"Rejoicing in the Hands" is lo-fi folk troubadour Devendra Banhart's second album. For those of you not familiar with 23-year-old Banhart's music, the hauntingly, quivering, tense singing over erratic, finger picked guitar evokes an authentic vintage 1930's style as if culled from archives of music recorded several decades earlier. His voice captures the haunted sounds of Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Hank Williams, Billy Holiday, and even more modern old timers such as Tom Brosseau.
On this release co-producer, ex-Swans, Michael Gira sent Banhart to the living room studio of engineer Lynn Bridges. Even this polished production with refined recording equipment couldn’t wash out Devendra's natural vintage sound, which reminds me of a permanent needle running through the grooves of his voice and guitar.
Barnhart’s sound is apparent on the album’s opening track, “This is the Way,” as dancing guitar strings harmonize and entwine with his unique voice and playful lyrics. The second track, “It's A Sight To Behold,” begins with chaotic guitar strumming as though played by a folk Jimi Hendrix. The disarrayed guitar grooves gently cradle his vibrato voice. His lyrics are like a child pulling loose words out of a hat only to mockingly re-assemble them to perfection before your ears. The lines, paradoxical and seemingly spontaneous, are written like the fill-in-the-blanks of Mad-Libs; Banhart sings “It's like finding home / In an old folk song /That you've never ever heard / Still you know every word / And for sure you can sing along.” This track gently flows into the lullaby "The Body Breaks," a beautiful track with a gentle guitar melody as Banhart sings like a fluttering angel, with a vibratic twitch.
The jangled “Tit Smoking In The Temple Of Artesan,” is a beautiful instrumental track with a symphony of ringing nylon strings. Barnhart displays some of his playfulness on the Spanish influenced, "Todo los Dolores." When he makes a mistake seconds into the song, everything crashes to a halt. The recording captures this abrupt silence and Barnhart’s brief laughter as he counts out, “1,2,3,4,” and restarts the song, as serious as can be. The divergent "Autumn's Child," brings us to the end of the album, with haunting, sparse piano against Banhart’s whispered voice.
Banhart knows well that less is more and simple things bring us the greatest fulfillment. The best part about "Rejoicing in the Hands" is it has a sequel. The follow up album Kill Banhart: Volume Two is entitled “Niño Rojo," and will be released in mid-September.
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