Articles
Hatchback
Dennis Wilson
Michna Top 10

Albums
Alpha Aesar
The Alps
Anduin
Beaten By Them
Bible & Henry
Bird Show
Bitcrush
The Boats
Boduf Songs
Budd & Wright
Callers
Derek Carr
Matthew Robert Cooper
Cristal
Dreamsploitation
Gore
Hatchback
Inverz
Monika Kruse
Lights Out Asia
Miya Masaoka
Michna
Model 500
Mr Cooper
Near The Parenthesis
Patron and Patron
Procer Veneficus
Raglani
Red Snapper
Max Richter
Roots Manuva
Michael Santos
Sempervirens
Shed
Sleepingdog
Spect. Lore / Underjordiska
Andy Stott
Taub
The Third Man
Uzi & Ari
You May Die / Gifts Enola
Zèbra
Zilverhill

Compilations / Mixes
DJ /Rupture
Diaspora: Cottage Ind. 5
Total 9

EPs
John R Carlson
Intrusion
Keenhouse
Joe Lapaglia
Model 500
Duncan Ó Ceallaigh
Frank Omura
Shigeto
The Sight Below
Steinbrüchel
Van Der Papen
Warez

Uzi & Ari: Headworms
Own Records

Though Uzi & Ari performs as a full band in concert, on record it's decidedly Ben Shepard's show, even if he is helped out by an assortment of musicians on the forty-minute Headworms. It's easy to understand that a full complement of musicians would be needed to re-create the ten rich tapestries comprising the album. The album's distinguished by two things in particular: Shepard's thoroughly engaging songwriting and a baroque sonic smorgasbord where French horn, mandolin, violin, autoharp, and accordion enrich the expected keyboards, bass, guitars, and drums. When a given song isn't momentarily stilled by an introspective piano passage, it's galloping to places unknown, driven by syncopated rhythms that give the songs a frenetic urgency and zest, and more often than not songs build dramatically until they explode in jubilant climaxes.

The template is established immediately in “ Missoula ” with its nervous rhythms, autoharp strums, and glockenspiel tinkles. The material thereafter veers between the breezy acoustic jaunt “Thumbsucker” and the rock'n'rolling “Magpie's Monologue” and Shepard even finds room for a tranquil interlude or two (“Hold Your Horses”). The title song in particular is a standout, a dramatic piano ballad where Shepard's voice soars and that's sonically sweetened by strings and glockenspiel. As the closer “Paper Cuts” shows, even when the volume level is turned down low, there's still the urgency, this time in the form of an incessant tinkle that resounds behind Shepard's restrained vocal until a swinging horn-filled coda takes charge.

If there's one influence that's hard to ignore, it's Radiohead. On a number of songs (e.g., “Ghosts On The Windowsill”), Shepard's singing voice could pass for a slightly more polished Thom Yorke (with perhaps a dash of Rufus Wainwright thrown in too) and the jittery opener “Missoula” doesn't sound radically unlike Radiohead either, especially when the rhythm section marches with such fervent intensity alongside Shepard's vocals. That such an influence is audible doesn't negate the multiple listening pleasures Headworms offers.

October 2008