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SoundsXP Presents

Friday 6th April 2012
All Day BBQ Festival

Sparrow and the Workshop
6 Day Riot
The Nuns
Singing Adams
Y Niwl
Colours
Dignan Porch
+more tbc

The Windmill
Brixton
Price tbc

On Our iPod

Golden Grrrls - New Pop 7”

Chris Devotion & The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital (album)

Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester (album)

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best 7”

Howling Wolf - Complete Chess Masters 1951-60

The Ketamines - A Rotten Bond/1 Yr (from Oddbox Singles Club Pt 2)

Cardinal - Hymns (album)

Proper Ornaments - Taking the Gamble Out of Buying 12”

Darren Hayman - January Songs (album)

Various: Marshall Teller EP 12”

Latest Forum Posts

Album Review

Bon Iver
For Emma, Forever Ago Jagjaguar

Article written by Joe O - Apr 21, 2008

Perhaps the least surprising thing about “For Emma, Forever Ago” is that it was recorded in a remote cabin in Wisconsin in the heart of winter. Such is the icy fingered grip of this album that the remoteness of its conception is almost enough to elicit a shiver from the first time listener. Justin Vernon’s search for log cabin catharsis becomes, by the strange alchemy afforded by solitude, a musical journey which bears near spiritual fruits. For this album is a stripped back treasure - largely acoustic, with unfussy arrangements against which Vernon’s falsetto wrings a lifetime of soul searching, regret and, eventually, hope from despair.

From the overdubbed ghostly choral opening of Lump Sum, through the beautiful haunting dynamic sweep of The Wolves (Act I and II) to the finale of “re: stacks”, which simply feels like redemption, the sun through the clouds and the spring thaw all rolled into one, this is a moving and complete work. It is also intensely personal. There’s something about the simple honesty of it all that serves to validate and weighten every emotional nuance. Lyrically enigmatic, Vernon merely hints at feelings and suggestions to flesh out the music, yet offers a sense of universality. In stripping back the layers of his personal situation and his music, and accessing nature as his muse, Vernon has achieved something simple, spiritual and profound.

Links:
http://www.jagjaguwar.com/artist.php?name=boniver
http://www.myspace.com/boniver