30th November 2011: Tyler Ramsey / Sand Pebbles interview / Playlist

Featured: Tyler Ramsey - The Valley Wind (Fat Possum) 

Many of you may recognize Tyler Ramsey from his other job as guitarist with Band of Horses, a career that started before he joined the band with his self titled debut in 2004. He followed that up in 2008 with the quietly beautiful 'A Long Dream About Swimming Across The Sea'. After an intense recording effort earlier in the year he has just released his third album 'The Valley Wind'.

'The Valley Wind' is an album that is both nuanced and intelligent, opening with a wonderful short acoustic introduction highlighting Ramsey’s skill on the guitar. What follows are perhaps the two strongest tracks on the album, the Springsteen-esque title track "The Valley Wind" and the beautiful "1000 Black Birds" which features some delightful fingerpicking and Ramsey’s warm and textured vocal. Ramsey’s vocal is an undoubted highlight of the record. It is at times plaintive and emotional, at other times it is rich and comforting with just the right balance between beauty and rawness that perfectly suits the themes he is singing about.

Another highlight of 'The Valley Wind' is the instrumentation. Throughout the record it does just enough, never threatening to overpower Ramsey’s vocal. It’s also reasonably sparse, throwing the listeners attention towards the vocal performance and Ramsey’s lyrics, which are both thoughtful and nuanced.At a brief 35 minutes the album is over before you know it. I was left wanting to hear more, but it's undoubtedly better to be left wanting more, than wishing it had all stopped two or three songs earlier.

Tyler Ramsey

The Sand Pebbles, Ben Michael X talks with Thee Sonic Assassin on the eve of their Sydney album launch...

Fresh from a string of sold out Melbourne shows and a national tour with Galaxie 500's Dean Wareham, Melbourne's Sand Pebbles make they're long awaited Sydney return by launching their acclaimed new record Dark Magic at GoodGod Small Club on Saturday December 3.

Special guests on the night are reclusive wall melters The Astral Kaleidoscope who will perform their first show as a full 7-piece band since 2007. Cosmic trippers The Sun Blindness are also making the trip north to play tracks from their new album, 'Far Arden'.

Hypnotic. Cosmic. Kinetic. Exploding from the eye of the Universe! 

Sand Pebbles

Radio Show Playlist 30th November 2011 (here)

Michael Beach - There Is No Edge Of The World To Run To (Mountains & Valleys)
Band Of Horses - Monsters (Everything All The Time)
Tyler Ramsey - When It's Done (The Valley Wind)
**
Sand Pebbles - Dark Magic (Dark Magic)
Sand Pebbles - Entrance To The Stream (feat. Will Carruthers) (Dark Magic)
**
David Lynch - The Night Bell With Lightning (Crazy Clown Time)
Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Theme (OST Twin Peaks)
Voyager One - Beautiful Wreckage (Afterhours In The Afterlife)
The Sun Blindness - A Trip In A Painted World (Like Pearly Clouds)
**
Tyler Ramsey - Stay Gone (The Valley Wind)
Real Estate - Out Of Tune (Days)
Mono Stereo - Orange Is Green (Space Out EP)
**
Vetiver - Hard To Break (The Errant Charm)
Findlay Brown - Losing The Will To Survive (Separated By The Sea)
Tyler Ramsey - 1000 Black Birds (The Valley Wind)


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