Clive Wright Press
A Selection of Press Reviews of
Albums featuring Clive Wright
PGM 910 "GALACTICASTER" : Week of May 14th...
When LEO FENDER re-designed the solid body electric guitar in the 1950s, he wanted to make it louder, cheaper and less fragile than existing instruments. Fender called his first guitar the Broadcaster, renamed it the Telecaster, and followed it up a few years later with the soon-to-be classic Stratocaster.
It seems he was thinking of electronics and…clouds. But he couldn't have anticipated that future guitarists would take the instrument out of the atmosphere completely and into deep space, adding layers of electronic distortion, echo and reverberation to create a sound that can only be called cosmic.
On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, a tribute to Leo Fender on another installment of our long-running Space Guitars series called GALACTICASTER. Music is by CLIVE WRIGHT & HAROLD BUDD, HAMMOCK, MONO, FORREST FANG & CARL WEINGARTEN, JEFF BECK, JONSI, and JEFF PEARCE.
I am also really enjoying the new album by Harold Budd out this week. Candylion is a collaboration between Harold Budd & Clive Wright. I am most familiar with Harold Budd because of his work with the Cocteau Twins in the 80s, and I have always wanted to dig deeper into his discography. I have always been a fan of ambient music and Harold Budd is one of the originators of the genre. Darla Records put out two albums by Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie in 2007. He also released A Song for Lost Blossoms with Clive Wright last year. While I am told that his catalog is sometimes hit or miss, he seems to have never really stopped putting out albums. He has also put out a couple soundtracks over the years. This album could easily be a soundtrack and it is possible to listen to it without even knowing that it is on -- but not because it is boring or dull -- it just manages to slip in and out of your consciousness. His music is very minimal and beautiful. Imagine Cocteau Twins without the vocals. I have been threatening to get into New Age music for years, but I think this might be as far as I go. I have always been a huge fan of instrumental music and really do often fall in love with the scores of many films. This is just a nice, pleasant album. But it also has that intenseness that the James Blackshaw album has, maybe just more ethereal and dreamy. However, it can still manage to get inside you and make you feel things you didn't know were in there and is also sort of healing music. I guess that is why it gets labeled New Age Music, but I love it just the same. Sometimes I just need to calm myself down a bit and listen to music like this. It really is a stress reliever. Music is supposed to make you feel good, right? Sometimes you just need a different type of music to accomplish that. Thank you, Harold Budd. You made getting through this week just a little bit easier.
Boomkat product review for:
Harold Budd & Clive Wright - Candylion
Although this album shares its name with Super Furry Animal Gruff Rhys' solo LP of 2007, the tone could hardly be more different. Ambient composition icon Harold Budd teams up with Clive Wright, a producer and guitarist whose CV boasts studio time with Black Eyed Peas and Montell Jordan. These two would not immediately seem to be easy bedfellows, but once cast in the crisp, deep-set reverb of this album's production all the elements come together. 'Eaux d'Artifice' gives a good illustration of what makes this record work: Budd's piano and orchestration dissolve into a beautiful nebula of faded sounds while Wright's guitar carves out vapour trails. elsewhere, more electronic sounds are channelled, with the album's title track grounding itself in swirling synth sweeps and pitchshifted soundscape textures. Wright relinquishes his electric instrument in favour of more subdued and lyrical Spanish guitar arrangements during 'Mlle. Ice', proving to be one of the album's most successful and lowest-key moments.