Dan Patlansky – Shelter of Bones
There’s blues rock and then there’s blues rawk.
For FabricationsHQ and, your reviewer suspects, many an aficionado of the rawer and boisterous latter, Dan Patlansky is your player of choice.
In 2014 the award winning South African guitarist garnered attention in the UK with his highly impacting seventh album, Dear Silence Thieves.
Introvertigo (2016) and Perfection Kills (2018) were no less impressive, featuring seriously feisty finger flexing across the fretboard of Patlansky’s vintage Strats.
(Said guitars have now been retired and replaced by a Masterbuilt Jason Smith Fender Strat, which also cleverly doubles as a replica of Dan Patlansky’s much loved 'Beast' model; the results are the "best sounding guitar" Patlansky has ever owned).
Four years on and three years in the making (a lengthier gestation period than usual, of which the global pandemic played a not insignificant part) comes Shelter of Bones, an album that carries the trademark Patlansky sound (bolstered by his old-is-new again Masterbuilt Strat) but also takes a couple of sonic twists and a number of softer, texture laden turns.
Opener 'Soul Parasite' bites, bristles, grooves and, yes, rawks (with a wickedly howling solo) in tried, tested and true Dan Patlansky fashion, complemented by a husky, ire-edged vocal that lyrically decries two-faced leadership and the agenda of personal gain.
By contrast 'Snake Oil City' (fictitious town, factual finger pointing) shuffles along the streets of said city with Stevie Ray aplomb and a smooth solo that proves once again Dan Patlansky can be as sweet-noted on the ol' six-string as he can be raucous.
'Selfish Lover' is a smokin’ hot song (fitting for a number about a relationship with tobacco) that has both purposeful swing and rhythmic muscle (courtesy of drummer Andy Maritz and bassist Rixi Roman).
The first of the lighter shades on 'Shelter of Bones' then appears in the shape of a lovely, organ backed slow blues entitled 'Lost; it's also one of Dan Patlansky’s most personal – and emotive – numbers to date.
Equally personal is the atmospheric and spacious ballad 'I’ll Keep Trying.'
A heartfelt look-in-the-mirror / will-to-improve number, 'I’ll Keep Trying' speaks loudest not through its lyric but via Dan Patlansky’s gorgeously phrased (and slightly Knopfler-esque) guitar lines and sympathetic solo.
'Bad Soul' is as bad (in a good way) as its title.
One of the songs carrying a new sonic twist to the Patlansky sound, 'Bad Soul' features a dirty funk riff, flittingly sinister synth notes on the verses and a big hook chorus.
'Presence' and 'Devil’s Dopamine' are the fully funked blues numbers of the album.
The former’s bouncy beat, bubbly keys and skippy guitars support a lyric extolling the virtues of living in the now and not worrying about what was or what will be; the latter (which conjures musical images of Stevie Wonder had he been a blues rock artist) is a funky finger point at the fact any idiot with a keyboard or phone can voice an equally idiotic, and instant, opinion.
Blues ballad 'Sweet Memories' is about the one positive of the pandemic – time spent with loved ones, family and what’s truly important. While fairly repetitive in arrangement and not as impacting as 'Lost' or 'I’ll Keep Trying,' it’s as sweet in sentiment as its title and carries nice, deep Strat tones on the guitar fills and solo.
Lead-off single 'Hounds Loose' is the most blues of all the songs on offer, certainly in terms of its Robert Cray styled musicality (but much sharper-edged) and selling your soul lyricism.
For FabricationsHQ and, your reviewer suspects, many an aficionado of the rawer and boisterous latter, Dan Patlansky is your player of choice.
In 2014 the award winning South African guitarist garnered attention in the UK with his highly impacting seventh album, Dear Silence Thieves.
Introvertigo (2016) and Perfection Kills (2018) were no less impressive, featuring seriously feisty finger flexing across the fretboard of Patlansky’s vintage Strats.
(Said guitars have now been retired and replaced by a Masterbuilt Jason Smith Fender Strat, which also cleverly doubles as a replica of Dan Patlansky’s much loved 'Beast' model; the results are the "best sounding guitar" Patlansky has ever owned).
Four years on and three years in the making (a lengthier gestation period than usual, of which the global pandemic played a not insignificant part) comes Shelter of Bones, an album that carries the trademark Patlansky sound (bolstered by his old-is-new again Masterbuilt Strat) but also takes a couple of sonic twists and a number of softer, texture laden turns.
Opener 'Soul Parasite' bites, bristles, grooves and, yes, rawks (with a wickedly howling solo) in tried, tested and true Dan Patlansky fashion, complemented by a husky, ire-edged vocal that lyrically decries two-faced leadership and the agenda of personal gain.
By contrast 'Snake Oil City' (fictitious town, factual finger pointing) shuffles along the streets of said city with Stevie Ray aplomb and a smooth solo that proves once again Dan Patlansky can be as sweet-noted on the ol' six-string as he can be raucous.
'Selfish Lover' is a smokin’ hot song (fitting for a number about a relationship with tobacco) that has both purposeful swing and rhythmic muscle (courtesy of drummer Andy Maritz and bassist Rixi Roman).
The first of the lighter shades on 'Shelter of Bones' then appears in the shape of a lovely, organ backed slow blues entitled 'Lost; it's also one of Dan Patlansky’s most personal – and emotive – numbers to date.
Equally personal is the atmospheric and spacious ballad 'I’ll Keep Trying.'
A heartfelt look-in-the-mirror / will-to-improve number, 'I’ll Keep Trying' speaks loudest not through its lyric but via Dan Patlansky’s gorgeously phrased (and slightly Knopfler-esque) guitar lines and sympathetic solo.
'Bad Soul' is as bad (in a good way) as its title.
One of the songs carrying a new sonic twist to the Patlansky sound, 'Bad Soul' features a dirty funk riff, flittingly sinister synth notes on the verses and a big hook chorus.
'Presence' and 'Devil’s Dopamine' are the fully funked blues numbers of the album.
The former’s bouncy beat, bubbly keys and skippy guitars support a lyric extolling the virtues of living in the now and not worrying about what was or what will be; the latter (which conjures musical images of Stevie Wonder had he been a blues rock artist) is a funky finger point at the fact any idiot with a keyboard or phone can voice an equally idiotic, and instant, opinion.
Blues ballad 'Sweet Memories' is about the one positive of the pandemic – time spent with loved ones, family and what’s truly important. While fairly repetitive in arrangement and not as impacting as 'Lost' or 'I’ll Keep Trying,' it’s as sweet in sentiment as its title and carries nice, deep Strat tones on the guitar fills and solo.
Lead-off single 'Hounds Loose' is the most blues of all the songs on offer, certainly in terms of its Robert Cray styled musicality (but much sharper-edged) and selling your soul lyricism.
The title track is, musically, another addition to the sonic palette of Dan Patlansky.
Built on little more than a heart-beat rhythm and sparingly used keyboard and guitar textures, the somewhat haunting number then settles in as a piano backed, blues guitar cry for the children and younger generation as they grow up, and head into, an uncertain world without the ‘shelter of bones.’
As such it could only be the final track and closing statement (it’s also the slow burner/ grower of the album).
Yeah, Dan Patlansky can indeed rawk but on the all-encompassing Shelter of Bones he’s stretched his blues shaded boundaries to present himself at his most personal, edgy, emotive and atmospheric.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Built on little more than a heart-beat rhythm and sparingly used keyboard and guitar textures, the somewhat haunting number then settles in as a piano backed, blues guitar cry for the children and younger generation as they grow up, and head into, an uncertain world without the ‘shelter of bones.’
As such it could only be the final track and closing statement (it’s also the slow burner/ grower of the album).
Yeah, Dan Patlansky can indeed rawk but on the all-encompassing Shelter of Bones he’s stretched his blues shaded boundaries to present himself at his most personal, edgy, emotive and atmospheric.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ