The South African singer-songwriter and guitarist DAN PATLANSKY releases his new studio album entitled INTROVERTIGO in the UK on May 6.
The album is the follow up to the highly successful “Dear Silence Thieves” with those ready-made radio hits “Backbite” and “Fetch Your Spade.”
To dovetail with this hot release, Dan will be guesting on tour with KING KING. This kicks off May 12 at the Manchester Academy. He will start his own headline tour in June.
INTROVERTIGO is the dizziness and disorientation experienced by an introvert who has spent more than 5 minutes with an extrovert! [Urban Dictionary.]
And perhaps that’s how Dan feels — at least a part of the time. He is a quiet man with his own insecurities. The music industry is a rough place to be and can be quarrelsome. Maybe that’s why Dan feels excited and energized when he spends time alone. (Although it’s no reason to immolate himself! We feel that is rather “over doing” it…)
We listened to the new album —
The first track, “Run” is about fleeing. And a special type of bolting too. It’s about the life-saving run you have to perform when escaping from a wilding mob who possess the single-minded mentality of a horde.
When did we humans (great apes, after all) learn this bullying blood-lust habit of mobbing, flocking and herding? It’s an odd part of our behaviour. A behaviour copied from ungulates. Or was it learned more recently — fired by propaganda, hatred and paranoia in recent centuries?
The mob is a horrible thing. They only feel strong enough when they gather in overwhelming numbers… Then they will chase, reduce and destroy far more gallant heroes than they ever were. And it is not just physical crowd-behavior we are talking about here. The vile mobs do it online too. We see courageous independent people attacked every day on Social Networks, for example.
So this songs harnesses the repressed fight-or-flight energy needed to preserve ones life. Ready for the moment you face a pack of wild-things. This track is emblazoned with electric shocks — laser beams of guitar slice through the air like cracking bull-whips. The voice is consistent, but hectic. And the fall of the drums is like a runaway herd.
Next is the antique sounding “Poor Old John” with its rockabilly twang, Sun Studio confusion and a big beat wang-doodle atmosphere. This is all about the retribution due to Old John when he has been found-out messing with another man’s woman. It’s good old blues. Pure and sulky.
“Sonnava Faith” unpicks the Samaritan’s Purses — those offertory bags — that are passed around to the over-credulous congregation at collection time.
One worries about those fools of faith — you know, those daring souls who place unerring trust into false shepherds and the deceptive miracles that they pretend to perform.
This song has rusty riffs that feel high-strung and nervous. The voice seems whisky smeared — and when the lead-break comes — it rips through like a gash in the side of the canvas at a tent crusade. It enables the real light to enter in. So the flock can make their escape.
The final track — which is surprisingly angry and bruise-cut — is all about Dan’s little-baby daughter Sofia.
She has such magnificent power in the Patlansky household. She exerts total control. Yet she is so tiny. In fact, in a very real sense, she is Queen of the World. She is “Queen Puree.” This Hendrixy number has splotches of green and black that bloom-up like mildew on the surfaces. The ragged guitar suddenly flashes brilliant light — brightness hitting you in the unprepared eyes — like sudden wake-ups in the night. And the voice is ugly-tired and worn-to-the-bone. Yes! We can guess how Dan feels!
Dan uses his life experiences to create some cleverly perceptive effusions here. All songs are vigorously animated and highly effective.
You will find plenty to enjoy at this feast…
Words: @neilmach 2016 ©
Link: https://www.facebook.com/danpatlanskymusic
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