Devendra Banhart
The Black Babies (UK)

THE REVIEW

Devendra - Obi - (yes, from Obi-Wan Kenobi) Banhart is a SUPERFREAK!
A versatile penniless artist (he also did the cover drawing), he was born in Texas 22 years ago and after wandering through Venezuela, California, San Francisco, and Paris, he stops for a while in New York. He takes his guitar to a squat (an occupied house in Manhattan) without heating or telephone and there he composes whatever comes to his mind.

Acoustic guitar and voice multiplied by a 4-track, technically that's all. The recordings end up in the hands of Michael Gira, (former Swans member and now Angel of Light) who releases them on his label Young God Records, without changing a comma.
The first to be published—in 2002—is "Oh Me, Oh My, The Way The Day Goes By, The Sun Is Setting And Dogs Are Dreaming Love Songs Of The Christmas Spirit".
It is followed this May by "The Black Babies," an 8-track EP, an ideal extension of the first work, few chords, surreal lyrics, and all the hissing dirt stuck between the strings.

8 small lo-fi pieces, vaguely folk melodies, childish nursery rhymes illuminated by an irresistible non-sense for me... I must, I must, I must quote this text: "When your arms learn to breathe they stick to your sleeve and when your sleeves learn to walk your legs learn to leave and when your leaves learn to stay your legs run away... now I was born in may but then that moved away to the end of june towards mid july now I'm on my way..." Ha! A genius!

I can't resist... here's another one: "Old Thunderbird, All Yellow, Old Thunderbird, All Yellow, When the nighttime came, you looked the same, still yellow, still yellow". Raw diamonds!!!

Bizarre Associations: It brought back to my approximate memory the adventures of Dirty Sock and Tin of Beans narrated in the beautiful pages of "Skinny Legs and All," a book by Tom Robbins that I love very much, the same clear and sparkling atmosphere.