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DUNCAN, JOHN - Bitter Earth

Format: LP Label & Cat.Number: Ideal Recordings IDEAL 129 Release Year: 2016 Note: the die-hard fans of JOHN DUNCAN won't believe their ears: "Bitter Earth" marks a complete change or expansion for him, by singing and covering diverse songs from the history of Pop & Rock music, whereas the arrangements of the songs go into a blues, gospel and jazz direction... feat. many guest musicians from the experimental scene: JIM O'ROURKE, OREN AMBARCHI, LEIF ELGGREN, CHRIS ABRAHAMS (NECKS), TOM RECCHION, etc.. really incredible! lim. 500 white vinyl Price (incl. 19% VAT): €18.50 Warning: Currently we do not have this album in stock! More Info "Sometimes important records are released. This is one of them, no doubt. John Duncan is expanding his universe on "Bitter Earth", his new album and the first one where he performs songs, singing songs. And he does is brilliantly. His voice is a voice that has been around and the music is timeless stuff touching jazz, blues, gospel and old timer music. Everything has a John Duncan shadow, it is dark stuff, but very beautiful." (label info] including cover versions of Gun Club, Nina Simone, Iggy Pop, The Four Tops and Pere Ubu, feat. Oren Ambarchi, Leif Elggren, France Jobin, Tom Recchion, Eiko Ishibashi, Jim O'Rourke, Chris Abrahams and many more. White vinyl, edition of 500 copies "Bitter Earth is the much anticipated, long-in-the-making new album from John Duncan joined by a broad cast of adroit collaborators; Oren Ambarchi, Jim O’Rourke, Smegma, Chris Abrahams, Joe Talia, CM Von Hausswolff, Eiko Ishibashi, France Jobin - all written in dedication to Mika Vainio (who, for avoidance of doubt, is not dead!). It's a remarkable suite of cover versions - from The Gun Club to Nina Simone and Iggy Pop - and original material by an arch experimenter who continues to explore unfamiliar territory... We’re no experts on Duncan’s oeuvre, but this record flips our previous assumptions on their fleshy bonce, taking in a sweltering, almost cinematic psych version of The Gun Club’s The House On Highland Avenue along with his own original, gospel-like spiritual Red Sky and capped off with an achingly intimate solo piano twist on The Four Tops’ Reach Out. The effect is most often shocking in the sweetest way, especially if you’re more familiar with his esoteric work mapping the Nazca Lines for Planam or the indescibable breadth of his First Recordings 1978-85 V.1.2 box set, for example. Perhaps it’s an exercise in catharsis after so many years of heavy drones and outsider experimentation, or perhaps it’s intended to draw a perpendicular connection between that work and pop/folk/jazz idioms. But, either way, his cracked, naked voice is utterly captivating, whether accompanied by shivering tambourine in a take on Pere Ubu’s Dark or transporting Jefferson Airplane’s Comin’ Back To Me to a scene of cicadas and lilting, metallic drums and electronics somewhere between Tel Aviv and Bologna. A timeless record we reckon you’ll return to over and again. Highly recommended!" [Boomkat]