Yusuf Azak
– Go Native (Song, by Toad
Records)
Whilst earlier releases (EPs and 2010’s debut LP, “Turn
On The Long Wire”) were heavily tiered with vocal loops and reversed guitar,
Yusuf Azak’s sound has recently mellowed and become more melodic, brighter and
altogether more accessible, though the music he makes still presses to fill the
aural space. It’s provocative of the ‘70s, with double tracking and lo-fi, yet
lush, layers.
His surreal, nonsensical and fantastical lyrics are
interwoven with intricate finger pickings, beautifully heart wrenching piano (“Swim”)
and the Mellotron on “Immunity or Rescue” adds a churchy tone. The inimitable
vocals – an undeniable signature - are edgily multi-tracked and sound like they
came straight from Twin Peaks’ Black Lodge; the dialogue for “The Man From
Another Place” was spoken and recorded backwards then reversed!
Azak’s passion for strangeness, his acid-folk
leanings and elaborate wall of sound conjure images of a gathering of
Lindisfarne, ELO, Davey Graham and Devendra Banhart, caught in the bubble of a
distant memory.
Willsk
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