Colin Stetson - Fear of the Unknown and the Blazing Sun
Listening to Colin’s latest album “New History Warfare: Volume 2 - Judges” today I was struck that the man coupled with a suitable creative mind could create the most interesting acoustic (i.e. not programmed) dance music. That thought is only borne out here by his clear ability to use his sax to create a solid rhythm and mesmerising melodic riff. Over it, Laurie Anderson speaks about empathy and otherworldly things, and Shara Worden’s normally soaring voice is no less engaging at it intones its way through the latter half of the track, Stetson’s rhythm clacking and limping like faulty clockwork. Why can’t I stop listening to this?
Shara Worden & Colin Stetson
Live at the Opera House Studio, 6th June 2010
My Brightest Diamond - A Thousand Stars Against A Dark Sky
This track, from the Shark Remixes collection, is up there with everything I love about remixes. It takes little samples from a handful of songs and recontextualises them creating this sweeping, dramatic number that is simultaneously completely new and yet would fit right at home on the album proper.
I think Shara Worden is a stunning vocalist, and a dynamo of a live performer, but I don’t listen to the records very often. I don’t really know why. I think maybe I find them so thrilling and special each time I do listen I don’t want to tarnish that experience by over-listening to them. I could expand on that thought, but it would become a very convoluted and personal discussion that I don’t know if I would have the energy to write coherently. If you know what I mean there, great, if not then…never mind.
