Dave Pajo- Pajo

DerekD Goldfish

Best known as a member of post rock bands slint and Tortise as well as a member of the short lived Billy Corgan post pumpkins project Zwan this album sees a completely different side to Pajo.
Its extremely minimalist very folky which like the album cover a black and white picture of the sea kind of washes over you.
The album opens with On no no a sort track with a basic electronic beat and simple acoustic guitar and Pajo's warm floaty vocals.
most of the album follows this formula with few other instruments used.
This gives the album an extremely intimate feeling.
Track 3 "Ten more days" is one of the standout tracks again both the guitar and vocals barley raise above a whisper the track is almost Nick Drake esque.
With the constant mixing of folk and eletronia smog comparisons are inevitable but I dont think this is overly evident on more than a handful of tracks.
"Let me bleed" Is probably my favourite track on the album again not a track you could listin to on a crowded bus but its beautiful folktonica at its best.

Dave Pajo has appeared on some great albums in his time with Slint-Spiderland and Tortise- Millions now living will never die being particular standouts but in my opinion this album ranks right up there with them. As to wheater fans of his previous bands will like it. I wouldn’t be so sure about fans who discovered Pajo through Zwan to be to blown away with this album. As for slint/tortise fans I can see them enjoying this album although its closer to tortise than slint but if it wasn’t Pajo that recorded this album post-rock would barley be mentioned in the review so its not overly similar and its certainly not just recovering old ground.

Overall Great album ****