When it comes to Karl Blau, it’s all about listening.
Based out of Anacortes in Washington State, one finds a real sense of the magnificence of the Pacific Northwest in his work. Equal parts shade and splendour, Blau’s DIY pieces have a quiet sensibility about them that belies a musician gifted as much in the art of listening to noise as he is in making it.
Blau’s latest, Nature’s Got Away, finds the performer pulling in on the stick a little bit. While previous records have featured a meandering exploration of sound, including the soft electronica of 2007’s Dance Positive and the raw experimentalism of 2006’s Beneath Waves, this record is cohesive and tenderly balanced.
As Blau effectively listens his way through the album, something special occurs. Melodies are flawed, guitar and keyboard dissolve together with a tone of deficiency, and his vocals drive in and out of dark tunnels with no headlights. This is music that Karl Blau allows to exist and he lets the arrangements go where they must instead of forcing them into a corner. At times, it almost seems as though the songs get away from him. At other times, Blau is working overtime at taming the beast within.
There is sweet exactness in the flaws, gentleness in the failed experiments, and loveliness in the unsightly paths he takes.
Take “Carry and Rob,” for instance. Piano plunks arbitrarily below a funky basin, filling Blau’s forest floor up with sounds that are simultaneously unpleasant and dazzling. His use of distortion is elegant and abrupt, bursting forward from what appears to be a straightforward grind and changing into a monster mid-phrase.
“Before Telling Dragons” finds Blau reaching a gorgeous zenith. Unfolding simply and good-naturedly, the track is gentle folk at its best. And “Make Love That Lasts” uses rhythmic guitar and the cracks in his vocals to generate a delicately heartbreaking, graceful tune.
“2 Becomes 1” may well be the finest folk rock tune of the year, bouncing with a wonderfully heart-warming gait as Blau’s lower registry and half-spoken vocals channel a touch of Eddie Vedder meshed with Dylan. The awkward guitar accents are the perfect touch over the glowing tune and the solo cuts to the heart.
Nature’s Got Away is a beautiful album. This collection of songs is exquisite, resonating from deep within the forests of the Pacific Northwest with all of the mesmeric splendour that only nature can bring. Karl Blau is a unique talent and this elegant record is as close to flawed perfection as one can get. It is truly wonderful stuff.
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