Joe Sent Me, by Vanessa Daou

Joe Sent Me

by Vanessa Daou

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Full Digital Discography

40

releases

Get all 40 VANESSA DAOU releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Sympathy Bouquet - Single, A Little Bit Of Pain (World and Earth Mixes), Surrender Yourself, Give Myself To You, Are You Satisfied?, Songs For Solace, Sunday Afternoons 2.0 [Mixes], Sunday Afternoons 2.0 [Rudy's Midnight Machine Mix], and 32 more. , and , .

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1.	Manifesto 03:13	info	buy track
2.	Black & White 04:15	info	buy track
3.	Consequences 04:06	info	buy track
4.	Joe Sent Me 03:48	info	buy track
5.	Hurricanes 03:21	info	buy track
6.	Life Force 03:52	info	buy track
7.	True 01:20	info	buy track
8.	The Hook 03:56	info	buy track
9.	Love Lives In The Dark 03:45	info	buy track
10.	Save Yourself 02:18	info	buy track
11.	The Poem 05:14	info	buy track
12.	Once In A While 05:23	info	buy track
13.	Heart Of Wax 04:50	info	buy track
14.	The Hook (Reprise) 03:06	info	buy track

about

On her sixth studio release, the self-produced ‘Joe Sent Me’, Vanessa Daou explorer the nuances of language and poetry, building the sonic structures around vocal collages of poems, phrasings and stream-of-consciousness thoughts that all refer to the compositions of love, both destroyed and renewed. Easily her most musically adventurous effort to date, the album has a rich organic sound that employs live instrumentation including guitar, piano, brush wires, upright bass and brass.

Opening with a menacing scrape of guitars, “Manifesto”, the album’s first track, gives way to a robust, near-hip-hop beat under the support of a rumbling bassline. The temperature of both exhilaration and desire rises right around the time Daou sings, “You’re a sexy gun,” during the very moment a high-hat kicks in. The vocals are buried deep in the mix and give the impression that they were recorded under a suffocating heap of blankets, amplifying the sense of claustrophobia inherent in the song. Meanwhile, the electronicized cabaret-stomp of “Black and White” unfurls in a silver spray of ghostly piano licks and burlesque horns. In addition to being the album’s most accessible track, it also features some of the most inspired lyrics Daou has ever penned.

In many ways, ‘Joe Sent Me’ is like a cumulous cloud personified. The album starts out in full-bodied pillows of rhythm and sound before slowly fading out into a vapour of sonic air. The impression one gets when listening from start to finish is rather lovely. Daou’s otherworldly headspace is so compellingly dreamlike, it’s inescapable. Yet we never lose sight of the emotions on display. “Consequences”, an exercise in decadence and groove, draws the listener in with a tale of a possible rendezvous, which may or may never happen. The vocals, wafting like kettle-steam, coil like lace over the sensuous-slink of some heavy R&B. The spaced-out throb of “Hurricanes” pulses with slippery rhythms and the percussion of lively handclaps, turning in hypnotic circles. Here, the emotion, caught in the fragmentation of the lyrics, centers on the idea of repressed memory, rapidly being pulled to the surface. Amidst the scattershot stanzas, all the nuances of pain and love are perfectly captured.

By the time the album reaches its halfway mark, Daou coolly slides into a far more muted territory of sound, with the atmospherics pooling in the depths of the album’s sonic well. At the heart of the disc lies two of the album’s most curious numbers: the psychedelic strawberry-swirl of the short and supremely sweet “True” and the unnervingly chilly and mysterious “The Hook”, both of which introduce the listener to Daou’s new and welcome flirtations with the guitar. The album at this point also delves into the deeper reaches of old-world jazz, evoking images of pin-striped suits, despondent nightclub singers and 2 a.m. scallywag drunks, clinging to the back walls of derelict buildings.

“Save Yourself”, a provocatively elegiac number, beautifully encapsulates the romance of despair, bringing to mind images of vintage film posters plastered to peeling walls, strewn comic books and worn-out vinyl record albums, skipping and cracking their rhythms into the night. Here, Daou paints the portrait of a lonely, young man, peering out the bare windows of some Lower East village flat, garishly lit by the flickering neon signs outside. In the distance we can hear the sampled clatter of some tinny percussion resounding like faraway traffic.

The jazz becomes full-on on “Once in a While”; a hazy sax winding its way through a lazy, elegant groove, a druggy Rhodes piano and the sly modulations of a few keyboard licks. All the while, the track is kept warmed over by the hushed coos of Daou’s ether-like voice.

And when the album finally winds down to a close, signing off with “Heart of Wax” and a stirring reprise of “The Hook”, we are left with the sense of being on the end of a deliciously cruel parting shot. It’s hard to tell whether the silk and satin are simply veils for Daou’s many inner demons or if she is just winking through her pain. But her kind of pain hurts real good and the final slap in the face feels more like a warm, fresh kiss.

credits

released September 16, 2008

Written, arranged, produced and performed by Vanessa Daou
Words, songs and vocals by Vanessa Daou
Co-production by Anthony Johnson
* except where noted

Players:
Piano & keyboards by Wayne Bennett
Guitar on “Life Force” & “Save Yourself” by Stephen Ellis
Saxophone by Matt Hong
Drums, Bass and Guitar by Anthony Johnson

Additional production on “Black & White” by Blake Robin aka Baron Von Luxxxury

Additional production on “Heart Of Wax” by Blank & Jones

Pre-production vocal recording by Greta Byrum at Recorded Books, NYC

Pre-production engineering by Rob Granniss

Pre-Mastering, Engineering, Recording, Programming and Additional Production by Mike Degen at Stimulant Sound, NYC

Mastering by Jeff Lager

Artwork by Vanessa Daou
Design by vusource

Executive Producers: Vanessa Daou and Craig Roseberry for KID Recordings, LLC

℗&© 2008 DAOU Records
All Rights Reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction is a violation of applicable laws.

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www.twitter.com/KIDRECORDINGS
www.soundcloud.com/outsider-music
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about

VANESSA DAOU Las Vegas, Nevada

Vanessa Daou is an American singer, songwriter, poet, visual artist and dancer. Most notably a musician, her work is known among electronica, nu jazz and trip hop circles for her trademark spoken word and aspirated singing style as well as its erotic and literary subtexts.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Daou ... more

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