{"id":2273,"date":"2011-09-13T10:44:23","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T16:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=2273"},"modified":"2011-09-13T10:44:23","modified_gmt":"2011-09-13T16:44:23","slug":"el-boy-die-the-black-hawk-ladies-tambourins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2011\/09\/13\/el-boy-die-the-black-hawk-ladies-tambourins\/","title":{"rendered":"El Boy Die &#8211; The Black Hawk Ladies &#038; Tambourins"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-2276\" href=\"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/archives\/2273\/el-boy-die-3\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2276\" title=\"El Boy Die\" src=\"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/El-Boy-Die2-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div>At this point in reviewing music, I should learn to be more cautious about buying the hype that promoters and press releases sell to attract listeners, but I\u2019m an eternal optimist. Promises of an album for fans of Devendra Banhart accompanied France-by-way-of-Montreal artist El Boy Die and \u2018his\u2019 debut <em>The Black Hawk Ladies &amp; Tambourins<\/em>.<br \/>\nI get where the person who wrote the one-sheet was coming from, but the material on <em>Black Hawk<\/em> is far less freaky and a little less folk than Banhart\u2019s output.<br \/>\nIn fact, calling it freak-folk is a bit of a misnomer \u2013 the music is dark and psychedelic but it lacks the joyful, anarchic spirit that pervades the music of freak-folkers like Banhart.<br \/>\nLabels aside, <em>Black Hawk\u2026 <\/em>is a well recorded album that creates an ominous atmosphere the hollowed-out toms and chorus of atonal voices on \u201cDead Kings\u201d is spooky as hell and El Boy Die is unrelenting in keeping the listener on edge \u2013 this reaches it apotheosis on \u201cMan Eagle,\u201d which for four minutes is the standout track; that is until the field-recording of a pow-wow closes the song out. It\u2019s not just some \u2018cool\u2019 atmosphere \u2013 it\u2019s cultural misappropriation and a misstep in an otherwise promising record. (Semprini Records, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.semprinirecords.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.semprinirecords.com<\/a>) <strong>Michael Elves<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At this point in reviewing music, I should learn to be more cautious about buying the hype that promoters and press releases sell to attract listeners, but I\u2019m an eternal optimist. Promises of an album for fans of Devendra Banhart accompanied France-by-way-of-Montreal artist El Boy Die and \u2018his\u2019 debut The Black Hawk Ladies &amp; Tambourins. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[259,301],"class_list":["post-2273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-devendra-banhart","tag-el-boy-die"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}