This disc from Sundae Sound's Rob Bartlett is very, very special. We've tagged it as country, but that doesn't really capture what this is about. Good thing Bartlett spells it out in the liner notes: [i]I've had this recording in my head for a long time. It took forever, but its finally complete. Best case, it sounds like a soundtrack to a badlands documentary. Worst case, a Spaghetti Western. I'd hate to call it psychedelic country, it's more like a strange mix of ancient and modern instruments from the Diggery Doo to the Fender Stratocaster. Sort of "new with age edge". We mixed it really "wide" especially for headphone listening. "A musical journey for the armchair traveler."[/i] We think it sounds like a soundtrack, a Spaghetti Western AND psychedelic county - and while Bartlett might have misgivings about those categories, we think they work and represent this instrumental album well. We actually think it's like a if Peter Gabriel's soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ was transposed into the Badlands. It's a showcase for Bartlett's exceptional skills with sound, as an engineer, player, and writer. And we also recommend listening to it through headphones as direced. We also love how Bartlett has so many of Calgary's recording greats assisting with this - Dan Lowe, Frank Lockwood, Dave Horrocks and Krisjan Leslie all take turns assisting at the Neve console. As we said above, this is very special and very, very good.
