Joe Chester – She Darks Me

I’m drawn to music which provides sonic novelty or innovation; my favourite album may well be the Avalanches’ Since I Left You because of the audacity and skill involved in patching 3,500 samples into an hour. Joe Chester’s music should appear quite removed from that sonic wizardry and innovation.

With a good critical reputation in Ireland, Chester will be less familiar to an international readership. Think M. Ward’s consistently high craftsmanship and Josh Rouse’s grown up, polished rock.

This is his third album of unshowy, seemingly conventional songs. But there’s the big trick; Chester is a producer of some skill- his magic power is the ability to make intricacy seem effortless; to make sounds that are simultaneously singular yet don’t draw attention to themselves. In short, this is elegant music.

And as is often the case with a decent album, the tracks spring from a crisis of confidence musically and an apparent breakdown of a relationship. The cycle of songs covers loss, betrayal, anger and acceptance. While there is no doubting his sincerity, there’s no huge outpouring of raw emotion be it anger or loss. This is the music of maturity and restraint. He says that he went with the first vocal takes because he preferred their ‘emotional directness’. Luckily those takes were pitch-perfect; listen to the sunny harmonizing on “Anything In The Long Run”.

Josh Rouse and the Avalanches would kill for these hooks. “Foreign Correspondent”, drenched in lovely C&W guitars, just soars and would have slotted in perfectly on Rouse’s last balmy collection. The dramatic “Mercy Killer (Born To Deceive)” could soundtrack a moody Western. A Dylan cover (“Most Of The Time”) almost slips past unnoticed, so strong are the tracks that surround it.

It’s a sonic treat. It’s laden with hooks (but not cheap ones); the sort of music you might not register in the background, but, my god, when you actually listen…

She Darks Me is available for download from Oct 3rd.

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