New Music: James Yorkston, Rikard Jäverling, Gabriel Teodros

James Yorkston - The Brussels Rambler (Domino 2006)

James Yorkston – The Year of the Leopard / Domino

If there was ever a perfect time for listening to James Yorkston's third proper full-length, it's right now as I sit in my frostbitten apartment with the lights cut off and the blinds pulled way up to take advantage of the back-alley street light for ambiance (a setting that surely amplifies any pleasant mood). The sky has a just-folded-blanket-like smoothness to it and the moon is appropriately cuddled away inside to shelter even itself from this negative degree weather. Yeah it's Chicago, but it could very well be Yorkston's Edinburgh for that matter, because his warm and inviting new album features tones that are lulling no matter your location. Though at one time a snotty punk rocker, the Fife, Scotland native has fully embraced his Jansch and Drake-derived folk and it has been a beneficial career move. With Talk Talk's Paul Webb and Phill Brown in the producer and engineer chair respectively, Yorkston is able to develop the warm atmospheric setting Kieran Hebden laid down the previous album into a not wholly unlike but well progressed sound. Label-mate Adem is going to be the best contemporary parallel for not only vocal comparisons but innovative backing instrumentation as well. Though where the Hebden-compatriot opts for a driving lovesick pop tune in a romantic crisis, Yorkston sighs, accepts his fate and picks the somber mood through his trusting acoustic. Webb does an absolute gorgeous job with the instrumental accompaniment; the rich backdrop typically features a wonderfully resonant double bass and a clarinet that hums the way my furnace should. At other times, strings and mandolins take their turn weaving autumnal hues around a gentle organ patter or caringly brushed drums. Yorkston's vocals sound mournful yet accepting as he narrates with a clear and colorful (though restrained) singing voice and even on a couple occasions just starts talking in a style almost identical to Arab Strab, but in a much gentler, buzz-on-the-way-down manner. The Year of the Leopard is the kind of album you put on to just lay with someone; the kind of album that translates unspoken emotions of gratitude and warmth to the lady/fellow you are so generously sharing that blanket with on such a cold, placid night.





Rikard Jäverling - Ice Princess (Yesternow 2006)

Rikard Jäverling – Two Times Five Lullaby / Yesternow

I'm really not sure why I took so long to write about Rikard Jäverling debut album Two Times Five Lullaby. I quite liked the simplicity of it's minimal instrumentation and delicate melodies and even ripped the album entirely after my first listen (a rarity these days seeing as I have to delete something to store something), but since it lacked an attention-grabbing "radio friendly" sound, I kept putting it aside for bigger names till it eventually melted into the background of my apartment coincidently the exact same way the music does. Jäverling, a traveling Swedish musician, recently returned home after mucking around Ireland and Glasgow playing folk music for a living and recorded his first LP for the promising UK label Yesternow. The pastoral folk he honed on the British Isles is the focal point of his debut recordings and he accomplishes an inviting ambiance not by recording techniques but with fragile melodies of canonic acoustic, yawning harmonium and touches of other instrumentation like harmonica, banjo, theremin, hand and bottle percussion and organ care of Sagor & Swing's Eric Malmberg. Though anchored in Sweden's genre-jumping belief, including slight influences from traditional Nordic folk, syrupy-sweet pop and even skeletal prog, Jäverling seems to really utilize the urban folk sounds of major though humble cities like Chicago or Edinburgh. Two Times Five Lullaby is an album of sighing, well-alright-then melodies and deceptively simple song structures that translates into the sort of soul-baring honesty recognizable no matter your geographical location.





Gabriel Teodros - Sexcapism (Mass Line 2007)

Gabriel Teodros – No Label EP / Mass Line

I won’t front, I’m hesitating on the Northwest rap scene. It’s not that I’m disliking much of what I hear from the burgeoning hip-hop community, but nothing is really blowing my mind (but truthfully, my recent ear sighing has not been directed toward any particular rap scene, but just the genre in general... this of course is just a personal opinion, but lately I’ve only been able to get excited about rap that’s at least a decade old or by a Wu-Tang alumni... I’m assuming that I’ve just not been pointed in the right direction as of late). The recent movement in Seattle and Portland seems to stem from the Bay Area with its conscious-minded lyrics and smooth funk samples. The biggest difference is in the slowing of tempo and the de-amplifying of vocal emotion… perhaps a little too much time spent at Hempfest (of which I wouldn’t mind attending myself). The most recent of these labels causing a stir is Seattle’s Mass Line (Common Market, Blue Scholars) who is about to unleash their third act, Gabriel Teodros. The Ethiopian-born journeyman fits the Northwest description to a tee: mid-tempo almost-flat flow, socially-conscious rhymes, and simple, head-nodding beats taking cues from chilled-out funk and 70s soul. My peek at his new full-length, Lovework, comes care of the No Label EP featuring three album cuts and an instrumental of the title track. I question putting ‘No Label’ up front as the single since it’s the weakest song of the trio with its generic female vocal loop and uninspired lyrics that describe the inability to characterize the current rap scene. ‘East Africa’ seems more appropriate to the Teodros philosophy; shout out’s to his cultural heritage, political observations and the obvious need for social change and global unity. Again, nothing special, but I can imagine that it’s a bit more heartfelt live than in the recorded rendition. Saving the best for last, ‘Sexcapism,’ which is a bit of a love/lost song, features a much tighter flow and more interesting lyrics over a bubbling organ sample and sleigh bell percussion. This EP certainly shows promise, but for me it’s not quite there. Teodros needs to carve out his own sound within the Northwest market and the scene will be that much better for it.