All Is Falling by James Blackshaw
LABEL: Young God Records
There may be no greater reward for the music listener, or trickier ground for a musician, than to be floating wildly outside every sphere of defined musical genres. What is to be found in these flux areas is music of visual power, individual clarity, and the naive charm of indifferent singularity. All Is Falling, 12-string guitarist and composer James Blackshaw’s 2010 output, is probably one of the more subtle extensions of this idea, and purest.
“It’s obvious that there are influences taken from folk music, contemporary classical, the independent avant-garde, all pieced together with the careful ear of a soundtrack composer.”
Different musical styles bleed around Blackshaw’s compositions seamlessly without ever coloring them to the point of easy identification. It’s obvious that there are influences taken from folk music, contemporary classical, the independent avant-garde, all pieced together with the careful ear of a soundtrack composer. But they all seem to arrive together at an almost arbitrary starting point. Blackshaw doesn’t come across as having originated from any of these camps, simply acquiring them as expanding languages along the way.
Blackshaw’s new music rests well with most of his Young God labelmates, creating powerful work with primarily acoustic folk elements but to rock-level crescendos, a startling dynamic with relatively simple ingredients. Its interplay of orchestration recalls Aidan Baker’s Liminoid/Lifeforms, but much less ambient and more organic, as well as Balmorhea’s exceptional Constellations, but much darker and on a more intimate level. The album sounds like a contemporary chamber orchestra: human, present and engaging on the level of Clint Mansell and Krzysztof Penderecki. Blackshaw has crafted an album of urgent dirges that build to distressing plateaus.
After six songs, the ‘build-to-release’ format starts to wear a bit thin like many post-rock records, but the album is gracefully ushered back to concrete awareness by the last two tracks, both exceptional and strikingly different in character from the rest of All is Falling. Blackshaw closes the record with a taste of electronic minimalism, which contrasts sharply with the acoustic quality of All Is Falling, but nevertheless seems essential and natural.
James Blackshaw has taken some carefully chosen steps forward in his style for this release, and it pays off greatly. While many artists are turning to this more natural style out of exhaustion or desperation, Blackshaw is developing it as he goes and on his own, blind to conventions and limitations.
REVIEWED BY NEIL LEVENS
NEIL’S FAVORITE TRACKS: “Part 2” • “Part 3” • “Part 7”
Neil can be reached at neil@groovemine.com
FREE MP3: “Part 7” (right-click & save)
