signal to noise

ALBUM REVIEW - 'ALL THINGS REAL' BY NATHAN TURK
FROM SIGNAL TO NOISE WINTER '2006

As befits a guy whose background is recording engineering, Steve Adey sculpts his singer-songwriter debut with surgeon’s precision: Strings, harmonium and choirgirl-like backing vocals become perfectly blended hues over his dark-folk canvasses. The glacial pacing doesn’t always make for an easy listen, but gives Adey plenty of space for his
codeine-thick croon to send forth wistful mantras: “Let’s go for a
ride, we can drive through the night/and we will find the neon lights
will shine for us there,” he sings in “Find the Way” to an unreachable
love. Adey’s covers of Bob Dylan’s “Shelter from the Storm” and Will
Oldham’s “I See a Darkness” don’t get tripped up in folk-to-indie rock
chasm, just find the dark corners they share in common. The best
moments come when the backing musicians step out of the dusky
background: Douglas Macdonald’s spindly reverb pushes “The Last Remark” from haunting folk into straight-up epic territory.

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