A friend says "quirky is something you do when you're bored."
If that be the case then John Ringhofer is the most bored man in North America, evidenced by his newest album released under the moniker Half-Handed Cloud, entitled Halos & Lassos. Of course, I don't listen to everything that friend says, and so I'll say that once you listen to this brief 29 minute, 19 song piece of pop oddity, it is better stated that quirky is something you do when you're a one man band, frugally living in a church basement.
And such is the way of the aforementioned Ringhofer, a blissful savant of many instruments, trombonist for Sufjan Stevens, who indeed works in a church basement in exchange for his rent. At first listen he is from the Harry Darger School of art, representing an array of quirks and theological themes worthy of mention if only to say that nothing else sounds quite the same. Sure the Pacific Northwest's own Quasi and Stevens himself are offering something like this, and getting much more acclaim, but Half-Handed Cloud who can claim to bounce more frequently and frenetic than much else on the shelves.
If you can listen to the beautifully minced mess that is Halos & Lassos and can honestly discern its zeitgeist then your ear is better than mine. Or perhaps it isn't. What Ringhofer seems to be doing exceptionally well here, is creating a random bouillabaisse of fun sounds and tight tempo changes that comes enticingly close to madness. His voice wails, he thumps an electronic Omnichord and acoustic, and all the while maintains a certain tension that results in an uplifting canvas, whether your meditation be spiritual or otherwise. |