For his most recent, typically acclaimed album Phantom Radio, Mark Lanegan deliberately embraced the most synthetic of tropes – the über-modernity of neo-Krautrock and a phone app entitled FunkBox, which formed the basis of his songs.
This, coupled with the ghost-country atmospheres of his songwriting, made for a collection that was particularly suitable for reconstruction / deconstruction by left-field artists of all hues. So that’s exactly what we have here, with an assembly of musicians admired by Lanegan hand-picked to make over the material.
Mark Stewart of The Pop Group brings out the searing black in Death Trip To Tulsa, Lanegan’s noirish venture into Glen Campbell terrain; Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs lays stress on the predatory sleaze of I Am The Wolf; while Moby adds anthemic grace to Torn Red Heart. Waltzing In Blue, meanwhile, crawls slowly out of the crater of dub into which Earth plunges it on his mix.
A fine tribute to a timeless songwriter of our times./o:p
