There cannot be any doubts about the talent of Jim O'Rourke when it comes to Experimental Electronic Music and it's sub genres. However, it also needs to be clearly pointed out that he is a multi talented guy and likes to express these various sides of his from time to time.
He has had many collaborations and due to this delved into many styles, but the album in question is purely his work and reflects an absolutely different side of his. The album can be labelled as Folk/Art Rock and Indie Folk, but it appeared much before the contemporary Folk fad. The style also has touches of Jazz in it, but closer to the Free Jazz style.
Just think about the Bossa Nova rhythms in "Something Big" and the Jazzy "Through The Night Softly". If Astrud Gilberto was to sing "Something Big", I wouldn't have been surprised at all. Unfortunately the vocal Edith Frost was not creating miracles even though the music is quite lovely.
There is only one track in the album, which is naming the album, that reminds us the background of O'Rourke's present a little is "Eureka". However, even that one is more or less Folk with electronic structures in the background. Just this little tid bit had made me happy to hear.
The album's sound is excessively lenient when compared to his more known works as well as his long lasting collaboration of Fenn O'Berg with Christian Fennesz and Peter Rehberg (Interestingly these names appear in the "danke" section of the album booklet). It has a raw and naïve sound where he also does the vocals and gets support from the contemporary Jazz talents like cornetist Rob Mazurek and cellist Fred Lonbergi-Holm.
If you are expecting a classic O'Rourke album, this is surely not it. It's nowhere near it. This is just him expressing himself in a different way even though the lyrics are showing off his standard philosophy. I just hope that he starts leaving Japan again and ventures into Europe to give some concerts either alone or with Fenn O'Berg.
To buy this record:
@ Ebay (Currently only CDs available)
@ Discogs
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