DEVENDRA BANHART
Oh Me Oh My... The Way The Day Goes By The Sun is Setting Dogs are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit (Young God)
Reviewed by Alan Wright

---

I'd never heard of this NYC based singer-songwriter until I was sent a promo of his debut CD. It sat in a pile of other promo CDs for a couple of weeks until I finally decided to throw it on. Modern folk isn't usually my cup o' tea, but this is really cool. Just Devendra and his guitar - occasionally both acoustic and overdubbed electric - this reminds me a lot of really early Marc Bolan. He has a similar wavering, quirky, high falsetto. Davandra says he's influenced by German avant-garde artists Can, and lyrically you can certainly hear that. Some of his songs are really short, like 39 seconds and a minute or so, while others are more fleshed-out three to four minute tunes. They have whimsical melodies and really bizarre lyrics. This is actually pretty damn cool, and I can also hear the influence of Syd Barrett, Nick Drake and other early '70s psychedelic-folkies.

© 2003 - Alan Wright