This dub treatment of last year's Dream River makes perfect, unexpected sense straight from first listen, emphasizing the cyclical riffs and percussive accompaniment that were on the tapes all along, while leaving enough of Callahan's vocals unmuted to manage to tease out flashes of narrative and ensure that the originally-sung stories aren't entirely left by the wayside. Take the next stool down at the bar, No Protection—you've got company.
"[This] experiment serves to draw attention to the enduring spaciousness of Callahan’s music, to the sense that the most significant details in his songs are unspoken, hidden in the interstices between his lines. This last point is hammered home very hard when you hear the project in its entirety. Brian Beattie, who mixed Dream River and handled the remixes for Have Fun With God, hasn’t wandered too far from the original: the eight songs run in the same order, and are recast not as reggae, exactly, but as reverb-heavy and mostly instrumental pieces that point up the rich musical subtleties that initially underpinned Callahan's vocals." - Uncut
Read more at http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/wild-mercury-sound/have-fun-with-god-bill-callahan-in-dub#AjHjEKv7hQVpxBkb.99
the experiment does serve to draw attention to the enduring spaciousness of Callahan’s music; to the sense that the most significant details in his songs are unspoken, hidden in the interstices between his lines.”
This last point is hammered home very hard when you hear the project in its entirety. Brian Beattie, who mixed “Dream River” and handled the remixes for “Have Fun With God”, hasn’t wandered too far from the original: the eight songs run in the same order, and are recast not as reggae, exactly, but as reverb-heavy and mostly instrumental pieces that point up the rich musical subtleties that initially underpinned Callahan’s vocals.
Read more at http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/wild-mercury-sound/have-fun-with-god-bill-callahan-in-dub#AjHjEKv7hQVpxBkb.99
the experiment does serve to draw attention to the enduring spaciousness of Callahan’s music; to the sense that the most significant details in his songs are unspoken, hidden in the interstices between his lines.”
This last point is hammered home very hard when you hear the project in its entirety. Brian Beattie, who mixed “Dream River” and handled the remixes for “Have Fun With God”, hasn’t wandered too far from the original: the eight songs run in the same order, and are recast not as reggae, exactly, but as reverb-heavy and mostly instrumental pieces that point up the rich musical subtleties that initially underpinned Callahan’s vocals.
Read more at http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/wild-mercury-sound/have-fun-with-god-bill-callahan-in-dub#AjHjEKv7hQVpxBkb.99