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an impossible epinion...

Mar 01 '01

The Bottom Line One of the most mysterious, fascinating and downright scary artists you've probably never heard of...

Jandek is one of music's greater enigmas. The Man known only under this name is a Texan reclusive that has been releasing records in a steady pace of at least one a year since the early eighties. The Records are released on a record label called Corwood Industries Records. Corwood only releases Jandek records and the label has no office, just a P.O Box. The man listed as owner of Corwood one Sterling Smith has denied being the man behind Jandeks music and refuses to comment.

The reason for all this mystery can be found in Jandek's music wich is utterly socially deviant and creepy and often sounds like the work of man with serious mental health issues. The music is based in folk and blues music and often consists of an acoustic guitar being plucked seemingly at random. Jandek rarely bothers to change chords as he sings over this minimalistic backing. The voice only adds to the creepiness of the music often sounding like the voice of a person on heavy medication. Jandek has recorded some sweeter sounding folksy songs as well as some electric guitar distortion heavy tracks as well but the creepiness is never far away. I find this music strangely attractive since it seems to dig deeper into the human psyche than pretty much anything else I ever heard but it is always deeply disturbing music.

Now before you give me an NH commenting that I wrote nicely but off topic there's a little secret I would like to share with you: If someone tells you they've seen Jandek Perform they are lying. As I said Jandek remains an unidentified reclusive and as such has never performed live or given any Interviews and probably never will. So this is a category that it is impossible to write an entirely on topic epinion in. However I couldn't help writing one anyway since I wanted to write a few words about him and found this kind of paradox quite fitting to the music of Jandek.

Check out http://tisue.net/jandek/ if you'd like to read more of the meager information available on Jandek. Be warned the biography on the site reads more like a detective story than an artist bio...
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Epinions.com ID:
boffo
Member: Peter Hjalmarsson
Location: Sweden
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me:
How come I only get MH-ratings in categories where I am the only reviewer?


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