It’s always heartening to see in a what is a hand to mouth existence for many musicians that Steve Gunn can still carve himself out a big enough niche to make projects like this viable. His last two albums The Unseen In Between and Other You have been his best, exploring the song writing gambits now sometimes less traveled from Americana to indie rock and whilst the latter’s material didn’t seem to cast itself as remix friendly, the half dozen versions which make up Nakama (Meaning ‘friend’ in Japanese) are in effect, just that.
Except don’t call it a remix project though. Gunn has described the originals instead as “points of departure” and the erstwhile sonic painters involved seem to have had a brief to let subtlety be their guide. Much of their collected output is gentle, fuzzy and reverent, especially Natural Information Society’s tender vision of Good Wind, but joy comes most with the shimmeringly transformed Protection, Mdou Moctar’s Ahmoudou and Mikey Coulton adding magical sounding Tuareg drums and chanting.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 