Another look at Daniell McCombs

A year or two ago, I reviewed a collaboration between David Daniell and Douglas McCombs called Sycamore in Blurt, observing that, "Guitars do not always sound like guitars here, often shedding their physical six-stringed form to take on the semblance of pure disembodied tone. Yet sometimes, just to remind you, a flamenco run of notes interjects, a pedal steel moans, a bit of electric buzz jars, and mystery turns deeper for its inclusion of the everyday." (Read the rest here.)

Sycamore was culled from seven hours of improvisation. For Versions, out early May on Thrill Jockey, the pair turned these same tapes over to recording engineer Ken Brown who remixed, rearranged and reimagined the raw material in a wholly different way. I don't think you need to have heard Sycamore to understand Versions; each seems like a freestanding project, and each is, on its own terms, wholly worth listening to. Here's a video from Versions.

David Daniell and Douglas McCombs - 30265 from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.