IGNATZ


George Herriman created Ignatz in 1910. It was a vicious mouse in the comic Krazy Kat. Ignatz' favourite occupation was throwing bricks at Krazy Kats head, who thought it was a love declaration from the mouse. The Brussels based artist Bram Devens uses Ignatz as his alter-ego for his own pile of bricks. Acoustic songs wrapped with effects and driven by improvisation and spontaneousness.

III | LP - out now! 12EUR

Ignatzlp version

[K056lp]
reviews (0)

III | CD - out now! 12eur

Ignatz III projects the atmosphere of Jack London and The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog onto a modern world ruled by technology. Devens brings us the most genuine melancholy contemporary pop music has seen since quite some time. This album leaves the underground scenery that is troubled by trends so often far behind and just shows us the pure essence of what Music has to be: raw emotions put to sound.

With his third full album Bram Devens has once again amazed us with a masterpiece. In his usual brain-melting retro-futuristic blues folk, he summons the devilish spirits of Bukka White, Robert Pete Williams and Sleepy John Estes as seen through the eyes of an adolescent Lou Reed. III tells a fictive and blurred story about the death of music genres. Tragedies built upon screeching, atonal and repetitive melodies. Smelling like a wet dog or a badly dried towel. III breathes a much more sentimental atmosphere compared to Devens’ previous work because of his grousing voice, that is not unlike Skip James’s. After the closing track “Dead By noon”, the tormented soul frees the listener from a heavy personal trip and leaves him dazzled. III projects the atmosphere of Jack London and The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog onto a modern world ruled by technology. Devens brings us the most genuine melancholy contemporary pop music has seen since quite some time. This album leaves the underground scenery that is troubled by trends so often far behind and just shows us the pure essence of what Music has to be: raw emotions put to sound. [K056cd]
reviews (17)

II | LP - sold out

Ignatz lp version



[K053LP]
reviews (15)

II | cd - 12EUR

Ignatz "Alien musical transmissions intercepted using an old victrola and played back by some crazy old man, sitting on his porch, armed with just an acoustic guitar, a pile of busted old wax cylinders, and a huge bank of broken and rusty effects pedals... So goddamn great!" - Aquarius Records
"...his impassioned mantras of faith and devotion from behind the crackled veil of a prewar blues 78. But as Ignatz II again demonstrates, Devens has proven regularly able to re-interpret these borrowed texts in his own singular fashion, his handmade bricks again gloriously shaped, baked, and thrown." - Matthew Murphy, PITCHFORK

The debut of Ignatz is still fresh in your memory, and he's already there with the follow up. On Ignatz II, he continues his road through the Appalachians in the year 2050. Stunning rootsfolk, but played by a lost and unworldly creature. 'II' still has that familiar Ignatz sound we love so much, with the difference that on one of the six tracks he doesn't use any effects. He even mumbles more clearly and explores his own musical world more thoroughly. If Lou Reed would have fertilized Cthulhu in 1966, he would now have had a grandchild called Ignatz. The often misplaced words "new" and "weird" can finally be used without any doubt. II is the affirmation of Ignatz' great talent. Future weird Belgium!! [K053CD]
reviews (5)

s/t | cd - sold out

Ignatz Growing up on a diet of \\\'90s lo-fi, old blues and the Smithsonian Antology Of Folk Devens calls himself a lo-fi fascist. When he was just 15 years old he used to unroll old cassettes, rumple the tape and roll it back on. While recording he kicked his four-track to experiment with the wow-and-flutter effect or he just layed down his tapes in the pouring rain. And like a mouse always finds the way to the cheese, Ignatz stayed true to his roots. He wraps up his folkish guitar music in a cloud of effects and electronic noises and his scarce lyrics are a mixture of broken English and unintelligible mantra-like repetitions. The songs are very open and covered with echo and delay. In that way he keeps fucking up his songs, but in that way that it provides him the freedom to experiment and improvise. The effects dictate his way of playing the guitar and the way the song will follow. Improvisation and spontaneity are two basic statements within Ignatz\\\' musical universe. The final recording of a song is for Devens the end of a musical journey. Once the song is on tape, he erases the sampler that he uses for the effects what makes it unable for him to play it in the future. Everything is recorded in one take, so that nothing from the spirit of the moment will be lost. Structured songs and prepared pieces don\\\'t exist. Songs are build up while played and every time the next sound is a reaction to the previous one. Ignatz is the first cd of Bram Devens and is a compilation of songs that he recorded over the past year. The only instruments used are a guitar, effects, a sampler and Devens\' his voice. The result is a simple but extra-ordinary sound that takes your breath. Ignatz\' music stands for freedom, toughness, melancholy and foolishness.

\"Alien Ambient Appalachia maybe. Future Folk? New Weird Belgium? Whatever this is, it\'s dark and dense and thick and warm and weird and lovely and one of the weirdest most wonderful things we\'ve heard.\" - Aquarius \"his voice - when it intermittently appears - is disembodied by distance, by distortion and by echo. Its reedy quaver sounds barely conscious of its own presence, let alone an audience. it recall ths lo-fi contrainess of Alastair Galbraith and even the inscrutable shadings of Mississippi John Hurt or Bascorn Lamer Lunsford on Harry Smith\'s Anthology of American Folk Music\" - Sam Davies / The Wire [K049]
reviews (11)

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