Karl Blau - Vultures Of Love [CD]

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: OLR011CD
Barcode: 198846219677
Release Date: 06 Dec 2024
Genre: Indie Rock

Karl Blau has a legendarily broad résumé. He has worked on 250 albums during the last three decades, his experience ranging from Earth and Microphones to Laura Veirs and Matthew E. White. And his own catalog has forever been that of a polyglot, bending funk and folk sand pop and punk into experimental forms with total glee.
Soon after moving to Germantown, Karl Blau began striking up conversations with the man he always saw refurbishing mid-century furniture on the corner near his house. It was Chris Covatta, a guitarist with a specialty furniture store and an instant kinship with Blau. A year or so later, Blau started helping out around Covatta’s shop, VintaDelphia, from making deliveries to polishing the goods. And then one day, not that long ago, Blau noticed an eight-track, half-inch tape machine that had been gathering dust there for years. Covatta had forgotten where it came from and didn’t know the last time it worked. That was the first little miracle that led to Vultures of Love, a new record that feels like the culmination of the first quarter-century of Blau’s career.
Vultures of Love begins with a mind-walk on horseback through deserted canyons where the devil is the only judge as you ride side-saddle.  Then let my voice  escort you up the surf-y coast where we do some time gamblin’ with our lives on the first single, the durgy, pop canon - “Pasadena.”  Followed by avant barn burners that stick to your ribs, “Taxes” and “Who.”   Watch out for that sauce of the hot saxophones!  As the record progresses with a mix of smooth and chunky crunk, it gets down to business with “Back on Track” - a boogie-woogie like JJ Cale mixes with Dr. John before you flip the record to be welcomed by a jaunty instrumental full of biting hooks, pounding bass and unapologetic synths.  “While the Night Is So Long” harkens back to 90s pop which gives way to the title track - a sensuous pop tale of carrion devotion to their bacterial counterparts.  And just when you think you’ve heard all the genres an album could float, I take us deep into 60s Meters funk and then leave you with a tropicalia inspired send-off peppered with synth chirps and homemade timpanis and a guest vocalist…”

Tracklisting
1. Bee Song
2. Pasadena
3. Who
4. Taxes
5. Back On Track
6. Heavy Light Of Sad & Dance
7. While The Night Is So Long
8. Vultures Of Love
9. 23 And Me
10. For The Babies