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Review: Willis Earl Beal - Acousmatic Sorcery [Album]

XL / Hot Charity | "Acousmatic Sorcery isn't a typical collection of songs and it shouldn't be treated as such. It's a compelling on its own term

by Jeremy Daniel, April 18th, 2012 and has been Read 833 times.
Last Edited by: Ffion Davies April 18th, 2012.

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Willis Earl Beal has the sort of backstory capable of leaving most PR reps and would-be artists in search of clever or interesting angles to bank on feeling slightly envious, and it's one that has probably left those who have come across it on any given music site or blog with a slight twinge of skepticism (or puzzlement at the very least).

It's the sort of yarn you would expect to see spun on a Tumblr along with a few hazy Instagram photos tossed in and topped off by a couple of intentionally lo-fi quality tracks streaming on the page: Chicago native serves time in the Army and drifts to Albuquerque, NM with no money, no home and no direction. He takes a job as a motel night porter and begins teaching himself how to make music, recording his songs using any modest means available (my favorite being a cassette based karaoke machine, now that is lo-fi swag).

He leaves CD-R's of his music in random public places, eventually returning to Chicago to live in his grandmother's basement. Back at home and in search of friends, he prints and distributes flyers around town containing his telephone number, mailing address and a self-drawn portrait of himself (he happens to also be a visual artist) offering a song for a phone call or a hand drawn picture for a letter.



For any upstart eager to carve a niche in independent music, this is the sort of press release they would want to have, especially if positioning oneself as an "outsider" or "weirdo" is a means of securing a label co-sign. Beal is an honest-to-god outsider, one who creates art and music not for the usual reasons (in an interview, he claimed that like vomiting, it's something he has to do) and one whose story is completely true. His CD-R's and flyers generated a buzz that caught the attention of XL who signed Beal to a four album deal on their Hot Charity subsidiary.

Watch: Take Me Away

Acousmatic Sorcery (the first of those four albums,) collects some of the songs recorded in NM and serves as a more readily available, proper introduction. The compositions boast skeletal arrangements, consisting of little more than Beal's vocals and a slightly out of tune acoustic guitar occasionally joined by homemade or found percussion and other found objects: they have a lot to offer, especially Beal's vocals which yield a wide range of variety. On 'Monotony' or 'Evening's Kiss' he sounds achingly delicate, his voice barely rising above his hushed strumming. On 'Take Me Away' and 'Cosmic Queries' his vocals are gruff; like a field-hollering bluesman on the former, howling over locomotive thumps that almost render the primal thumping of the Velvet Underground's Maureen Tucker modest.



The latter is built off out of tune clock chimes pinging in the background as Beal delivers oblique lyrics a-la Captain Beefheart. His lyrics often touch on human connections, (his frustration in attempting to make them) particularly ones with women as on 'Ghost Robot,' a slice of goofy, left-field proto-rap that tells the story of a heartbroken man resurrected as a robot.

His emotions completely cave on 'Away My Silent Lover,' unquestionably the most painful, emotionally naked song here. Over rudimentary strumming Beal tackles regret, loneliness, and despair. Whether it's about a lost lover, a dead one, or one that doesn't even exist, it's clearly too much to bare and halfway through he's overcome with emotion, choking back tears as he soldiers on, compelled to purge himself of the sorrow consuming him. It recalls some of Daniel Johnston's more heart breaking moments. Acousmatic Sorcery isn't a typical collection of songs and it shouldn't be treated as such. It's a compelling on its own terms.

Acousmatic Sorcery is out now

Worth listening to...

• Cosmic Queries
• Take Me Away
• Monotony
• Away My Silent Lover