Pelt, Keenan Lawler & Eric Clark - Keyhole II (Eclipse Records, 2003)

A1 Untitled
B1 Untitled
C1 Untitled
D1 Untitled

On May 13, 2001, at the Louisville (KY) Visual Arts Associationís gallery at the Water Tower was host to the Keyhole ensemble. Ensemble members include Eric Clark, a metal worker who made some of the singing bowls and the bronze didgeridus played here, Patrick Best, Mike Gangloff, and Jack Rose, who also play as the trio Pelt, and Keenan Lawler, who is known for electronically modifying the sounds of a cello and National steel guitar. This performance was completely acoustic, however, with the only sonic treatment being the reverb lent by the galleryís high ceiling.
"My memories of this show are of the incredible resonance of the Water Tower gallery, just an amazing alive quality to the air that let each note linger on and on and that filled the quieter moments with breath and inevitability. At one point I remember being lifted, compelled to climb to a balcony over the room and lean out to play a singing bowl. If this drops, I recall thinking as I stirred the heavy brass, we may lose an audience member...but this sound is necessary. Awhile later, a man fell out of his seat and a woman who had been lying on the floor sat up suddenly and cracked her head on a glass table." Mike Gangloff.
Eclipse Records

sold out visit Jack Rose, Pelt, Keenan Lawler & Eclipse Records

try

Pelt, Keenan Lawler & Eric Clark - Keyhole (Eclipse Records, 2000)

A1 Untitled
B1 Untitled

This album is drawn from a pre-dawn session in a stone silo at Mount Saint Francis, a Franciscan friary just north of the Kentucky-Indiana state line. Four of the musicians, Keenan Lawler and Pelt members Patrick Best, Mike Gangloff, and Jack Rose, had played earlier that night at Rudyard Kipling's Café in Louisville. They were joined by Eric Clark, a multi-instrumentalist and metal worker who makes musical instruments, such as singing bowls and bronze didgeridus. Mikal Dimmick used a stereo microphone to capture events as they unfolded in the early morning hours of 12 July 2000. Only acoustic instruments were played and no electronic effects or processing were used.
Eclipse Records

sold out visit Jack Rose, Pelt, Keenan Lawler & Eclipse Records

try

Christina Carter - Bastard Wing (Eclipse Records, 2004)

A1 Mixing Place
A2 In Current Grief
A3 School Song / Desire To Play And Play
B1 Quiet Love
B2 For All Death / Be, Come

Premiers enregistrements solos de Christina Carter au piano, au milieu des années 90, sortis par Eclipse en 2004...

"Christina's first solo piano recordings, begun in a rotting boathouse in the shadow of the Southwest freeway, Houston, 1995; and finished with guitar and vocal overdubs over the course of a half dozen or so years' of long Texas living room nights and a half dozen disintegrating master tapes (lovingly restored & remastered by Rob Vaughn). Inviting, quietly (and not so quietly) turbulent, and thick with inner mystery and self invention."
Tom Carter

sold out visit Eclipse Records

try

Jack Rose - Red Horse, White Mule (Eclipse Records, 2002)

A Red Horse
B1 Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground
B2 White Mule Part 1
B3 White Mule Part 2
B4 Hide The Whiskey (Blues For The Colonel)

Dès l’ouverture, son toucher pur et harmonieux ne tarde pas à se révéler, il est à associer à une force charismatique grâce à laquelle il développe des compositions nuancées dans les émotions qu’elles transmettent, de la mélancolie à la contemplation, suivant en permanence le fil d’une intensité extrême. De Red horse à White mule, Jack Rose mène sa monture habilement, jouant sur la cadence, il la porte du trot au galop pour atteindre des dénouements poignants. Il surprend par ailleurs dans son aptitude à se forger un jeu très personnel, parvenant à insuffler une grande modernité aux morceaux tout en conservant les bases d’un style musical décidément éternel. Dark was the night, cold was the ground de Blind Willie Johnson semble ainsi traverser les ages: repris l’an dernier par Marc Ribot pour The soul of a man, par Ry Cooder il y a quinze ans pour Paris, Texas, ce standard se voit ici interprété par Rose.
Webzine Mille-Feuilles

Jack Rose has been in Pelt for a while now and has been an integral force in their stunning output over the past five-ish years. While the band is best known for sprawling tones, spontaneity and occasional dissonance, Rose has found the time to extract himself from this formula for two releases that demonstrate his remarkable skill as a blues guitarist. In a little more than a year, Rose's acoustic side has issued a CDR and an LP (both in limited quantities) that have been uniformly praised by all those fortunate enough heard them. The CDR, Hung Far Low, Portland, Oregon, first saw the light of day as a largely tour-only release in 2001. It was far too brief, but inspired covers, such as Mississippi John Hurt's "Nobody's Business," demonstrated that Rose possessed a definite talent that had never been expressed in this way with Pelt. Red Horse, White Mule (Eclipse Records, from an edition of 318 copies) plays for thirty-five minutes and is short, like it's predecessor. That said, those minutes have the ability to completely transport the listener, and are destined to be played over and over again.
The material is very emotional and intense. Over every bit of new music I've heard this year, regardless of the source, not one other album contains as much of the performer's soul as this LP. Rose has undeniably poured himself into his writing, as well as this particular performance. No matter what I do to try to explain this record, I know that I'll fall short of Kisan Nagai's massive essay from the back of the LP cover. To quote him, "it can truly be said that Jack Rose has the Blues." While that line reeks of hyperbole and cliché, one listen to the LP will reveal that the statement is completely accurate and wholly appropriate.
"Red Horse" is the album's side-long first track. It is a sixteen-minute epic that is full of quiet authority. It starts off with a few attention-grabbing strums intermixed with a little bit of picking that reveals the song's overall melody. This sort of structure moves along for a minute or so until the tune's drive really begins to take shape. Rose is content to kick the pace into overdrive from time to time within the number, generating an incredibly fast picking pace at several points along the track's duration. From start to finish, the track remains captivating.
The LP's second side starts with "Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground." The track's sound, from the playing style to the material, completely resembles a modern-day impression of all the great delta blues masters. Rose has to be making them all smile. "White Mule part 1" is powered by a distinctly circular rhythm. It rolls and churns for a brief three minutes before segueing into "White Mule part 2". The second portion slows down while retaining a bit of the first's lyrical drive. This trend continues throughout the rest of the track, along with the occasional ebb and flow in guitar speed. The end product is fully mesmerizing. The album closes out with "Hide the Whiskey (Blues for the Colonel)." Nearly dissonant hard picking takes shape and forms a unified and expressive blues riff before falling apart again right as the needle lifts off the vinyl.
Red Horse, White Mule is one of those moments where substance and style meet and harmoniously become one. The acoustic is an uncomplicated instrument that can produce so many different types of sounds. While it is debatable whether or not traditional blues represents a type of music that is more "pure" or "true" than other forms, I think there can be no debate as to the emotional impact that can come from the blues when they are properly played. Jack Rose is a new and important voice within the genre and this LP is simply fantastic.
While on the topic of Jack and other things Pelt, Klang's latest offering in the Klang Archives series is an ultra limited (40 copies) CDR of a Pelt show from Houston in 2001. Jump on over to klang.org or Eclipse Records and try to find a copy if they're still available. As phenomenal as Pelt's double disc Ayahuasca was, this is one of the best Pelt releases in the last few years. Recorded on May 16, 2001, Houston 2001 is thirty-one minutes of Pelt hitting all of the proper notes in stride. The disc consists of three untitled tracks, but each one definitely hits a chord and works. The first two tracks are shorter, each utilizing a different part of Pelt's drone armada. The centerpiece is the discs final track - twenty minutes of layered goodness. Brevity is of no concern when it comes to this disc. Pick it up now while you still have a chance.
Cory Rayburn, Fakejazz

sold out visit Eclipse Records

try