“HERE’S A SCENARIO. IT’S DARK. IT LOOKS LIKE NO-ONE’S HOME. THERE’S A KNOCK ON THE DOOR. I OPEN IT. AND THERE’S CHILLOUT, WITH AN AXE IN ITS HANDS, ASKING POLITELY: ‘CAN I COME IN, STEPHEN?’…”
Perhaps an unusual way for an artist to describe a new album – but those who followed Stephen Jones during 2013 will have come to expect the unexpected. And a lot of music.
PHOTO OF THE SOUL VOLS 1 and 2 are the latest in an extended series of mostly instrumental albums from the ex-Babybird man to be released for download through Bandcamp. Distinct from the song-based Babybird or the falsetto vocals and samples of Death Of The Neighbourhood, the often immersive quality of Black Reindeer “reflects my favourite type of music – soundtracks,” said Jones in an interview with The Mouth Magazine early in 2013 (here). “I’m releasing music exactly how I want it to sound”.
Following up 2012 works MUSIC FOR THE FILM THAT NEVER GOT MADE – the first to be released as Black Reindeer – and REAL LIFE IS OVERRATED, last year Jones released eleven further budget-priced collections which combined a knack for a perfectly-weighted tune with his cinema-scale atmospheric ambition including DUE TO A LACK OF EXCITEMENT, JUST FOR TODAY HISTORY IS WRONG, THE TEN STAGES OF ALCOHOL, THE END OF YOUTH and DEATH IS STUPID. Listen to REINDEER CHEWING ON A SHOTGUN, left, and buy PHOTO OF THE SOUL 1 and 2 here.  Also available (here) is a free sampler of tracks from most of the 2013 albums.