Mark Kozelek with Ben Boye and Jim White (2017) Mark Kozelek with Ben Boye and Jim White 2 (2020), Mark Kozelek with Ben Boye and Jim White
On both Kozelek, Boye & White records, Mark Kozelek does what Mark Kozelek does best: entrancing, meandering, sharp, witty, self-critical, documentary, metaphysical narratives that are as much diary entries into his goings on, personal reflections and encounters as they are works of art (often works of art precisely because they are so diarising).
Keyboardist Ben Boye and drummer Jim White are the titular differentiating factor between these and Sun Kil Moon and Kozelek solo releases. Boye, known to me for his work with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Angel Olsen, as well as Sun Kil Moon, and White, of Dirty Three, Smog, PJ Harvey and many, many others, combine with Kozelek for something that, if generalised, amounts to a lightly-improvised chamber jazz style.
Yet, while the two Kozelek, Boye & White releases may seem apt for comparison, in truth they are very different Kozelek records. The first is instrumentally cluttered and urgent, looser and freer. Kozelek himself actually sings for large portions of the hour-and-a-half runtime, while a lot of the rest of his lyrical tropes rest on repetition in a sort of beat poetry style. Its successor is instrumentally more minimal and repetitive, Kozelek more mumbling, narrative and spoken-word-leaning.
In terms of lyrical content, there isn’t much to choose between them and one’s prior affection for Kozelek almost certainly predetermines one’s enjoyment of his music. Of the two, however, Kozelek, Boye & White 2 is most special. It is entrancing and pretty and improvised with exceptional taste; it succeeds in taking its listener to a place that feels singular and unique. Don’t picture stories being told around a campfire but those being hung onto in isolated woodland cabins, the product of late-night drinking and full of solemn nostalgia, assured friendship.
Neither Kozelek, Boye & White record strays too far from what listeners will have heard on any of his post-Benji works and neither will surprise Kozelek fans. Of the two, however, the secluding and alien narratives and the homely instrumentals make 2 one of Kozelek’s most interesting solo ventures. In recent years, it is easily the most replayable of his spoken-word style records, another stellar work from one of this generation’s most idiosyncratic and consistent performers.
Picks: ‘Blood Test’, ‘August Night’
