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There is a new intersection in music town, where jazz meets rock, dub, world, soundtrack, and
studio manipulation. While the foundations for this intersection may first have been laid down by
Sergio Leone, Miles Davis, and Teo Macero, it has certainly been made into high art (or at least
garage art) by groups such as Pinetop Seven, Gastr del Sol, Town & Country, and Pillow.
Fitting in the ‘no category’ section of your record store, Doug Scharin’s varying lineups as HiM
have produced music from dub to post-rock to ambient jazz and electronic space music. Each
of his prior outings has been both eclectic and a coherent whole.
Scharin’s latest Many In High Places Are Not Well builds upon a very digestible (almost
"pop") world music in the same manner as the Talking Heads (now out-of-print) The
Name of
This Band Is Talking Heads once accomplished by playing original music with so-called world
musicians. Scharin employs Senegalese kora player Abdou M’boup, plus vocalists
Christian Dautresme (singing in French and English) and Iceland’s Kristin Anna Valtysdottir (Múm).
The effect maintained here is off-kilter music wrapped with dreamy vocals and a panoramic vista of
floating thoughts.
Rob Mazurek of Tortoise sits in on “Perspective On A Slow Spin” for some muted trumpet meets
fuzzy guitar at the slow blues while machine effects spin in the background. Scharin has a way of
borrowing style without mimicry. His track “The Way The Trees Are” feels like something from David
Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, with spoken samples and rhythmic
propulsion, yet it sustains itself as a sexy soundtrack.
Scharin continues to fold his varying musical interests into a whole with a natural agreement
of its parts.
~ Mark Corroto
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Track Listing: Elements;Many In High Places; Slow Slow Slow; The Way Of The Trees Are; Perspective From A
Slow Spin; Elope And Secede; Coming Of Age.
Personnel: Josh Berman; Carlo Cenamo; Christian Dautresme; Fred Erskine; Joe Goldring; Dominic Johnson;
Josh Larue; Julie Liu; Rob mazurek; Abdou M’boup; Dave Pavkovic; Adam Pierce; Griffin
Rodriguez; Doug Scharin; Matt Schneider; Amelia Liu Sun Scharin; Kristin Anna Valtysdottir.
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