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quotes:
Delicate and gentle as a passing breeze, the first solo record from James Green (of Big Eyes) is a graceful assemblage of instrumental sketches that will appeal to all who appreciate the plaintive beauty of the classical guitar. Those familiar with Big Eyes' discography will recognise James' unmistakeable grasp for simple, affecting melody, here presented with an honest, confessional simplicity, which commands attention. All pieces are first or second take and are either solo guitar or two tracks maximum. By consciously limiting himself to this instrument and these techniques, James has developed a sound that might complement the New Folk troubadours currently emerging from the US such as Jack Rose or Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance), but with a lightness of touch almost absent in any of those guitarists' work. Let it be said that this is closer to the work of Mick Turner (Dirty Three), John Williams, Bert Jansch, Eric Satie or Debussy than Fahey, Kottke, Basho or other names so often paraded but rarely equalled. Packaged in a tasteful hand-printed slip case and limited to 250 copies, this release serves a beautiful companion piece to the most recent Big Eyes album 'We have no need for voices when our hearts can sing' released on Pickled Egg earlier this year. (Tempers mini-album Press Release 2004)
James Green, of the band Big Eyes, plays solo acoustic guitar instrumentals, and I’m going to try my best to refrain from chucking around the few ubiquitous reference points inevitably dredged up to haunt practitioners of such material. Thankfully, he makes this easier for me by being fairly distinctive. Less reliant on blues and folk forms than many of his solo guitar peers, Green lets things get a bit more spaced out and uses one of those awesome delay/echo boxes (where can I get one??) that allows him to loop and replay bits of his playing, accompanying himself and eventually building up a densely layered sea of ghost guitars. Beautiful. A pal joins him on ceremonial bell tinkling and weird mutated flute for a full-scale psyche-out on the distinctly Six Organs Of Admittance style closing number. (Plan B Magazine, Live Review 2005)
releases:
"Tempers" CD mini-album, released May 2004 on EWR. A collection of improvised and semi-improvised recordings played solely on nylon-string guitar direct to 2-track. limited to 250 copies, each with a hand-pressed lino-printed sleeve. Available from the EWR website.
track "Damphound" featured on "Misplaced Pets" compilation 2004, released by Misplaced Music
Also 2 tracks featured on the Early Winter Music Vol..1 compilation, released with 'I'd Rather Be Fat Than Be Confused' ZINE..7 (available by sending an email to idratherbefatthanbeconfused@orange.net)
James is also the captain of the good ship known as 'The Big Eyes Family Players' (formerly known as 'Big Eyes')....
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