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***"The third Angels of Light album started innocently enough, with the intention of collecting well-written songs performed by the musicians who played them live for the last few years, with the addition of a few acoustic songs, lightly colored. Instead, every available molecule of the recording tape wound up saturated with sound; I then hacked, cut, and poured sonic fertilizer and salt on the resultant wounds. It finally metastasized into a raging, weeping beast that slowly bit off my head, leaving this album behind as evidence. "Some songs might be construed as sad or poignant, and others "rock" in a weird, skewed way, sometimes subtle, sometimes excessive. I think I've managed to sort through the chaos, letting the songs discover themselves. It's densely orchestrated in some places, sparse in others. The instrumentation is all over the place, initially built up from my acoustic guitar and voice, then incorporating everything from electronic noise, to banjo and mandolin, bass-drums-electric guitar, (open-tuned) lap steel guitar, vibraphones and marimbas, accordion, fiddles, flutes (yes, flutes), the dreaded children's choir, layered vocal harmonies, drones acquired from various organic sources, piano and Fender Rhodes, trumpet and trombone. It is much, much different than the first two Angels albums. A few friends say it's a "breakthrough" or some such thing, but believe me, the thing controlled me, I did not control it. "Where does it fit in the current musical environment? Nowhere, I'm sure. It's a gift for the befuddled, the rancorous, the deluded, the chosen, the failed and the insane, the crazed and misguided, the spiritual seekers, the hungry, the numb, the inveterately passive, the secretly angry over-achievers, the blandly normal, the well-primed consumers, and the mildly, distracted curious." |
