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Shuyler Jansen'''SHUYLER JANSEN Songwriter from the Hinterland Edmonton Alberta Canada''' For the past ten years Shuyler Jansen has been co-leading Edmontons Old Reliable (www.oldreliableband.com). Old Reliable has released four records to much critical acclaim and toured the club and festival circuit many times over. On November 4th (2004) Black Hen/Maximum/Universal released Shuyler Jansens first solo endeavour, Hobotron. The Hobotron is a genre breaking departure from Old Reliables 70s country-rock sound, with its epic/electronic backdrop and traditional forefront, its Shuyler executing the sound in his mind. Shuyler Jansen began playing and recording professionally at the age of sixteen, his first band The Naked and the Dead released two independent recordings, and shared the stage with Green Day, Sloan and many other entertainment giants, it was during these formative years that Shuyler began writing prolifically and playing solo shows. In late 1994, under the influence of Neil Young and Crazy Horse and Bob Dylan and the Band, Shuyler formed Old Reliable and began building a fan base that has spread far and wide. Old Reliables last release Pulse of Light Dark Landscape was written entirely by Shuyler Jansen and featured the renowned photography of Elliott Landy (Nashville Skyline/Bob Dylan, The Band/Self-Titled, Moondance/Van Morrison, Woodstock). In 2003 Shuyler Jansen borrowed an ancient tape machine and began building the soundscapes that would eventually become The Hobotron, after years of collecting primitive synthesizers and effects units Shuyler conceived of a recording that mingled country/folk songs with an ambient/electronic backdrop. With the help of Scott Franchuk (Corb Lund Band), Shuyler began adding live musicians onto the pre-existing soundtrack and eventually recorded an entire album backwards. The Hobotron features Nettwerk recording artist Oh Susanna on background vocals and an unconventional backdrop of baritone/electric guitars, laptop, synthesizers, percussion and harmonica. The Hobotron has been mastered by Paul Oldham (Bonny Prince Billy, Anomoanon). The Hobotron also features Lane Arndt (www.aasoundsystem.com) and Gravy (www.whiteyhouston.com) A tuneful, deeply strange encounter between old-style roots music and ambient electronics, from the leader of Edmonton's Old Reliable. Globe and Mail November 26 2004 Shuyler Jansen, half of the writing team behind country powerhouse Old Reliable, has released a brilliant collection of spacey roots rock that sets his earthy voice and acoustic strumming against a beautiful backdrop of electronic wizardry? Which, if you believe the back story, smashes the barriers of space and time as well as genres. ? Vue Magazine Phil Duperron December 2004 Old Reliable's Shuyler Jansen is striking out here in a truly weird new direction, adding the sound of robots making out everywhere atop his already solid, rural, haggard song writing. Jansen in particular has gone the Wilco route, as it were - abandoning all expectations. It's like his entire album is thrown through a conceptual distortion pedal, which on songs like Beverly Ave. results in some true beauts, tasty all over with evocative organs and sweet vocal visits by Oh Susanna, Swifty and Kris Schindel. As fun as the Old Reliable records are, it's great to hear Jansen unchained by worrying whether or not the rhythm section is going to call him self-indulgent. Keep being self-indulgent, man! Edmonton Sun Fish Griwkowsky October 30 2004 Hobotronis a mix of haunting country vocals and atmospheric loops, beats and noises. Without sounding over-the-top, this is probably one of the more unique musical trips you will take for some time. Legend has it Shuyler borrowed an ancient tape machine in 2003 and began building the roots-filled soundscapes that make up Hobotron at his home studio. As a leading member of Albertas well-known roots band Old Reliable, Shuyler comes across as an electronic wanderer perfectly depicted on Hobotrons cover art, a mix of nature meets technology. His voice is reminiscent of Johnny Dowd and a little Nick Cave with a similar musical approach. But dont let that brief description cloud your vision because both Shuyler and Hobotron are a unique creator and debut solo release. Like other Canadian artsy roots-rock releases, Shuyler seems deeply connected to the vast expanse of land that is The Great White North. His sweet, lonely earthen voice draws you into his contemplative tunes: The Blackened Prince establishes what will happen to humanity when it abandons its morality; while both instrumental pieces Surgery (Incision 1) and Surgery (Incision 2) seem included only to add to the disjointed nature of humankind. Pure and simple, Hobotron is a different audio experience than what you normally hear on the airwaves. Its about time because most stuff on the airwaves is pure crap! Scene and Heard Antoine Tedesco November 10 2004 Shuyler Jansen is best known in his hometown of Edmonton, Alberta as the lead singer with the roots band Old Reliable. Hobotron is his first solo outing, and is also roots -- with more. Electronic layers and textures add another dimension to Jansen's folk/country/roots/rock. His deep, earthy vocals and original songs are definitely country-influenced, and meshed with the digital effects an almost Daniel Lanois-type of sound is created. Definitely one step away from the mainstream Inside World Music Paula Kerman November 29 2004 The Hobotron is the home studio in Canada's Alberta province, where Shuyler Jansen began recording this album. Jansen, a member of the band Old Reliable, a fixture in Canada's roots scene for the past nine years, has produced an intriguing mixture of old-style roots music and retro space-age sounds. Jansen has for years collected ancient tape machines, primitive synthesisers and effects units, with which to embellish his traditionally created songs. What he has produced is a pleasing, and at times amusing, melding of two genres, and one that works very well. Indeed, the burbling, twittering synths, backwards tapes etc. that decorate each track come across as perfectly natural. In fact, it's actually interesting that Jansen, who normally plays gritty roots with Old Reliable, has not relied on the kind of instrumentation that goes with the genre. What he has done is use special effects to enhance his often deeply melancholic songs in the same way a roots band might use a fiddle or pedal steel guitar. The construction of his songs, however, is totally normal. Jansen's roots-informed songs - "Whipping Boy" and "Street Heart Beat", for example, both of which have attention-grabbing melodies that actually transcend their arrangements - tumble forth to create a whole that is fascinating and rewards repeated plays. Jansen, who has contributed to the Corb Lund Band and The Swiftys, also utilises the services of Oh Susanna and Shawn Jonasson. Together they make Hobotron a bewitching brew. Its worth having a sip Erasing Clouds John Stacey January 24 2005 Shuyler Jansens solo endeavour Hobotron, released through Black Hen Music, is a break from his songwriting and musical contributions for Old Reliable, a gritty, Albertan, roots-based band. Hobotron is a keen reflection of the talent and musical influences found in Albertas independent music and roots scene. The dark, almost gothic element that seems to creep into most forms of prairie art is tangible in Jansens lyrics. A heavy sense of impending calamity is conjured in an aural form by synthesizer licks and drones. As accompaniment, they are subtly buried in the sub-beat of the musical layers. The electro-beat noise requires a bit of adjustment, as it makes for a quirky combination of sometimes-traditional roots style, sometimes country balladeer but it isnt bad, though. A Christian nuance of hope and guilt is a creeping element through Hobotron. This is explicitly referenced in The Blackened Prince and becomes more pervasive throughout the remaining six songs. The slight self-deprecating tone in the latter half of the CD seems to ask questions about faith and alludes to the pervasive sadness accompanied with loss lost love or a cherished life. Hobotron is a struggle, personalized in the best possible manner through Jansens art. It raises the question of beliefs conflicting with personal growth. Hobotron and Jansen do not provide an answer. Perhaps we have to wait for his next accomplishment hence the burden of the artist. The Manitobian Bruce Montcombroux December 8 2004 A 15-year-veteran of the Alberta Music scene, Shuyler Jansen is probably most well known as one of the front men of the roots band Old Reliable. On Hobotron, Jansen, with his bandana bundle full of country songs, hops a train and heads off into the land of synthesizers and space movie sounds.The combination of these two traditionally disparate genres may cause purists from both genres to shudder, but the effects are not industrial and hard. Using old synthesizers, guitar pedals, electronic toys, and ethereal female vocals, Jansen took pains to create sounds soft and organic, which meld with his rootsy vocals. Each track seamlessly moves into the next resulting in an album best listened all the way through rather than a song or two at a time. The stories told on Hobotron are distinctively country depicting men betrayed, in love, at war, and stuck in no good jobs and demonstrate Jansens talent and maturity as a songwriter. Write Your Will is Jansens song of a cheater and a thief in a northern town with the catchy chorus I bit the bullet. Saxophone from Shawn Swifty Jonasson starts off Beverly Ave a song of hard luck stories of those who dont fit in with the nine to five. Street Heart Beat has a haunting sweetness owing in part to Oh Susannas soft vocals and the electronic soundscape Jansen creates. Veering towards the down home side of the tracks, Hobotron demonstrates how the two opposing genres can coincide to create beautiful sounds. Shuyler Jansen has created a unique and very enjoyable new album. CKUA Radio Susan Mikytyshyn November 2004 Shuyler Jansens Hobotron is billed as a mixture of classic country and electronic ambience, but make no mistake the emphasis here is on the hobo, not the tron. The co-founder of Edmontons Old Reliable largely sticks to his twangy roots, cranking out a series of singalong ditties with subtle electronic flourishes that noodle just around the edges of each song. There are a handful of bad misses among the solid hits and at only 45 minutes the album still feels bloated, but thanks to Jansens earnest, earthy charm, Hobotron is able to coasts past these speed bumps. Chart Attack Matt Semansky November 2004 If you are an Alberta music fan you will have no doubt heard of Edmonton's Old Reliable. Well, front man Shuyler Jansen is about to make his solo debut with Hobotron. And quite impressively, Jansen has managed to get his album mastered by Paul Oldham who is responsible for some of the Will Oldham projects. Shuyler seems like he is quite content going anywhere but where Old Reliable has taken him, making this album un-reliable. The album has a few of the Americana elements that his other band has, including his somewhat twangy vocals but he tries to integrate that sound with a sampler and a few other electronic sounds with mixed results. A good thing with Hobotron is that Shuyler's vocals are rock solid. But on a track like "Shut Down" which could easily be as strong as any Bruce Springsteen song wallows in electronic effects and never really sounds like a proper song. There are many other instances on Hobotron like that (the opener "Whipping Boy" could have been a classic country ditty without all the effects going on), really good songs but the delivery fails. A couple songs completely fall flat like "Street Heart Beat". Ultimately I think Shuyler should stick to his band, and what a killer band I might add. Music Emissions Dennis Scanland January 27 2005 Some of you may recognize Shuyler Jansen's name from Edmonton's (nearly) famous country revivalists, Old Reliable. With Old Reliable on temporary hiatus (babies, heh), the boys drifted off to some solo projects. Shuyler drifted off pretty far. As the title Hobotron suggests, there is slightly (or to put it another way... a whole lot) more electronic sound to this album than you ever heard on an Old Reliable album. But there's still that back road twang to the voice, and the campfire ring to the guitar. What the whole schmeil sounds like is something unique... a combination of Woody Guthrie and Gary Numan. In the real world there aren't too many people who embrace both genres (i.e. how many people would say Trans is Neil Young's best album?), but if you like bands along the lines of The Buttless Chaps, for instance, you'll probably dig this just fine. I know me and my robot companion did. Red Cat Records November 4 2004 The two don't seem as cosy, say, as Brooks & Dunn or Big & Rich or even Nicole Richie and the cow in the first season of The Simple Life. And by cow, we're not talking about Paris Hilton, though you're welcome to think of her in such terms. (We won't object, but the actual bovine -- violated by Richie -- might not appreciate the comparison.) No farm animals were hurt during the making of Shuyler Jansen's Hobotron, but he did ignore a few boundaries.On his first solo album, the Old Reliable frontman seamlessly integrates traditional country rhythms, lyrical themes and banjos with electronic soundscapes, dreamy female vocals, '70s easy-listening synths and post-millennium subjects. That Jansen does so without compromising any of his wistful melodies or catchy hooks is all the more notable -- songs such as Write Your Will and Beverly Ave. will stick in your head for days.So will the images conjured by Jansen's sleepy drawl and words. On Whipping Boy, he instantly transports listeners to a 19th-century outpost as he croons about a failed romance. Write Your Will is a loping number reminiscent of Bob Marley's I Shot the Sheriff, but in Jansen's case, he wants to put a slug in a former pal. "I bit the bullet/I won the round/You're a cheater and a thief in your nowhere town/I could've killed you, I wanted to/You make accusations, you ain't got no proof," he accuses. Jansen makes the lyrical leap into the 21st century with tracks such as Shallow of Our Lives, one of the most poignant and non-partisan songs inspired by the events prior to and after Sept. 11. "What happened to the world I've grown to love?" he asks. "There's panic in the streets, planes crashing up above/What has happened to a man, he must be a judge/Brainwash his own children into holding a grudge/Many thousands have perished, our borders have been crossed/Wars are being waged/Don't you never mind the cause." Beverly Ave. is another standout, with its blasts of horns, woozy beats, loping rhythms and Jansen reflecting on inner-city street life in a low, warbly Johnny Cash voice. "I couldn't get over the nine-to-five," he sings. "I was drinking heavy." The next tracks, Surgery (Incision 2) and Shallow of Our Lives are potentially more intoxicating. If you plan on using headphones to listen to either, you might want to hold on to a table or wall. Jansen's electronic sounds flit so quickly from ear to ear, particularly on Surgery (Incision 2), you might actually feel dizzy or slightly drunk. The Edmonton Journal Sandra Sperounes November 6 2004 As leader of Edmonton roots band OLD RELIABLE, he has won international acclaim. He now has a solo project called HOBOTRON, and a new CD of that name (on Black Hen/Maximum) is a strong effort. It finds his country-folk material infused with subtle electronics. Jansen recently played a matinee at the Cadillac Lounge, joined by a guitarist who used a laptop to produce some electronic shading. The experiment wasn't always a total success, but the strengths of Shuyler's resonant vocals and well-written songs won the day. Tandem News Kerry Doole December 19 2004 What would Grandaddy sound like if they were from Edmonton and listened to the Corb Lund band? Well, one listen to Hobotron would at the very least be a start. From the beginning, it becomes evident that even though this is Shuyler Jansens debut solo album, he isnt new to the scene. As the lead man of Edmontons Old Reliable, Jansen has also played with enough big name acts (Gord Downie, Calexico, Tegan and Sara, and Green Day just to name a few) that its almost a wonder that his name isnt better known already. Even though his allegiance is closer to the altcountry than it is to the electronic, Hobotron walks the electrocountry line in a stately manner, .ushing out walkingpace songs with synths galore. Hobotron isnt the most immediate album (outside of perhaps the first two songs, Whipping Boy and Write your Will), but its the best thing Ive ever heard to come out of Edmonton, and its many subdued moments hint at something greater than just a few listens offerings. Discorder Soren Bros February 2005 Like the tickle of well-meaning robot centipedes in your bed, the constant electronic bleeps and blips of Shuyler Jansens otherwise plugged-in country album can be distracting. Hold on, though. This is clearly the intention: to bring an extra sense of discomfort and alienation into a mournful song like Hot Flash. Its an experiment I would say works about 85 percent of the time taking a dozen well-sung hillbilly numbers and adding an almost incidental wash of sonically independent Futurama sounds, an impressionistic trick Howe Gelb is master of in his keener moments. In a sense, youre almost listening to two albums at once, which is inherently captivating, if a little challenging for those of us with single brain stems. Mind you, the multi-track sound comes together wonderfully on a bruiser song like Beverly Ave, where Jansens junkyard growl sways in deliberate circles with a pretty harmony, dusky horns and spooky keyboards, and is then consumed by urban feedback that would be at home on a Xen Cuts collection. Jansens exasperated and effective why, people? soapbox at the end, Shallow of Our Lives, is understandably reminiscent of Old Reliable, the five-piece he co-fronts with other anti-Nashville plaidsters in the Canuck Prairies but overall hes welded something new into our flesh with a builders steady tempo and deliberate ideas about the relationship between nature and nurture, both in lyric and demonstrated method. My cat would have liked some chickadee samples in there, too, but you cant have everything. Exclaim Magazine Fish Griwkowsky February 2005 Crafty work sets this synth-based record apart. The Government of Canada has a lot to answer for - this is another record part funded by them, whereas our Government will probably only fund you if youre either developing a strategy to democratize planets we havent yet discovered or adding to the already redundant load of consumer products, Canada gives artists a chance to indulge themselves. Result is a melding of archaic synthesisers and Americana forms, like 22nd Century nostalgic robotic recreation of what Americana could have sounded like. Clicks and glitches of noise, the ambient noise of a controlled laboratory, resonant chords creeping in from some cheap TV horror show and sounds made for viewing on an oscillator. Strangely fitting then are traditional vocals and melodies surrounded by these retro-futurist sounds. Closest thing I can think of is Jim Guthries record that was constructed mainly on a Playstation - at times this produces gloriously strange juxtapositions and at others - The Blackened Prince - the ponderous electronic soundscape drowns the songs, or the programming is too everyday so that it sounds like a failed hideous experiment that tried to hybridize New Romanticism with Country music, the results of which were hidden away from the public in order to prevent looting and the overthrow of life as we know it - p forward Rising Tide (Ill Cling to Her), or the Landscape/Thomas Dolby like Beverly Ave that is as crass as Robert Kilroy-Silk and sounds as authentic. Then at times things will coalesce and make sense: Whipping Boy processes S&M sounds, adds straightforward harmony vocals and the whole thing makes sense. Write Your Will is the theme from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy with extra banjo mixed with a traditional train song. Best of all is Street Heart Beat that cycles a guitar riff, hangs the electronic noises off of it like decorations on a Christmas tree branch, the vocal performance more restrained and the backing vocals adding depth and sadness, the sheets of noise that punctuate like the gathering clouds of a storm - it approaches the sonic junkyard elegance off Ill lit and shows just what can be achieved. Americana UK David Cowling February 14 2005 First off, best album title ever. Hobos are cool. Especially robotic hobos like a hobotron must be. The man who picked the title is one Shuyler Jansen, a member of beloved Alberta roots band Old Reliable. Hobotron is Jansens solo debut, but he was hardly alone during the making of it. The credits list reads like a whos who of independent Western Canadian music: members of Saskatchewans AA Sound system, Vancouvers Oh Susanna, and Albertas Whitey Houston (among others). With all those Westerners, its not too hard to guess the base sound of the album. Jansen stays true to his roots while adding a few fancy studio effects and it sounds pretty darn good. There are two sort-of interludes (Surgery (Incision 1) and Surgery (Incision 2)) included on Hobotron where Jansen takes his knob twiddling to the extreme to a not so stellar effect, but the 43 second experimental track Hobo Billy Mo is interesting it sounds as if The Mars Volta wandered by for a little look-see. Jansen basically did every studio trick hes ever wanted to do on Hobotron, and the album takes the listener on quite a strange journeynot unlike that of a hobo. A guitar toting robotic hobo. The title suddenly makes eerie sense now doesnt it? Soul Shine Magazine Jaclyn Arndt February 2005
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