Holy! - ????? - What a joy this Joy Shapes recording is by Texas-based duo/trio Charalambides. This recording completely blows apart any pre-conceived notion of “genre� as is explodes and implodes all over (& above) the musical stratosphere, here on earth. One review I saw, explains the musical output of Charalambides as “primitive/folk/mystic/improv/psych� - and I guess that I would have to agree with such a listing (although their music is without a doubt from the unclassifiable/impossible genre), but the only additions that could make to such a list, would have to be “transcendental/out-of-body-experimental/psych-oh my god-adelic/ghostly gospel/levitation music�. This is some pretty “outside� music, but to anyone who is familiar with the Kranky records cannon of music, it is nonetheless a complete, fulfilling and beautifully complex joy to listen to. This recording is 5 songs, 75 minutes long and it is the perfect soundtrack for anyone interested in living a more melodically-slow-moving lifestyle as the music contained on Joy Shapes explores the “quietest� aspects and angles of world music, as we know it today. This recording is a series of bed tracks that have been so delicately and precisely over-dubbed that they weave together beautiful textures of loosely (or precisely?) layered layers of acoustic/electric guitar, voice, bells, lap steel guitar, chimes, wind wand, pedal steel guitar and psaltery. The CD’s 4th track, “Natural Light� is a stand out track that fuses wind chimes, quiet guitar swells, strained/restrained female vocals, string pinches &plucks, drones and screeches into a sound fabric that would not at all seem out of place in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey in the scene where they first discover the towering black monolith buried on the moon. Unfortunately nothing much more can be said about this recording, from a lazy reviewer’s perspective, other than search this one out, give it a listen and figure it out for yourself.

By L Pounds
Aug 29, 2004