Nyles Lannon
Pressure
Badman
What the hell is folktronica?!
Folk music, in encyclopedia terms, is defined as traditional music that is made by and for the common people. In American culture, the term in synonymous with acoustic guitar poets like Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon and Woody Guthrie. When Dylan plugged in at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, the crowd responded with the proverbial throwing of rotten tomatoes in the form of booing and hissing. The Tambourine Man left the stage after just three songs.
What’s this got to do with Nyles Lannon?
In 1965 a folk artist got hammered for just amping up, these days the lines between genres are more fluid and artists are offered an unlimited canvas on which to create. Lannon is a folk artist at his core, but he has embraced the 21st Century ear for the unusual. The multi-instrumentalist, like Beck – who also could be considered a bastardized folkie – seems to have used everything he could get his hands on to create the lush, bold melodies on his sophomore release Pressure. Synthesizers, naturalistic sounds, electronic effects on his vocals, the all important tambourine, toy instruments, chains; it’s all thrown into the mix and yet somehow does not distract from the intensely personal element of the music and words. Tales of regret, desire, lust, and all of the key ingredients of a good love story abound.
Pressure could be the soundtrack to a remake of The Graduate. Paul Simon would be proud of Nyles Lannon, but then so would Moby.
Nyles Lannon: http://www.nlannon.com
