speed” and see if you don’t catch my drift - and if you aren’t ridiculously stoked to hear the rest. Best of all, no matter how far out there Walker’s influences get, each complex song-suite remains deeply approachable. Not that Walker’s latest could be contained to one geographical or stylistic reference point: There are shades of Nick Drake, Jim O’Rourke, King Crimson, Steely Dan, Beck’s Sea Change, Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born, and a whole CD tower full of Mudvayne psych, folk, prog, jazz, and post-rock records. “That’s the sound I hear, all the time, ringing in my ears.” “Chicago sounds like a train constantly coming towards you but never arriving,” Walker writes. In a statement accompanying the album announcement, Walker says he hoped to get away from jamming and improv this time around in favor of carefully arranged compositions: “I didn’t want to be jammy acoustic guy anymore.” He also aimed to make something “more Chicago-y sounding,” which he’s definitely achieved the Midwest metropolis’ rich musical history is an unmistakable element of Deafman Glance’s exquisite genre cocktail. ![]() Whether I think he’s a fraud three months from now remains to be seen, but for now, Deafman Glance sounds like his masterpiece. I’ve heard it already and can confirm my first impressions of the final product match Walker’s. The LP in question is called Deafman Glance, and it’s coming in May. Deafman Glance is the second Ryley Walker album produced by LeRoy Bach and Walker himself. Sitting on said record for 3 months: “I’m a fraud and death can’t come quick enough” Getting record master back: “I’ve finally done it. And the most brutally honest reflection of them all pertains to his own new album: Did you know Ryley Walker’s Twitter is lit? The psychedelic chamber-folk virtuoso’s feed presents a delightful collection of music- tangential drug commentary, appreciations of garbage American restaurants and the weight gain they entail, flashbacks to his Christian- rock youth and ’90s fashion sense, and brutally honest reflections on the music industry.
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