Name: Ape In Pink Marble
Brand: Nonesuch
SKU: 119672967
Price: 17.1 SGD
Availability: InStock

Ape In Pink Marble

Rating

Album: Ape In Pink Marble
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Middle Names	More Info...
2)	Good Time Charlie	More Info...
3)	Jon Lends a Hand	More Info...
4)	Mara	More Info...
5)	Fancy Man	More Info...
6)	Fig in Leather	More Info...
7)	Theme for a Taiwanese Woman in Lime Green	More Info...
8)	Souvenirs	More Info...
9)	Mourner's Dance	More Info...
10)	Saturday Night	More Info...
11)	Linda	More Info...
12)	Lucky	More Info...
13)	Celebration	More Info...

Performer Notes

Audio Mixers: Devendra Banhart; Noah Georgeson.
Recording information: Panoramic House; Seahorse Sound.
Arrangers: Devendra Banhart; Josiah Steinbrick; Noah Georgeson.
Singer/songwriter and visual artist Devendra Banhart emerged in the early 2000s and was soon considered an icon of the freak folk movement. In the years that followed, he expanded and experimented with his sound, perhaps hitting peak meandering with 2007's Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. Still touching on multiple genres, 2013's Mala offered a more cohesive set. With Ape in Pink Marble, Banhart continues to reel in diversions and delivers his most understated album in over a decade. The palette is playful but restrained, with acoustic guitar, synths, mallet percussion, and Mellotron among its tools. Consistently reflective in sound and tone, relative excursions include the synthetic disco strings of "Fig in Leather" and the impression of underwater electronics on "Saturday Night," which features muffled, manipulated drum sounds, synths, and koto. The stringed instrument also shows up on other tracks and contributes to unusual textures that mix electronic and organic sounds that are just slightly out of the ordinary but retain a bedroom-recording feel. (The album was recorded mostly in the songwriter's home.) Another example of such offbeat timbres is the prepared guitar on "Mara." A poppier entry is the goofy "Fancy Man," which was co-written with Noah Georgeson and Josiah Steinbrick, Banhart's co-producers and frequent musicians on Ape in Pink Marble. The song's plunky, percussive tones and sustained atmosphere still fall in line with the rest of the tracks. Meanwhile, album highlight "Theme for a Taiwanese Woman in Lime Green" is a whimsical bossa nova where guitar and light drums are accompanied by spacy synths and lyrics like "There's no one in the world that I love/And that no one is you." The album's overall effect is one of strolling along a seaside path, maybe with a stray dog and a straw hat, in a less-frequented village somewhere far from home, and it's one of Banhart's most satisfying. ~ Marcy Donelson

Professional Reviews

Clash (magazine) - "Abum opener and first single `Middle Names' is Devendra at his simple best, with only light synth flourishes and intermingling acoustic guitars made to complement haunting, warbling vocals."