Family Love
* Danielson: Ship The Majestic Suffix (4.0 mb) | Bloodbrook On The Half Shell (7.0 mb) | Two Sitting Ducks (7.0 mb)
From Ships : Secretly Canadian : SC103
Under a variety of names, Daniel Smith (aka Danielson Famile, Br. Danielson, Tri-Danielson & Danielson) has been mining his singular musical vision since 1995. Originally started as both an art school thesis project and a way to celebrate his relationship with God, his music has become much more than that. The band, composed of family and friends play an odd sort of quirky pop music, with Daniel’s even more odd, falsetto screech on top of it all. And then there’s the visual spectacle that they create. The Famile often perform in scrubs and nurses uniforms, while Br. Danielson has been known to perform in a tree costume. To be honest, while I’ve appreciated him conceptually, his music can be very tiring and is not stomething that I’ve been a huge fan of, until now.
For some reason, Ships has really captured my attention. And I’m not really sure why. All of his trademark elements are in play, but for some reason, this time it all makes sense to me. Maybe it’s because he’s drawn together a much larger group (20) of people to contribute their musical visions. With that many people, there’s always the fear of everything just breaking down into an incoherent slime, but not this time. There is nothing out of place on this album because everyone here is totally focused on the songs.
Opening arms wider than ever, Daniel made a long list of artists who have worked with Danielson over the years and other folks who planned to work together at some point. This list led to working with family, making new friends, and keeping the old. All joined together - both the well-known (Deerhoof, Sufjan Stevens, Why?) and not as well-known artists (Sereena Maneesh, Leopulde, Half-handed Cloud) - each bringing his or her own skills and ideas to Daniel’s songs and voice, resulting in this crowning achievement.
(from the website)
Listening to this album makes me think that I should reassess my feelings about this fine fellow. He has an incredible musical world, full of joy and weirdness, that is totally drawing me in.
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