Here is a man at the peak of his form


Artist: John Vanderslice
Album: Pixel Revolt
Label: Barsuk
Tracks: 14
Running Time: 54 minutes





John Vanderslice oozes indie credibility, so much that the likes of Death Cab For Cutie worship at his feet and the indie press idolise him as the best producer in a generation.

They’re mostly right.

Vanderslice understands songs and what it is that makes a good idea a brilliantly crafted song. New Zealand Pines sites almost at the centre of the record and at first listen is an almost monotone drift with a warbling sci-fi outro. But give Vanderslice the time he deserves and the songs rise out and wrap around you and New Zealand Pines is the perfect temptress. Bells blow softly and Vanderslice sounds like a soft-focus version of Jonha Matranga delivering moody lyrics.

Contrast that with the true middle of the album, Radiant With Terror is a heavily strummed adaptation of Robert Lowell’s nuclear paranoia poem Fall 1961. It’s one of the shortest tracks on Pixel Revolt but Vanderslice’s intensity makes it the album’s centrepoint and partner to three other Iraq influenced songs.

It’s sometimes hard to place Vanderslice – most know him through his work with The Mountain Goats and his voice, if you haven’t heard it before, doesn’t seem right. Perception is nine tenths of anticipation and Vanderslice challenges the image created in my mind through his production work – flitting between the high strangle warble of Jeremy Enigk (hear the most obvious example in Plymouth Rock), the above mentioned Matranga and something completely his own.

Here is a man at the peak of his form with little to stop his onward procession.