Giant Sand Is All Over The Map CD

Giant Sand: Anderson Pederson (guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin); Thoger T. Lund (double bass, bass guitar); Peter Dombernowsky (drums, percussion); Howe Gelb, John Parish.
Personnel: Howe Gelb (vocals, guitar, piano); Indiosa Patsy Jean Gelb, Sofie Albertsen, Marie Frank, Scout Niblett, Vic Chesnutt (vocals); Anders Pedersen (guitar, lap steel guitar); John Parish (National guitar, Mellotron, drums); Eric Drew Feldman (organ); Thoger T. Lund (upright bass, electric bass); Peter Dombernowsky (drums, percussion).
Additional personnel: Sofie Albertson Gelb, Indiosa Patsy Jean Gelb (vocals); Marie Frank, Scout Niblett, Vic Chesnutt.
Recording information: Feedback Recording, Aarhus, Denmark; Harvey's House, Tucson, AZ; Sun Studio, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Photographer: William Carter.
It's been four years since the last album from Giant Sand (Cover Magazine doesn't really count), and Howe Gelb is still making albums to please himself. Which is as it should be, since no one makes records that sound quite like this: a shambolic, atmospheric mixture of hushed tones, deadly distortion, tender poetics, and rock & roll. There are some new members in the Giant Sand family, but they sound just as versatile and fit as the too-busy members of Calexico, Joey Burns and John Covertino. The songs are great, featuring Gelb's often near-whispered vocals, pretty resonant piano, acoustic guitars, and some of the most crushing distortion ever recorded (which is likely to appear and disappear almost anywhere). Take the lovely "Classico," where the guitar solo is traded off between an acoustic nylon-string guitar and an electric with the amp turned up WAY past 11, or the multitude of hairy guitars in "NYC of Time" that disappear, giving way to a very nice piano segment. Gelb's voice gets the distorto treatment on "Remote," and "Drab" has some fine buzzing prepared piano. But it's not all about distortion (which really comes and goes); there's an acoustic element to every track and most of these songs would work as purely acoustic pieces. "Rag" is just a piano rag with drums, and "Les Forçats Innocents" is not only sung in French, but has a tasty mandolin accompaniment. And only Howe Gelb would have the good sense to include a Sex Pistols/Waylon Jennings medley. Almost 20 years on, and Howe Gelb and his Giant Sand compatriots have made concessions to no one, and if you're a fan, that's a very good thing. ~ Sean Westergaard
With 2004's IS ALL OVER THE MAP, Giant Sand mastermind Howe Gelb turns in another album of atmospheric, off-kilter, and always-surprising rock. (This was Giant Sand's first record in decades without the rhythm section of Joey Burns and John Convertino, who decided to focus their band, Calexico, on a full-time basis.) While, at his core, Gelb is a troubadour with an acoustic guitar, and his poetic lyrics--full of detail, human suffering, and scenic landscapes--wouldn't sound out of place in a candlelit coffeehouse, his adventurous aesthetic encompasses punk, country, rockabilly, grunge, and experimental music.
Gelb's stylistic collage is compelling both sonically and stylistically. Country-rock is blended with shuffling, quirky pop ("Fool"), blues is buried by stadium-ready guitars ("Remote"), and Gelb's breathy baritone alternates with nerve-scraping distortion ("Classico"). The vibe is lilting and often meditative, but rocks like no ones business when you least expect it. Gelb's genre whiplash doesn't stop with the pop and rock canon: "Napoli" works a tango groove, "Les Forcats Innocents" recalls French cabaret pop, and, on "Rag," Gelb plays a ragtime piano. Such a mixed bag might seem confusing, but the sensibility on IS ALL OVER THE MAP is remarkably cohesive, resulting in something difficult to define, and even harder to resist.Rolling Stone (p.98) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[I]t's a nice soundtrack for a lonesome drunken night."
Uncut (p.98) - 3 stars out of 5 - "Lyrically, the album draws together scraps of meaning from disparate regions."
Uncut (p.76) - Ranked #42 in Uncut's "Best New Albums of 2004" - "[A] stirring set of scuffed Latino rhythms, high-noon hymns and creepy piano interludes."