Media

James Blackshaw: "Cross (Edit)" (MP3)

10:21 p.m. · April 7, 2009 · by Matthew Fiander

Sometimes, in my lazier moments, I think James Blackshaw is giving me the same song over and over again. The steady rainstorm of his 12-string guitar lulls me in so close that I think I've heard it before. And the repetition of notes is so insistent, so hypnotizing, that I lose focus of the track. But then something happens in the song, some new sound emerges from the fog of his guitar play, and absolutely knocks me sideways.

On "Cross," that moment happens when those distant voices drift in over Blackshaw's playing. The long notes seem to sway in the atmosphere of the song, only to be punctuated beautifully by the rounded bursts of other voices, rising and falling out of nowhere. It is, again, a subtle but perfect shift in Blackshaw's pastoral, rolling sound.

Don't just consider how much this track does, how those voices can floor you, in just three minutes. Instead, consider the fact that this is an edit . The original take, from his forthcoming The Glass Bead Game , runs closer to eight minutes. And I don't know what this song can do in the other five minutes, since Blackshaw can apparently make it do anything. But whatever the rest of the song does, it’s bound to have a few more of these gems hidden in there to grab you.

The Glass Bead Game will be out May 26 on Young God . [Stereogum]

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