Chris Connelly

The Episodes CD

Jnana Records | Durtro Records September 11, 2003

Recorded at a private campsite by Lake Wandawega, near Elkhorn, Wisconsin & 4Dueces
Produced by Ben Vida
Engineered by Graeme Gibson

If Chris Connelly is a familiar name to some of you out there, it's likely to be because of his involvement with bands like Ministry, Revolting Cocks and Pigface. The Episodes is an entirely different affair, an album of experimentally-minded songcraft and jazzy instrumentation that brings to mind the dazzling fusions of the Thrill Jockey crowd. That might have a thing or two to do with the presence of Town & Country's Ben Vida, who not only contributes as a musician but mans the desk on production duties too. Fellow Chicago scene luminary Tim Kinsella (of Joan Of Arc) is also in tow, alongside members of US Maple and Califone. That's quite a troupe of musicians, and you can certainly hear them in full effect on the album, with Connelly taking on enormously ambitious, extended songs that draw together sounds from the bleaker end of the folk spectrum and more esoteric elements. 'Every Ghost Has An Orchestra' has a kind of aloof romanticism to its arrangement, with dirging guitars and wild, untamed violins screeching in the background. It's the embodiment of Connelly's strengths as a writer and performer, bolstered by a gloomy, windswept atmosphere cast over the recording

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