Arnaud Roy - Blue sox
I plan these things well in advance, you know. I queue a selection of tracks to write about here so that I'll never be stuck for something at the last moment. (And then I forget what I was supposed to be doing and post something at random.) But not today. Oh no, beaupepys had to ruin all of that when she discovered this track by Arnaud Roy, which is so good that it just can't wait.

Roy is a French player of jazzy electric harp. Sounds dreadful, doesn't it? And perhaps, if I'd discovered him via any of his compositions other than Blue sox, I'd have thought so too. Having investigated his work, much of it is rather too pedestrian for my tastes. But Blue sox is something else entirely. It starts off being fantastically eerie and full of strange harmonics. Then he starts slapping his instrument rhythmically and playing up the minimalist neo-folk elements. Then he starts getting jazzy and playing all of these ridiculous un-harp-like pitch bending notes. Sure, stylistically this might be all over the place, but it's brilliantly all over the place.

The track is taken from the album Another delayed action snowball, released via the net label Vaatican. Treat yourself.

Arnaud Roy - Blue sox