indy cd & vinyl

CD: JOSE GONZALEZ—VENEER

Review: With focus placed squarely on one voice, one acoustic guitar, and an occasional horn or light percussive patter, Veneer is about as stark as singer-songwriter albums get these days. It’s also as good as they get. Gonzales, born in Sweden of Argentinian parents, delivers a melancholy, minor-key feast that has what I can only describe as a “mellow urgency” to it. Certainly there are strong hints of Nick Drake and Elliott Smith here, but Gonzales easily separates himself from the singer-songwriter pack with both his expert guitar-playing, which often incorporates flamenco-styled strumming and unbelievably hypnotic finger-picked figures, as well as with his chord changes, which ocassionally sound like they might be borrowing from the Black Sabbath catalog (e.g., Lovestain, Crosses). If you enjoy the folkier side of rock and/or adore beautiful and varied acoustic-guitar work, this album will be an undeniable pleasure for your late-night listening sessions.