Hot
off the heels of his debut album ‘Sharp Teeth’, David
Karsten Daniels is back with ‘Fear of Flying’, a self-recorded
11 track album of Western-influenced indie folk which takes the
listener on a fictitious journey across the arid deserts of the
American heartlands. Featuring the support of the Chapel Hill
based ‘Bu Hanan Collective’ which he co-founded, Daniels
creates a charming fusion of classic Americana and contemporary
indie folk which is part Damien Rice, part Clapton and part Fahey
but with Daniels, now distinctive, stamp all over it. Buoyed by
a bustling influx of instrumentation ranging from crickets, mellotron
and sax to destroyed and distorted drums and choirs of nasally
oboes, the tracks on ‘Fear of Flying’ are as varied
as they are animated.
From
the slow and lingering ballad-esque folk of the haunting ‘Wheelchairs’
and the charming ‘In My Child Mind You Were A Lion’
to the smoldering rock infused ragtime folk of ‘Martha Ann’
there is a tangible sense of darkness lingering over much of the
album, mainly due to the nylon strung guitar Daniels plays throughout.
The guitar strings are plucked with an eerie and high fidelity
resonance whilst Daniel’s unique vocals move swiftly and
effortlessly from low-end murmurs to high-end wails. His vocals
are fraught with emotion and are highly distinctive as well as
being produced so that they take precedent over the instrumental
backdrop. Female and/or harmonised backing vocals frequent many
of the tracks to add an illusion of fleshed-out grandeur as well
as creating a refreshing contrast in vocal styles.
Variation
within a theme is Daniels forte. Take ‘Falling Down’
for example which borrows stylistic cues from an upbeat Porcupine
Tree to carve out a contemporary slice of classic rock with a
vibrant 60’s brit-pop twist that bounces progressively along
a linear conduit until vocals and instrumentals intensify in parallel
before dropping into an excellently executed classic rock outro.
Similar to the output of Ashtray Navigations, ‘A New Garment’
breaks up proceedings with an out-of-focus piece of instrumental
drone that drifts listlessly across a spacious expanse before
Daniels vocals suddenly materialise on the adjoining ‘Everytime
a Baby is Born’.
With
‘Fear of Flying’ Daniels has created a classy, touching
and emotive affair that stirs the heart but refrains from taking
itself too seriously. Instead the influx of pop, alt.folk and
classic rock influences has led to a vibrant, camp-fire aesthetic
where the melancholy and the upbeat successfully coalesce into
a slightly left of field carnival-esque noir. At his best, Daniels
literally stops time with his skeletal formula of evocative vocals
and eerily plucked strings. (RM)
For
fans of: Ryan Adams, Kings of Convenience, early Damien Rice
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