In Podcast #19 Captain Uli and the Pots-dawg delve into somewhat newish (still playing the catch up game) Revolver Exclusives: Pylon, Shrinebuilder, Yoga, A Hawk & A Hacksaw, Damon & Naomi, Boxcutter, Bricolage, Witch Hunt, James Blackshaw, Buffalo Stance, Anathallo, and Blank Dogs. You can stream or download an AAC file of this podcast and all other Revolver podcasts at the Revolver pod-page: http://www.midheaven.com/audio/podcast/
It also appears in the free downloads page on the newly improved Midheaven Mailorder site.
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A nice 7.5 Pitchfork review for Damon & Naomi's latest release, a collection of their Sub Pop Years....
"....Admittedly, that decade resulted in a mere three studio albums, but Damon & Naomi's relatively limited output makes them a good candidate for a concise career overview compilation, which The Sub Pop Years welcomingly provides. Divided more or less evenly between The Wondrous World of Damon & Naomi, Playback Singers, and Damon & Naomi With Ghost, while adding material from a 2002 tour document, The Sub Pop Years likely won't spark any epiphanies, but it does help coalesce a career that often, by design or not, threatened to float off into the ether and disappear...."
Read full review HERE.
Killer photo pilfered from Damon & Naomi's website of Robert Wyatt sporting a More Sad Hits vinyl reissue.
The Pitchfork camp just reviewed Damon & Naomi's album from last year... but hey, it's all relevant. D&N are currently touring Europe and the gloriously repackaged & remastered reissue of More Sad Hits will streets on July 15th.
Damon & Naomi
Within These Walls
[20/20/20; 2007]
Rating: 6.1
Original review
500-- Damon Since 1992-- when they were best known as the rhythm section for the much-loved GalaxieKrukowski and Naomi Yang have occupied the kind of niche it's hard to imagine many new indie bands falling into: They make modest, sleepy, intimate folk records, one every few years, around tours and collaborations and running a small label and small press. They've found a pleasant nook and they keep to it, commanding just enough respect and attention to remain comfortably unbothered. Within These Walls-- reviewed here belatedly, and with apologies-- is the latest missive from that nook, and it's a bit difficult to wrap one's head around: It's the best-sounding Damon & Naomi release in a while, but it's also, somehow, less engaging than a lot of the duo's back catalog, a string of records that weren't hugely bothered with "engagement" in the first place.
The shift in sound is both gorgeous and timely. The current fashion in indie folk music, after all, is for the freak-- something dark, mysterious, and shot through with psychedelics, as if made by hairy, acid-damaged people in forests at night. It's a treat to hear these two shoot off in the opposite direction: Where previous records from them have been cozy to the point of small-room claustrophobia, this one is positively outdoorsy. The horns that murmur through "On the Aventine" conjure up open sky, either sun-filled or pleasantly gray; the production sparkles breezily, and makes you want to throw open your windows, take a short stroll. As background music, it's unimpeachably beautiful, warm and understated. There's a realism, space, and depth of field to the sound that's a very welcome respite from the compressed, blaring way most things are produced these days; it suits the band perfectly.
The album is at its best when that sound combines with the work of longtime D&N collaborator MichioKurihara, of the (more interesting) Japanese psych/folk group Ghost: His guitar leads, solos, and embellishments here are flat-out soaring. It's that fact, unfortunately, that underlines what's so problematic about Within These Walls. When Kurihara's playing, the album veers into terrific instrumental music, with that guitar confidently occupying center stage, holding the reins firmly; but when either Damon or Naomi are singing, things falter. Sometimes it's the lyrics, which read better on paper than they do on speakers; sometimes it's the melodies, which lilt pleasantly but never worm their way very far into one's head. But mostly, I suspect, it's the limitations of those two voices, both of which are smooth, clear, sedate, and close-miced-- tones that work well for fragile bedroom folk, but struggle to command the stage of these wide-open songs, especially when put up against the power of Kurihara's guitar.
This is strange, since so many Damon & Naomi albums have come off the other way: decent albums some of us are more inclined to like because they feature the right personalities, two people in a nook we like to check in on. Within These Walls feels like the opposite: a very good record weighed down by two personalities who can't quite command it-- like seeing television stars look suddenly awkward and meek on a movie screen. Which is a shame, because when you're not paying enough attention to this record to need a commanding center, it sounds absolutely marvelous.
-Nitsuh Abebe, June 25, 2008
Live dates:
06/25 Dublin, IRE @ Whelans (Upstairs)
06/26 Galway, IRE @ Roisin Dubh
06/27 Belfast, IRE @ Black Box
06/29 Toulouse, FR @ Les Siestes Electroniques Festival
06/30 Bordeaux, FR @ CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux (6:00 PM)
07/02 Paris, FR @ La Mecanique Ondulatoire
Damon and Naomi to Tour with Helena Espvall and Masaki Batoh; Tom and Jerry to Hold Camera and Join in on the Fun Should Mood Strike Them
Helena Espvall and Masaki Batoh (Ghost) are set to release their debut, self-titled collaboration July 22 on Drag City. Featuring "6- and 12-string guitar, banjo, cello, hurdy-gurdy, harp, contra bass, chappa Tibetan bells, Kin (Buddist metallic bowl), timpani, bass marimba, vibraphone, thunder sheet," and more, you'd be right in assuming this doesn't sound like Ugly Kid Joe, despite how amazing that band was. (Fun fact: "Everything About You" peaked at #3 in the UK Singles Chart.)
Today, Espvall and Batoh begin a tour with Damon and Naomi, who are touring in support of 2007's Within These Walls (TMT Review). The duos will part ways after their Empty Bottle gig, with Damon and Naomi trudging forth on a short European tour and Espvall and Batoh sleeping on beds made out of the money earned from the tour.
Damon & Naomi and Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh tour:
06.02.08 - Cambridge, MA - TT the Bear's Place
06.13.08 - Portland, ME - Space Gallery
06.14.08 - Brooklyn, NY - Southpaw
06.15.08 - New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
06.16.08 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
06.17.08 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
06.18.08 - Pittsburgh, PA - Garfield Artworks
06.20.08 - Louisville, KY - Terrastock 7
06.21.08 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
Damon & Naomi tour:
06.25.08 - Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's
06.26.08 - Galway, Ireland - Roisin Dubh
06.27.08 - Belfast, Ireland - Black Box
06.28.08 - London, England - TBA
06.29.08 - Toulouse, France - Les Siestes Electroniques Festival
06.30.08 - Bordeaux, France - TBA
Posted by Mango Starr on 06-12-2008
Original post
Life beyond Galaxie 500: The enduring beauty of Damon and Naomi
Over two decades --- first as the rhythm section of Galaxie 500 and then on a series low-key studio albums --- Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang have mastered the art of intimacy.
But on Damon and Naomi’s sixth studio release, “Within These Walls” (Domino), the couple pulls off a neater trick. If any album can be said to sound “quietly bold,” this is it.
The guitarist Michio Kurihara, a full-time member of the Japanese psychedelic band Ghost, has been partnering with the couple for several years, and his playing is more integral to the Damon and Naomi sound than ever. Kurihara’s solo punctuates “Stars Never Fade” with the kind of ferocity rarely heard on the group’s previous albums. And when his guitar curls around Yang’s beautifully deadpan voice on “The Well,” they evoke the plangent interplay of Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson in the iconic folk-rock band Fairport Convention.
The arrangements are also fleshed out by strings and horns, which at their best help the couple’s somewhat plain voices underline the complex emotions in their lyrics. But occasionally the soprano saxophone comes off as a sugary jazz-lite distraction --- surprising, given that the musician in question is the normally reliable Bhob Rainey.
But that quibble aside, “Within These Walls” does a good job of escorting one of rock’s most self-effacing couples out of the shadows and into a more brightly lit space, where their exquisite songs can be more properly appreciated.
Damon & Namoi will end their Within These Walls tour in Japan. They will be joined by Michio Kurihara (electric guitar), Bhob Rainey (soprano sax), and Helena Espvall (cello) .
01/19 Osaka, JPN @ Knave
01/21 Tokyo, Shibuya, JPN @ O-Nest
01/22 Tokyo, Shibuya, JPN @ O-Nest
From the recent issue of Arthur (Dec 2007), "Bull Tongue" rant-column by Byron Coley and Thurston Moore:
Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang have slowly, steadily, stealthily made themselves into one of the most consistently interesting cultural juggernauts on the contemporary scene. As musicians, their work has been carefully progressing for two decades, and their new album, Within These Walls (20/20/20) is thus far, their masterpiece. Recorded with the help of brilliant electric guitarist Michio Kurihara, and arrangements by Bhob Rainey, Within These Walls has the feel of an early '70s lost-folk classic, although it is only the mood and elements of the vocals that hearken back to that time. The session has a true lightness of spirit that makes the album a blast of pure joy. It's a bravura performance, commended to everyone out there with ears. At the same time, D&N's label, 20/20/20 has been involved in issuing some superb stuff-Kurihara's Sunset Notes album and the first in a series of compilations, called International Sad Hits, which allows Damon to promote the blubbering of underground Sinatras in all known languages. The first volume was massive and we look forward to more. Also, extraordinary is the press the pair run, Exact Change. They have issued some amazing books over the years-check out their backlist for a real kick in the teeth-but none have been thoroughly fascinating as Joseph Cornell's Dreams edited by Catherine Corman. The book draws from the journals of the America's premier surrealist, and they are an exquisite addition to his canon. Naomi's design work on this book (and the new CD, too) is particularly striking. Beautiful evocations of dream time in all its states. Congratulations all around.
Boston Globe Review
You have to hear it to believe it
December 4, 2007
Damon And Naomi
Within These Walls (20/20/20)
Original review
Damon and Naomi have certainly made no secret of their love of Tim Buckley, going so far as to name their 2002 live album "Song to the Siren: Live in San Sebastian" after his most famous song. But "Within These Walls," the duo's seventh album, inches ever closer in the direction of the jazz-folk swell and disconnected slowness of the late troubadour. The opening "Lilac Land" is as cold and watery (and forbidding) as a deep lake, sounding as though the instruments are just out of reach of one another but keep trying to make contact. The horns on "The Well," "On the Aventine" and others, meanwhile, take the crisp cool of 1960s Burt Bacharach and turn it upside down, while guitarist Michio Kurihara offers lyrical leads both fragile ("The Well") and aggressive ("Stars Never Fade"). But even though there's a soothing calmness to the sounds themselves, it's hard not to feel that with the exception of "Cruel Queen," the songs hit their marks and simply stay there. On "Within These Walls," what you hear seems to be all there is. [Marc Hirsh]
ESSENTIAL "Cruel Queen"
Damon and Naomi
Within These Walls (20-20-20)
US release date: 25 September 2007
by Dave Heaton
PopMatters Associate Music Editor
Online review
The phrase "headphones album" is overused by critics, almost always to describe music that is loaded with sounds. The inference is that you need headphones to hear all of the instruments, to truly "get" what is going on. Another kind of headphones album, though less often described as such, is an album that rewards patience. Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, Damon & Naomi, make those kinds of albums: slow and un-showy, rarely giving the listener simple, quickly grasped pleasures. Or at least these days they increasingly do. Their debut album, 1992's More Sad Hits, contained more concise, spare versions of their previous band Galaxie 500's swooning, hazy pop. Since then, Damon & Naomi's music has continually broadened in sound and scope. The songs have stretched out, and so has their perspective. The duo's 2000 collaboration with the Japanese group Ghost (With Ghost) cemented on record an international outlook already demonstrated by the duo's world tours. World-traveling has made its mark on their music. On their own label 20/20/20 they have began a series of compilations of music from abroad that they've discovered while traveling (International Sad Hits). Their 2005 album The Earth Is Blue looked towards Brazil and Japan, adding to a lush, sensuous version of their melancholy songwriting
As its title suggests, their sixth studio album Within These Walls looks not abroad but inward. Damon & Naomi themselves have described it as "ballads in a lonely mood". Significantly, though, they continue to follow the path towards musical expansion and collaboration. They layer these sad ballads with elegant arrangements of horns and strings, often arranged by Bhob Rainey of nmperign. And they bring back Ghost guitarist Michio Kurihara. His presence is almost a given nowadays with a Damon & Naomi release, after many live and studio collaborations. But it's no less remarkable. In this album's climate of patient intensity, his electric guitar cuts through the air in a striking, poetic way. The most explicit example is "Stars Never Fade". The song has at first a calming mood, with Yang singing with stars in her eyes: "The world through your eyes looks so elegant." But soon enough she begins to question how true this really can be, whether happiness is also just a game, a ruse, "trick photography". And then Kurihara's guitar rips into the song and lifts it upwards in a beautifully angry way. He does similar, if less dramatic, service to the rest of the album. Similar to how some film critics try to imagine an actor as the true auteur behind a body of film work, it's easy to imagine someone hearing this as a Kurihara album. His guitar is the thread that runs through the entire affair, drawing out the emotions. It's the Greek chorus, observing and commenting on the tragic human affairs acted out by the songs' characters.
In a way the album is marked by restraint. The general tone is gentle and calm, but there's always a sense that something much darker is not far away. In fact the lyrics put the darkness much closer; most of the songs' narrators feel like bleak, total darkness is upon them. But musically the duo never gives in to emulating the absolute dark. Instead the album seems a continual balancing act between the heavy and the light, between deeply sad sounds and more hopeful ones. The album's first song, "Lilac Land", has a moment which musically exemplifies the restraint Damon & Naomi display in their approach. The song begins with Yang singing of inescapable heartbreak. At about the two-and-a-half-minute mark, there's a moment of tense silence, where you're sure everything is about to explode. But the music doesn't explode, it just proceeds, all the more tense for it.
This aura of restraint is one reason Kurihara's electric guitar makes such an impression, by continually poking a knife blade out from the shadows. Yang's voice is especially placid and pretty throughout the album, as she and Krukowski each sing about heartbreak, loneliness, and the realization that the truth is cold and ugly. Their songs' protagonists often seem to just barely be holding their heads above the waves, just staying afloat. In the title track, Yang sings of the temptation of saying goodbye once and for all to this "world too unkind", and the wish for a deus ex machina, or at least a lover who cares: "when I hold my breath beneath the wave…come save me".
For an album that musically emulates a moment of stillness preceding potential utter devastation, it manages a surprising amount of diversity. The strings, horns, and Kurihara's guitar are part of this, as their appearances are carefully arranged to maximize the musical and emotional effect. But Within These Walls also includes enough musical passages that feel absolutely hopeful. The brighter passages lean against the bleakest ones, creating a balance that makes the album stronger. The album's second song, "The Well", is probably the loveliest Damon & Naomi song yet. It's open and airy, with a striking melody that buoys the sense of hope inherent in the lyrics. Krukowski sings high backing vocals that sweetly balance with Yang's voice as she takes the album's recurring water metaphor in an optimistic direction, singing, "wide-open water can set you free." And of course Kurihara's guitar plays a key role in this as well, gliding gracefully. The song shines even brighter because of its appearance between tragedies.
The same happens at the album's end, as another moment of hope is paired with something bitter. "The Turnaround" is a long-distance love song with a sense of starting over: "brushes dipped in fresh white paint / the turnaround / the change of key". The next song, "Cruel Queen", slaps it in the face, though. A distinctively creepy, yet somehow moving, update of the traditional folk ballad "The Trees They Do Grow High" brings the album to a brutal end. Damon & Naomi's version gives the song a fresh strangeness while retaining the feeling that it's an old tale, and that human manipulation of hearts is an ancient game. It caps off the album with the impression that Within These Walls's perspective stretches far beyond the walls of any one room, after all. Heartbreak is universal.
RATING: 7/10 — 6 November 2007 "I Wonder If" & "Oh Sister" amongst empty wine bottles.European tour dates:
11/06 Berlin, DUE @ West Germany
11/09 Udine, IT @ The Zoo
11/10 Zagreb, HRV @ University
11/11 Belgrade, SER @ Student Center
11/13 Torino, IT @ Spazio 211
11/14 Pescara, IT @ Mano
11/15 Bari, IT @ Fortino
11/16 Roma, IT @ Init
11/17 Bologna, IT @ Covo
11/19 Paris, FR @ Fleche D'or
11/22 Aberdeen, UK @ Lemon Tree
11/23 Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
11/25 London, UK @ Scala
Damon & Naomi reveal their future plans to Pitchfork today. Boris / Kurihara / Damon & Naomi Tour Revealed
New Damon & Naomi album out in September
Online article
Boris have collaborated with Ghost's Michio Kurihara (see Rainbow), and so have former Galaxie 500 members Damon & Naomi. And now, all three acts have announced their previously mentioned tour together. The tour begins September 30 with an appearance in Chicago at The Wire's Adventures in Modern Music festival. Kurihara will serve double duty, as he'll be playing with both bands each night.
As for Damon & Naomi, they have a new album coming out September 25 on their own 20/20/20 label, titled Within These Walls. Naturally, it features Kurihara as a guest, in addition to contributions from Helena Espvall (Espers), Bhob Rainey (Nmperign), and Vashti Bunyan collaborators Margaret Wienk and Katt Hernandez.
Damon & Naomi - Within These Walls:
01 Lilac Land
02 The Well
03 On the Aventine
04 Within These Walls
05 Red Flower
06 Defibrillation
07 Stars Never Fade
08 A Silver Thread
09 The Turnaround
10 Cruel Queen
Boris, Kurihara, Damon & Naomi:
09/30 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle (Adventures in Modern Music)
10/02 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
10/03 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/04 Pittsburgh, PA @ Kelly-Strayhorn Theater
10/05 Columbus, OH @ Wexner Center for the Arts
10/06 Milwaukee, WI @ Mad Planet
10/07 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock
10/10 Bellingham, WA @ Nightlight Lounge
10/11 Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
10/14 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
10/15 Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
10/18 San Antonio, TX @ The Ballroom
10/19 Austin, TX @ Scoot's Inn
10/20 Baton Rouge, LA @ The Spanish Moon
10/21 Birmingham, AL @ Bottletree
10/22 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
10/23 Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
10/24 Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle
10/25 Charlottesville, VA @ Satellite Ballroom
10/26 Washington, DC @ Black Cat
10/27 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY @ Bard College
10/28 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
10/29 Boston, MA @ Middle East Downstairs
Michio Kurihara
Sunset Notes
[20/20/20; 2007]
4.5/5
Online Review
Styles: psychedelic rock, indie rock, post rock
Others: Ghost, Boris, Damon & Naomi
Only just past the halfway mark of 2007, it might already be fated to go into the record books as the year of Michio Kurihara. Though a markedly modest fellow, his talent with the guitar has played a crucial role in two major indie releases. First, his "regular" gig as guitarist in Ghost had him floating into netherregions of psychedelic bliss on the group's In Stormy Nights. Second, he more recently collaborated with cult sludge rock heroes Boris on Rainbow, an album that shows that even a doom metal band can soften its posture in the presence of gracefully meandering six-string wizardry. Now adding to the momentum, Kurihara's first solo album, Sunset Notes, is being released on Damon & Naomi's 20/20/20 label.
Granted, this stateside release follows two years after its initial appearance overseas, but this is music for which the "timeless" label is entirely appropriate. For those of us who have admired from afar Kurihara's fuzzed-out contributions to recordings of bands like Ghost, Damon & Naomi, White Heaven, and The Stars, among others, this is a genuine opportunity to fully bask in his considerable musical prowess. Although tied together thematically by the conceit that each piece is inspired by Kurihara's experience of a specific sunset, what becomes ever more clear with this album is that his talents are inescapably protean in nature, with each track forging a path new and different.
Of course, the one cohesive element is Kurihara's playing, which takes a position of prominence throughout the album; yet aside from one truly solo venture, "Canon in 'C' (C is for Cicada)," this album is a collaborative affair. You Ishihara, Kurihara's co-conspirator from White Heaven and The Stars, appears on several tracks, as does percussionist Ichiro Shibata. There are even two vocal contributions from psych-chanteuse Ai Aso on the aptly named "Wind Waltzes" and "The Wind's Twelve Quarters." Using Aso's gentle voice to the utmost, these are the lightest and airiest moments. In total, what we get is a gorgeous assortment of sonic meditations from a master who rarely takes the spotlight. While Kurihara and his various cohorts may have even more up their collective sleeves for 2007, in the wake of Sunset Notes, it will all be icing on the already lovely cake he's served us.
1. Time to Go
2. Do Deep Sea Fish of Electric Moles?
3. Wind Waltzes
4. Pendulum on a G-String/The Last Cicada
5. Canon in 'C' (C is for Cicada)
6. Twilight Mystery of a Russian Cowboy
7. The Wind's Twelve Quarters
8. The Old Man and the Evening Star
9. A Boat of Courage
by Dave Gurney
In Podcast #19 Captain Uli and the Pots-dawg delve into somewhat newish (still playing the catch up game) Revolver Exclusives: Pylon, Shrinebuilder, Yoga, A Hawk & A Hacksaw, Damon & Naomi, Boxcutter, Bricolage, Witch Hunt, James Blackshaw, Buffalo Stance, Anathallo, and Blank Dogs. You can stream or download an AAC file of this podcast and all other Revolver podcasts at the Revolver pod-page: http://www.midheaven.com/audio/podcast/
