Nels Cline - Coward / Loose leaf Monk's tea
Nels Cline's latest release on Cryptogramophone, Coward, is an expansive guitar/stringed instrument tour de force of solo musical vision. What it lacks in single minded cohesion it makes up for in schizophrenic breadth, and through the magic of studio technology we get to hear multiple Nels Clines interacting with himself with incredible results.
Coward is less like a continent, or even a discreet country, and more like an archipelago or collection of islands. The natives on each might look the same in physical appearance, but each has a different word for mango in their dialect, their own customs and beliefs, and certainly their own musical approaches. The six track Onan suite is the largest island amongst them, with the most expansive historical literature and the most robust economic activity.
To give you an idea of what kind of diversity we're dealing with here, certain on Coward tracks would be at home on a Pauline Oliveros deep listening excursion while others seem to dance in a Frisellian shadow of ghostly reverb laden Americana.
As you might expect from previous work, Nels Cline is comfortable with a wide variety of timbres, textures, and sounds and uses them all to paint his vivid picture. On the alubm he plays: acoustic & electric guitars, effects, sruti boxes, autoharp/zitherthings, megamouth, koassilator, and the ever elusive quintronics drum buddy.
This is music to commute by, preferably on a train or crowded bus. It's great walking music as well. If I had to describe the album in a single word, an undoubtedly futile exercise on my part, I would say Coward is hypnotic.
I paired Coward with a loose leaf blend of Monk's tea, which is a ceylon black tea blended with vanilla and grenadine. It's a very smooth taste if you don't over steep it. A cup provides just the right amount of mental edge from caffeine as I'd hoped, and the aroma is heavenly. It's delicious hot but also makes some of the tastiest iced tea I've ever had. I think it went remarkably well with Coward although depending on the setting a nice jasmine would have been nice.
For your listening pleasure, posted with the generous permission of Cryptogramophone, I give you:
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