Ned Collette's debut solo LP came out way back in 2006, but it just got its first vinyl edition earlier this year via the fine folks at Feeding Tube / Sophomore Lounge. However you hear it, Jokes and Trials is a splendid affair, a singer-songwriter album that transcends singer-songwriter-ism, if you catch my meaning. The fingerpicked guitar and hushed vocals are in place (a little Nick Drake here, a little Leonard Cohen there), but Collette adds lyrics that make you sit up and pay attention, backed by arrangements that are spare but full of unusual twists and turns. It's an album that gets more impressive the more you spin it.
Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with Feeding Tube Records and their modern day ESP-Disk like eclecticism, and prodigious output. It’ll probably take us nerds a few decades to sort it all out once the dust has settled. The focus of today’s dispatch is their recent release (done in collaboration with It Records) of Ned Collette’s latest Old Chestnut. It’s a sprawling double LP chock full of autumnal folk moves of both the psychedelic and prog variety. An album that conjures up a dark and otherworldly vibe, you can almost imagine the ghosts of 1960’s era Leonard Cohen, a water treading Bill Fay, and a not yet completely gone Syd Barrett as the albums looming spirit guides. The hat trick that this Australian ex-pat pulls off best is synthesizing all of these influences into something both new, and simultaneously classic sounding. From Maria Torres’ otherworldly cover art, to the oblique yet oddly touching lyrics along with the albums’ deceptively spare acoustic textures, it all ties together beautifully to draw you deep into Collette’s gossamer musical web. Highly recommended for all the inward looking astral travelers among us.
Ned Collette - Ground Brewery, Red Hook, New York, August 19, 2024
Did I just send you over to Aquarium Drunkard to check out a ton of recommended records from 2024? Yes I did. Am I now recommending another record from 2024 that somehow was not included on the AD list? Yes I am. But hey — Ned Collette's Our Other History is one of my favorite LPs of the last 12 months. The Australian-born/Berlin-based singer-songwriter has a knack for circular, Leonard Cohen-esque melodies, slightly surreal imagery and narratives that are funny, haunting and sad, often all at once. The tune "Athens" is the one I keep coming back to, a beautiful and dusky shaggy dog story that speaks to the wonder, weirdness and absurdity of music-making better than anything I can think of. That song is inspired.
Our Other History is bolstered by sensitive arrangements, with Aussie undergrounders Jim White, Mick Turner (two of the Dirty Three), Chris Abrahams (Necks), Joe Talia (Oren Ambarchi, Jim O'Rourke), Leah Senior and Elizabeth Fuchsia all adding their skills to the mix. Will Oldham even wrote the liner notes, saying that this "is one of those increasingly rare beasts: a full-length record to experience and behold and live in for a while as a whole thing." What more do you need?!
Well, maybe after you get into Our Other History, you need to check out a stellar Kliked / NYC Taper recording of a recent Collette gig in Red Hook, during Raven Sings The Blues' Deep In The Valley fest (which always looks like an amazing time). Accompanied by Fuchsia on violin, Ned sounds fantastic as he serenades the upstate congnoscenti.
Ned Collette — Our Other History (Sophomore Lounge)
Back in 2018, Ned Collette released an astonishing double album called Old Chestnut. Across the album’s four sides, Collette laid out a mesmerizing patchwork of folk, prog and jazz that felt intimate yet expansive. On his new album, Our Other History, Collette has invited a host of luminaries to color in his compositions — including Jim White and Mick Turner of Dirty Three on drums and electric guitar; Leah Senior on backing vocals; and Chris Abrahams of The Necks on piano — while the songs themselves feel more traditional in flavor, rooted in folk, blues and country influences.
The heart of most Ned Collette songs is his robust finger-picked nylon-string guitar playing, and his nasal, conversational vocal delivery. On the opening title track, limpid cascades of synthesizer connect a throughline from Old Chestnut, while each of the guest players takes a turn to shine. Senior’s airy vocals and Turner’s subtle guitar work flesh out the song so effectively that the eight-minute run-time flies by before gently closing with an elegant fade-out. This tendency towards fading out several of the songs on the track list gives the impression of listening in to a room full of excellent musicians who are unselfconsciously feeling their way through the performances. On “Little Hans,” however, the song is cruelly faded out just as it threatens to boil over into a sizzling jam session.
Given the caliber of players on this album, each take of the songs no doubt yielded unrepeatable magic, so it must have been hard to settle on the versions that would not only work best as individual songs, but also play off each other as a collection. For this reason, it seems like either the players were being polite and restrained in their contributions, or takes were selected that have the same subdued, easy-flowing grace.
“Bridges of Sunlight” and closer “Blue Rooms” seem to take up the same cosmic, incandescent thread introduced on “Our Other History,” while “Athens,” “Endtimes Boogie” and “Shot Through” take on more familiar, grounded idioms that are as well-worn as a beloved piece of furniture. Then, to lend an authentic “album” feel, Collette includes guitar instrumental “Friendly Fucker” and a spoken-word piece called “The Kitchen Tunnel.”
Collette toured with some of the line-up featured on Our Other History back early in 2023, and it’s only now we’re hearing the fruits of the recording sessions. It’s incredibly exciting to witness the product of these collaborations, but also tantalizing to imagine where the sessions may have ventured given freer rein.
Ned Collette/James Rushford/Joe Talia, 'Afternoon-Dusk' LP (Feeding Tube Records)
Wednesday, December 29, 2021, 7:32pm (full listen)
I absolutely love this album, which features a few musicians (JR and JT - I don't know much if anything about NC aside from them all being - I think - Australian) who are usually more likely to be found on Oren Ambarchi's Black Truffle label than FTR, which usually trades in excellent slabs of rawer, more psychedelic and primal sounding music, to make a rather sweeping generalization. The music here is more refined and uncategorizable (except for in terms of the artists' own music) than that, and despite the fact that it really covers a lot of stylistic territories and moods - which can at times be off-putting to me - this album somehow benefits from that fact. There are guitar-led sections that kind of remind me of a very chill Gastr del Sol kind of vibe, and other straight weird noise moments, all subtly shifting from one section to the next, and it's all really well-recorded and mixed; great stuff, and comes in a thick plastic outer sleeve housing a beautiful cover with raised glossy lettering against a lovely textured matte background.
Ned Collette / James Rushford / Joe Talia - Afternoon—Dusk
Bandcamp Monday! I’ve been returning to this one regularly over the past few months — a meditative collage of music and field recordings that unfurls into something beautiful and transportive. Afternoon—Dusk doesn’t really fit into any set genre ... Micro-ambient? Found sound improv? It’s different, but it kind of puts me in the same mood as Eno’s On Land; a misty, mysterious vibe, a listening experience that reveals more and more detail with deeper listening. A wonderful record ...
And hey, while we’re here, take note that Bandcamp is once again waiving its fees this Friday, May 1, meaning that artists/labels get all the cash you spend for 24 hours. Mayday, Mayday!
