CD Review

Title: Telescope

Artist: Steve Dawson

Label: Black Hen Music

Release Date: Sep 16 2008

Reviewed by: Tessa Perkins (Vancouver Correspondent - Canada)

Of the two new albums this Vancouver based musician/producer/songwriter will release this year, this one is completely instrumental and completely experimental. Dawson recently learned the pedal steel guitar and decided that he wanted to make an album to showcase it and also take it out of its country genre while doing new things with the instrument.

The pedal steel guitar is a complex type of slide guitar that with a series of foot pedals and knee levers to raise or lower the pitches of the strings. Other interesting instruments featured on the album include a ukulele, pump organ, marxophone, glockenspiel, wurlitzer, fun machine, clavioline, and moog. The result of all this is a unique and special soundscape of experimentation that is at times structured but also improvisational.

The interplay of the instruments and the melodies that are created are something that can be listened to intently even though the songs have no words. Each song has its own rare qualities and layered texture of sounds. Although this album is not for everyone, it is a wonderful showcase of a how an instrument can be manipulated and experimented with in a new genre. One might expect to hear this album in an eclectic coffee shop or an eccentric gift shop.

1. Caballero's Dream

2. Gunslinger Retreats And Lurks Underground, The

3. Keith Lowe

4. Chris Gestrin

5. Speaker Damage

6. Hunt Is On, The

7. Nailbiter

8. Fun Machine Two

9. No One Goes To The Park When It Rains

10. 1000 Year Old Egg