The artist-centric New York City may have been spared the brunt of Hurricane Irene's destruction, but the storm did seem to wreak havoc on weekend plans. A definite benefit: musicians cooped up in their digs, pondering the approaching apocalypse, hopefully making some music, right? That was certainly the case with Ryan Daniels AKA Double Entendre, who emailed me this morning about the existence of a new EP, born as Daniels sought shelter from the storm. "The Calm" and "Rain Shields," in particular, may well be Daniels' best work to date. The former is an experiment in repeating a riff until it's omnipresent, and then subtly changing emphasis to break the spell. It reminds me, most pleasantly, of the warmly distorted guitars on Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets. "Rain Shields" ventures into Eno's other territory of sound, that being ambient and/or New Age. The higher-pitched synth meanderings recall J.D. Emmanuel and Michel Genest*, while the industrial haze that muddies up the song's second half is straight from Sean McCann's aural encyclopedia. Two of five songs below; stream the whole thing and purchase it here.
Double Entendre - The Calm by casketcrashvigil
Double Entendre - Rain Shields by casketcrashvigil
*Infinite thanks are due to Chocolate Bobka for pointing me towards these artists and their records
