Spread the Social Love:
Damien Jurado starts a run of headline UK shows from tonight (14th Aug) onwards, in support of his critically-lauded new album Maraqopa (out now on Secretly Canadian). The Seattle-based songwriter will be touring with Megafaun, all kicking off at Brighton's The Haunt tonight, including a show at London Dingwalls on the 20th August and an appearance at Green Man. Full details are as follows.
Watch latest video for the bewitching current single 'Museum Of Flight', documenting Damiens five-week tour of Europe earlier this year. Fixated in a whirlwind of gorgeous landscapes and magnificent buildings, director Tyler Kalberg managed to capture the sincerest of moments:
Watch a fantastic documentary about the making of Maraqopa along with live performances from the record here.
Welcome to Maraqopa, population 2. Damien Jurado's newest collaboration with producer Richard Swift drops us into a brutal and benevolent landscape. The bold strokes and new turns the pair made with 2010's Saint Bartlett are taken even further. He throws open the gate on his oft insular dirges and allows them do some real wilding out in the canyon. In Maraqopa, the vistas are miles-wide; the action is more dynamic; the close-ups extreme and sweaty and snarling. The strummed desert blues that begins 'Nothing is the News' quickly bursts open into an Eddie Hazel-worthy supernova-cum-blackhole shred session, all of it swirling in tinny-psych and Echoplex'd howls. We've never heard anything like this from Jurado.
Fifteen years into his remarkable career, and he continues to blossom. Jurado and Swift establish themselves not only as inventive, trusting collaborators, but as one another's spirit animals in American outsider songcraft lone wolves in black sheep's clothing. Swift is the Ennio Morricone to Jurado's Sergio Leone.
At Swift's National Freedom studios, the live-to-tape ethos allowed these songs to expand and retract like a great beast's breath. Every in-the-moment bell and whistle here is hung with a natural, casual care. And from this, each song offers up its own unique gift: the creepy and enchanting children's choir that echoes each line of Jurado's lament for innocence lost on 'Life Away From The Garden'; the breezy bossa nova that begins 'This Time Next Year' and rises as effortless as a smoke cloud into high-noon showdown pop; 'Reel to Reel''s wobbly, Spector-symphony and its meta themes; the wonderful falsetto vocal work Jurado pulls from himself on 'Museum Of Flight'.
With each visit to National Freedom, Jurado is exploring, taking risks. He's not only freeing his songs. The gate is opened wide to allow us all into his once-isolated musical universe. One gets the sense he's just now hitting his stride.
Buy Mariqopa here.
Related Links:
- 08/14/12 Brighton, UK The Blind Tiger w/ Megafaun
- 08/15/12 Leeds, UK Brudenell Social Club w/ Megafaun
- 08/16/12 Glasgow, UK The Arches w/ Megafaun
- 08/17/12 Glanusk Park, Wales, UK Green Man Festival
- 08/17/12 Newcastle, UK The Cluny w/ Megafaun
- 08/18/12 Liverpool, UK The Leaf w/ Megafun
- 08/19/12 Powys, Wales, UK Green Man Festival
- 08/20/12 London, UK Dingwalls w/ Megafaun
Watch latest video for the bewitching current single 'Museum Of Flight', documenting Damiens five-week tour of Europe earlier this year. Fixated in a whirlwind of gorgeous landscapes and magnificent buildings, director Tyler Kalberg managed to capture the sincerest of moments:
Watch a fantastic documentary about the making of Maraqopa along with live performances from the record here.
Welcome to Maraqopa, population 2. Damien Jurado's newest collaboration with producer Richard Swift drops us into a brutal and benevolent landscape. The bold strokes and new turns the pair made with 2010's Saint Bartlett are taken even further. He throws open the gate on his oft insular dirges and allows them do some real wilding out in the canyon. In Maraqopa, the vistas are miles-wide; the action is more dynamic; the close-ups extreme and sweaty and snarling. The strummed desert blues that begins 'Nothing is the News' quickly bursts open into an Eddie Hazel-worthy supernova-cum-blackhole shred session, all of it swirling in tinny-psych and Echoplex'd howls. We've never heard anything like this from Jurado.
Fifteen years into his remarkable career, and he continues to blossom. Jurado and Swift establish themselves not only as inventive, trusting collaborators, but as one another's spirit animals in American outsider songcraft lone wolves in black sheep's clothing. Swift is the Ennio Morricone to Jurado's Sergio Leone.
At Swift's National Freedom studios, the live-to-tape ethos allowed these songs to expand and retract like a great beast's breath. Every in-the-moment bell and whistle here is hung with a natural, casual care. And from this, each song offers up its own unique gift: the creepy and enchanting children's choir that echoes each line of Jurado's lament for innocence lost on 'Life Away From The Garden'; the breezy bossa nova that begins 'This Time Next Year' and rises as effortless as a smoke cloud into high-noon showdown pop; 'Reel to Reel''s wobbly, Spector-symphony and its meta themes; the wonderful falsetto vocal work Jurado pulls from himself on 'Museum Of Flight'.
With each visit to National Freedom, Jurado is exploring, taking risks. He's not only freeing his songs. The gate is opened wide to allow us all into his once-isolated musical universe. One gets the sense he's just now hitting his stride.
Buy Mariqopa here.
Related Links:
![Review & Photos: Tegan & Sara @ Manchester Ritz, 8th June 2013 [Live]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/altthumb.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fhangout.altsounds.com%2Fgeek%2Fgars%2Fimages%2F3%2F9%2F8%2F5%2F7tegan.jpg&h=75&w=75&zc=1&q=70)
![From the Mud Pit: Sweetlife Festival 2013 [Live]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/altthumb.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fhangout.altsounds.com%2Fgeek%2Fgars%2Fimages%2F3%2F1%2F6%2F7%2F8%2F8752299716_67473159c4_b.jpg&h=75&w=75&zc=1&q=70)
![AltSounds Exclusive: Clang Boom Steam - 'Clan' [Free Download]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/altthumb.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fhangout.altsounds.com%2Fgeek%2Fgars%2Fimages%2F1%2F4%2F7%2F2%2F1%2Fclang-boom-steam.jpg&h=75&w=75&zc=1&q=70)
