Tag: Van Dyke Parks

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Camilla Dávilla Shares Mesmerizing “Old Shoe”

Camille Dávilla is an American born producer, multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter, who currently split her time between the UK, Norway and Spain, making her a truly international artist. With the release of her first two albums through Norwegian label Goodbye Records, Dávilla quickly established an eclectic sound and approach inspired by the likes of David Bowie, Syd Barrett, Robyn Hitchcock, Harry Nilsson, Dibidim, Gaby Moreno, Cate Le Bon, C Duncan and Declan McKenna that frequently sees her pairing colorful, trippy whimsy with melancholic beauty and striking songwriting.

Dávilla’s third album, The Local Orchestra can trace its origins back several years ago: She was writing songs furiously with arrangements in mind and happened upon an inspiring and uplifting encounter with longtime David Bowie producer and collaborator Tony Visconti, who said to her, “Why don’t you just try and write all your own arrangements. I’m sure you can do it.”

She began an intensive self-education on arranging. Halfway through and feeling a little overwhelmed, Dávilla reached out to another musical and arranging hero Van Dyke Parks, who rapturously praised her previous album. Before listening to her arrangements, he asked to her a few of the tunes she had been writing, and took a particular liking to one, asking if he could write an arrangement. As most of her childhood soundtrack had been written by Parks, her answer was an obvious — and enthusiastic — yes, and a lunch in Los Angeles saw the pair making plans.

Several months later, Parks sent his arrangement to Dávilla, who at the time was residing in the UK, and she began working with the arrangement with other musicians. By 2020, Dávilla sent the arrangement to Jonathan Baker to conduct and record a string quartet. It was then sent to Norway, where composer and musician Stein Urheim added guitars and percussion and oversaw assembly and mixing with Anders Bjelland.

Over the next few years, confusion followed. Dávilla endured much turbulence: A pandemic lockdown-induced drinking binge led to sobriety — and a relocation from the UK to Spain. But through all of that, she continued her writing and arrangement work, and by last year, Dávilla had written nearly three albums of material; however, this proved daunting when she was trying to assemble what would become her third album.

Dibbidm’s, Grandama‘s and Klanghaus‘ Jeron Gundersen helped her wade through the massive amount of material and cherry-picked songs that should be recorded. They decided that the recording sessions should take place in Norway — in particular, the home studio of acclaimed producer HP Gundersen and his spouse, handball player Cecile Leganger. Coincidentally, Leganger had also bene studying piano and theremin and contributed to the sessions. Several other songs were recorded at Jonas Nielsen’s home in Bergen, Norway, alongside vocal dubs in Jostein Gundersen‘s studio.

The album was mixed in Gundersen’s Panera Studio in Asturias, Spain and mastered by Eric James at North Norfolk, UK-based Philosophers Barn Mastering.

The Local Orchestra‘s latest single “Old Shoe” is a gorgeous and meditative bit of psych folk built around an armament of strummed acoustic guitar, twinkling keys, ethereal backing vocals serving as a lush and mesmerizing bed for Dávilla’s captivating vocal, which expresses wizened regret, remorse and pride within a turn of a phrase.

“Imagine 20 years after Dorothy has found Oz and she’s doing a clear out of her closet, and is about to those ruby red slippers in the bin,” Dávilla says. “If they could walk, what would they say?”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Although the rising Sacramento-based trio Best Move — Kris Anaya, Joseph Davancens and Fernando Olivia — formed in 2019, the band can trace some of its origins over the better part of the past decade: the band’s primary songwriters Anaya and Davancens have played a variety of different music under various banners.

Early on, Kris Anaya developed a reputation for his penchant for crafting wry, offbeat, guitar-based folk, and for following his muse down whatever sonic path it might take him. Davancens earned graduate degrees in avant garde composition and jazz double bass. Interestingly, Best Move was born from Anaya and Davancens’ desire to return to their natural inclinations for organic instrumentation and earnest songwriting, with the project drawing from the work of Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson and film and TV scores — in particular, the films of Michel Gondry, Sofia Coppola and Wes Anderson. The end result is a sound that Anaya calls a “thank you to the past” while being decidedly modern.

Clocking in at a little over 4.30, the slow-burning “Forgotten Bloom,” Best Move’s debut single possesses a quirky, cinematic soundtrack vibe while drawing from 60s and 70s AM Radio rock, thanks to a lush arrangement of strummed guitar, twinkling Rhodes, atmospheric synths, shimmering bursts of pedal steel, a steady backbeat and razor sharp hooks. While sonically bearing a subtle resemblance to Young Narrator in the Breakers-era Pavo Pavo, “Forgotten Bloom” manages to be carefully sculpted yet rooted in wry yet lived-in lyricism and songwriting.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Singer/songwriter and guitarist Laura Weinbach is the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles-born daughter of a horror filmmaker and the sister of a cult comedian. As a child Weinbach grew up in a household and community that proudly embraced eccentricity: her next door neighbors were circus contortionists with emus and fang-toothed monkeys as pets — and some of her favorite childhood activities included snail hunting and spying on celebrity neighbors like Slash, Ice-T and Mark Linn-Baker, the guy who played Larry on Perfect Strangers. Unsurprisingly, Weinbach’s upbringing manages to be present throughout her work in Foxtails Brigade — from the lyrical imagery, to the hand-drawn artwork and the sophomoric Insstagram cartoons she posts.

Since their formation, the project has released three full-length albums — 2011’s full-length debut The Bread and the Bait, released through Antenna Farm Records; 2012’s sophomore effort Time Is Passed, released through DIY Records; and 2016’s self-titled album released through OIM Records. Their previously released material was centered by hazy chamber folk melodies and spectral strings with songs reaching inward – but interestingly, Foxtails Brigade’s Jeff Saltzman-produced third album found the Bay Area-based act completely reinventing their sound. The material on that album featured peculiar percussion and synths paired with Weinbach’s guitar work with the band’s sound exploding outward in all directions. Additionally, the band focuses on crafting material with a directness and clarity without sacrificing the intricacy of their previously released work.

Foxtails Brigade support the release of their third album with touring across the Pacific Northwest, Southern California, the Midwest and South, as well as a tours opening for Emily Jane White across the East Coast, France and the rest of the European Union. Live, the Bay Area-based act’s live show is a meshing of junkyard beats, warped orchestral sonics, Weinbach’s gorgeous vocals and classically trained guitar work paired with a rotating cast of collaborators, who have played with Bright Eyes, Van Dyke Parks and John Cale.

According the band’s website, they’re currently working on their fourth album but in the meantime, Foxtails Brigade released a split 7 inch single with the Colorado-based act Kramies. The Bay Area-based act’s contribution to that split 7 inch is the contemplative “On The Other Side.” Centered around a shimmering and atmospheric arrangement of looping, classically-inspired guitar, twinkling keys and Weinbach’s gorgeous vocals, the song may be the most straightforward folk song they’ve released in some time — but while evoking the wintry chill of a Northeastern winter night.