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Hip joint discomfort can be a real pain in the ass. Quite literally. Just ask West Yorkshire artist/musician Jake Blanchard, who’s suffered in this regard for ages. It hasn’t stopped him from creating, but his latest outing, Fermentation, rather reflects his ongoing malaise. Despite the album’s devotional vibe, it’s more evocative of twilight and midnight than yogic sunrises.
Renowned for his album artworks (Richard Dawson, Pelt, Mike Gangloff), Blanchard, along with musician Sophie Cooper, formed the ‘TOR’ coalition around Todmorden to encourage local talents. Blanchard’s visual work draws upon mythology and folklore, invented creatures and ritualism. Check out some freaky beer can labels he made for the Nightjar brewery. And note how each ale’s name reads uncannily like a Blanchard track title – Astral Matrix, Swamp Hopper, Emotional Support Hamster…
But it’s Sickening Elixir which opens Fermentation, a bouncy ballsy raga with subtle drones. There’s also what might be a scabrous guitar lick, but don’t bet against it being a solar-powered balloon deflating (Blanchard merely credits himself with playing ‘various home-made instruments’). Ominous drum thumps give added backbone under wobbly synths, or wibbly organic earthpipes, who knows? Already, this is music for trance-dancing in animal masks.
Crucial to the album is Blanchard’s mastery of the Shahi Baaja, a sort of electrified Indian zither with typewriter keys to alter the pitch. In performance it resembles someone playing a pedal steel whilst inputting computer data. We imagine that Blanchard knows you don’t wear shoes when playing Indian instruments. Indeed, do we imagine Blanchard ever wearing shoes, even in the dreek of a Todmorden winter?
Up next is Ethereal Ink, which fizzes with holy fire, using eerie and erotic loops. Much of this album’s mesmeric appeal lies in how Blanchard’s instruments infuse and densify each track, just as burning incense gradually thickens the air with its aromas. We move onto Dysplasia Delirium, where the rhythm hooks you in with pulsing patterns, over which Blanchard weaves some volcanic karma. There’s more sombre-sacred stuff in the frightening dubby tones of Tremor, a piece that might be Blanchard’s own danse macabre.
Mosaic offers a chorus of brute-force strums, but the track’s purity is driven by its drumless flow. Blanchard then trips into wigged-out fuzz on Lithium Palms, like he’s seen some weird stuff in the sky and must soundtrack it. Morphine Boogie is the album’s endpoint, as gothic harmonium chords wash over pagan pluckings and bubblings.
Melodies like these might be a gift of the composer, but they’re also a gift from nature. Despite his personal struggles, Blanchard has made a union with the divine here, or music for those who don’t accept silence as the ultimate spiritual answer. It’s an album with the whomp of Elkhorn and the godliness of Tuluum Shimmering. Think of sound waves being dosed out to herbal plants. Think also Pat Metheney, Alice Coltrane, Shakti with John McLaughlin, Mind Over Mirrors and Banco De Gaia. Fermentation says much about the human condition and the strangeness flowing from within or without us. Close your eyes and drown in its wyrd bliss.
Fermentation (1st November 2024) Cardinal Fuzz/Eiderdown Records
Vinyl LP of ‘Fermentation’ released by Cardinal Fuzz and Eiderdown records.
UK Orders: https://jakeblanchard.bandcamp.com/album/fermentation
US Orders: https://eiderdownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/fermentation
Album launch listening party at Nan Moor’s Todmorden.
Wednesday, October 30th, 2024, 7.30pm.
