It's been about a month since we dropped the deux Crypto releases The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath and David Witham's Spinning The Circle. Recently, Nels was profiled by Siddhartha Mitter of the Boston Globe. Check it out here.
Here's a round-up of the reviews that have come in so far about Draw Breath:
"Draw Breath...offers another superlative collection of diverse electro-acoustic improvisation...Cline is one of the most versatile and essential guitarists working today, irrespective of genre or style. Cline's long-standing trio with upright bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola continues to grow, perfecting its intuitive, collective sensibility. Covering a wide range of territory, The Singers explore everything from folksy acoustic ballads and apocalyptic doom metal to jittery free jazz and psychedelic soundscapes with conviction." (Troy Collins, All About Jazz, 7/12/07)
"Free-bop, indie rock and chamber pop knock about with arresting results on Draw Breath, the third album by the Nels Cline Singers. Led by the guitarist Nels Cline, the group includes no actual singers, just Devin Hoff, a bassist, and Scott Amendola, a drummer. But as the band name and album title both suggest, there’s a vocal imperative at work here, a sense of respiring and descanting as one. This technique derives from avant-garde jazz, and at specific moments — notably the first section of “Mixed Message,” a bristling group improvisation — the lineage feels explicit. Elsewhere experimental rock provides a clearer context. (Check “Mixed Message” again, this time for the raucous last five minutes.)
“Confection” could sit companionably on a Sonic Youth album; “Squirrel of God” is a stormy-turned-sunny rumination with percussion by Glenn Kotche, Mr. Cline’s colleague in Wilco. And given the various strains of abrasiveness on the album, it seems worth noting that the centerpiece is a glimmering waltz called “The Angel of Angels,” one of the prettiest and most radiant offerings of Mr. Cline’s career." (Nate Chinen, The New York Times, 6/24/07)
"From despair to optimism, guitarist Nels Cline, bassist Devin Hoff and drummer-electronicist Scott Amendola tell an emotional story, their immediacy obliterating preconceptions of instruments. Sounds that recall water and animals (no "singers") remind us we're part of nature; change is constant. It's not comfortable, but art's that way." (Greg Burk, Los Angeles Times)
"Outside of the West Coast's in-the-know jazz scene, Nels Cline is best-recognized for commanding the lead guitar chair in Wilco. There he weaves and embellishes; here, he dreams, drones, relentlessly rocks and deliciously resonates with quiet lyricism. Of course, all this is achieved sans vocalists, with Cline's top-drawer trio featuring bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola giving voice to the leader's expressive tunes and excursions." (Dan Ouellette, Billboard)
"The gag, of course, is that there are no vocalists. Guitarist Nels Cline, bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola sing through their collective instruments. Cline is most well known for his avant-garde jazz and rock recordings and his unexpected but most welcome stint in the pop rock band Wilco. The Nels Cline Singers allow him to explore a number of different moods and textures in an improvised trio setting...This is another very good effort from the Singers who make quality searching music for people with open ears. Fans of progressive jazz or rock and roll will find much to enjoy here." (Jazz and Blues Music Reviews, 5/25/07)
"Nels Cline may not be your stereotypical guitar hero, but he’s a hero nevertheless; intrepidly assimilating a lifetime of encyclopedic musical experience into a sound and discography that, with the flexible collaboration of Doff and Amendola, is consistent in its excellence and unfailing progression. Draw Breath is, quite simply, The Nels Cline Singers’ best yet." (John Kelman, All About Jazz, 7/03/07)
"Nels Cline has developed a very personal sound on guitar but musically he's a tough guy to pin down, playing everything from pure, noisy free improvisation to pure rock & roll. Fortunately, Cline has no interest in being pinned down, as the newest album from the Nels Cline Singers clearly shows. On Draw Breath, Cline and company (Devin Hoff on bass and Scott Amendola on drums and live electronics) shift gears stylistically on virtually every track (sometimes within the same track), highlighting Cline's singular guitar skills in a variety of contexts...As a guitarist, Nels Cline is as restless as he is talented, and both those qualities are on full display on Draw Breath." (Sean Westergaard, All Music Guide, 6/26/07)
"Between Cline’s richly expressive and exceedingly adventurous guitar work and the screwy, across-the-map approach of the group’s rhythm section (Devin Hoff on contrabass and Scott Amendola on percussion), the Singers are not a cup of tea that will be easy to drink for Wilco fans who have been impressed by the guitarist’s work with that band. (Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche also shows up one track, the expansive and beautifully strange “Squirrel of God.”) Though Draw Breath doesn’t fit snugly within the sonic parameters of Wilco, it’s equally uncomfortable in the “jazz” milieu, where many people might try to place it. Improvisation is a big part of what drives the disc, but the weird, wonky way that Cline approaches his guitar eschews much of what people associate with jazz guitar. There’s freedom and fun here; the path Cline has set out for himself makes the disc unique and rewarding, but also not an easily classifiable effort. And that’s a good thing." (Jason Ferguson, Orlando Weekly, 7/05/07)
"Perhaps the band's name should be changed to The Many Moods of Nels Cline as these tracks point in many varying directions. He composes simple, lyrical music played in drawing rooms, as well as complex guitar-shredding stadium rock anthems worthy of guitarists Sonny Sharrock or Jean-Paul Bourelly...There is quite a bit to digest here, maybe even scare the snot out of a few Wilco fans." (Mark Corroto, All About Jazz, 6/29/07)
"The only rule that seems to guide The Singers — aside from not singing — is to throw every other rule out of the window. As he's done so many times before as a leader, Draw Breath is for all intent purposes Cline finding the most outrageous juxtaposition of rock, jazz and avant garde and burrowing himself there. But he's also too much of a contemplative musician to rely heavily on constant bombardment with power chords or unrelenting noise. His preferred method of grabbing a stranglehold of your auditory senses is to pull back the slingshot as far back as he can. You are bracing in anticipation for the release and when it finally comes, Cline and his crew typically nails the bulls-eye...Everywhere on Draw Breath, the playing and songwriting is imaginative and forces the listener to abandon most of their preconceptions of how a song is structured and played to get inside these tracks. Because of that, it may be hard for most people to get inside these tracks. Once you're able to get inside, though, you don't ever want to come back out." (Blogcritics Magazine, 7/16/07)
"This latest Singers disc frequently brings Cline's noisy side way out in front, as upright bassist Devin Hoff slaps and bows along beside him and drummer/electronics guy Scott Amendola whips the living shit out of his kit when he's not emitting hums and buzzes and throbs like some kind of malevolent robot. But there are also tracks like "The Angel Of Angels" which are beautiful enough to make it onto the late-night shift of a new age radio station, and the 16-minute "An Evening At Pops'," which devolves into something almost like doom metal. (Cline, not Bill Frisell, should be guesting on the next Earth album.) But "Confection," is the post-punk gem, a four-minute blastfest that falls somewhere between psychobilly and skronk-jazz, a dose of raw excitement balanced with absolutely impeccable technique (there is no point at which Cline sounds less than 100 percent in control of every sound he's making) that oughta make your nipples rock-hard and your leg spasm like you've been snake-bit. So, really, this album has something for everyone. Except folks who insist on vocals, and there's nothing you can do for or about people like that." (Philip Freeman, Paper Thin Walls, 7/12/07)
"Draw Breath is the kind of record that makes you wonder if you're still listening to the same album from track to track due to the diversity of musical material approached by the trio. Eclecticism like that can sometimes result in a lack of flow for the album listening experience, but I find the variety on this album to be refreshing rather than jarring. This is an excellent disc that I can see I will continue to get a lot of mileage from in the future. As always with musicians who crossover into the popular realm, I hold out hope that a Wilco fan might pick up this disc and be tempted to delve into the rest of Mr. Cline's music, in the process discovering the rich musical world that awaits them in the realm of improvisational music." (Daniel Melnick, Soundslope, 7/16/07)
"What the Singers do is assault the listener with sounds you don’t often hear emanating from a guitar, a bass, and a drum kit. Accompanying Nels’ guitar is Devin Hoff on stand-up bass, and Scott Amendola on drums and assorted electronic gizmos. These aren’t carefully crafted pop songs. These are wild, spontaneous, very in-the-moment improvisational pieces that range from 3 to 16 minutes...If you want to explore the outreaches of your musical horizons, and hear Wilco’s guitarist completely unrestrained and in his element, pick up Draw Breath." (Peter Icke, Ickmusic, 7/12/07)
STAY TUNED: Our round-up of reviews for David Witham's Spinning The Circle!
