Album Review: Ryley Walker - Deafman Glance

Ryley Walker is a restless musical soul, constantly shape-shifting and looking for new ways to present his avant jazz/folk guitar songs.

Over his first three solo albums he travelled from Tim Buckley/Van Morrison/Nick Drake traditional folk to the songs that, almost two years ago, explored more eclectic and contemporary territory on Golden Sings That Have Been Sung.

On Deafman Glance he continues that work, taking further influence from the Chicago post-rock sound and draping his songs in synths, brass and tactile percussion. Songs change tempo, jump from meditative to frenetic and dance loosely on instrumental flights of fancy. Opener In Castle Dome possesses a languid bluesy shimmer akin to his earlier work, his vocal strangely recalling Eddie Vedder. That thought is quickly eviscerated by the jazz shuffle of 22 Days, sounding like a more organic version of the band I'm Not A Gun. Boundaries are stretched and abstraction increasingly embraced on each song, adding up to a sense of both calm and unease, often within the same track. Lyrically there is little to grasp onto thematically other than a sense of questioning and a desire to find a surer footing in life.

With the album highlights Opposite Middle and its gentle Tortoise-like propulsion, the prog and psych qualities of Telluride Speed and the gorgeous closer Spoil With The Rest, Deafman Glance occasionally amounts to a disorientating listen but never tips over the edge into wilful self-indulgence. It's the sound of an artist inching closer and closer to realising the wild sounds in his head.