22 October

Charlie Ulyatt —  Shifting (2017, self-released)

Listen/Buy

English guitarist Charlie Ulyatt’s Dead Birds was largely characterized by a languid, yet focused series of solo guitar anti-études. In place of demonstrating earth-shattering virtuosity, the Nottingham-based guitarist more interestingly showcased a meditative awareness which honed in on the precise meeting point of timbre and temporality. In listening to Dead Birds, one quickly comes to recognize Ulyatt’s tone—lightly treated with reverberation and tremolo—as his own distinct voice. One also quickly picks up on the tranquil patience the artist possesses, made evident by the simple and soporific nature of the pieces. Impressively, the Ulyatt’s forthcoming cassette, appropriately titled, Shifting, opts to change direction. In place of the breezy, repetitive style found on Birds, the listener encounters tensile, sometimes percussive, almost always inquisitive pieces, whilst not jarring per se, do ask something more of the listener than Ulyatt’s preceding album. “A Taste of Ore” invokes the hypno-drones of “Venus In Furs” with Ulyatt effectively standing in for both Lou Reed’s “ostrich guitar” and John Cale’s imperious and jagged viola, all the while, leaving the Warhol Factory pretense at the door. Fleeting moments of slide guitar on “Ah Moses” harken back (even if unwittingly) to the blues of the Mississippi Delta, creating a fascinating lineage from Robert Johnson’s crossroads covenant with Old Scratch to the post-industrial experimentalism of the East Midlands. Elsewhere, tracks such as “Dry Lake Piss Flow” and “Daisy Chain Burns” recall the grit of Skullflower, but manage to replace the dark and dirgy overtones with something that, despite its abstract qualities, is surprisingly joyful. In all, Shifting is a fascinating series of tunes, that whilst lacking the accessibility of Dead Birds, remains an artistic testament to the importance and inevitability of change.