Customer Reviews

Handwriting

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Face it, Khonnor is cool in a Fennesz and/or Boduf Songs meets The Postal Service and/or Dntel kind of way with the murmer of electronic noise overlaid with acoustic guitar. You must set aside or disregard that most great aspiring artists never start out having a clue. They are aware they have some home bred intangibles fighting and fussing inside just hankering to bust out. The lucky ones find a medium of expression to channel that creative spontaneity and hone a craft that nurtures their raw talent until some confidence builds and experience teaches. At this juncture, one can plot true courses, navigate the improbable, and figure how best to address their audience. The trick is to stay hungry, edgy, intuitive, and a few steps out of kilter.

Take our youthful lad Khonnor (Connor Kirby - Long) and his Handwriting CD, a remarkable achievement by any account for one of any age. You can easily find numerous faults and quibble the small points but none could doubt the talent. His knack for composition, diversity, and simplicity outshine any weakness due to naivety or lack of experience. He just flat out doesn't know better, but is willing to lay his guts on the line. Forget that some of the songs ride light on substance or content as he more than makes up for it in trail, risk, and experimentation. The fragmentation, electronic chatter, and background buzz are artist liberties. Lest we all be too old and forget, it's always the young ones who create the new sounds that structure the new underground scenes, ultimately affecting what we end up listening to as the `new cool'. Some of the more electronic material starts a tad grandiose in a cathedral sythn sort of way reminiscent of an early New Order when their song titles had nothing to do with the lyrics and we idolized them.

Locked in his bedroom with a funky mike, old computer, guitar, and Casio, this kid pulls off the equivalent of a modern day musical McGuiver meets Mozart. I find this music inventive, original, refreshing, eloquent, and flat out beautiful. Stuff that in what ever you smoke and toke it. These are some righteous sounds.

Geeze Louise, how can this chunk of gold have escaped all attention by the american music consumers? Handwriting is full of super pretty sad electronical music. Imagine a melancolic 17-year old kid in a cemetary town making sad songs about screen love and space and stuff on the computer in his parents basement, and you pretty much get the picture. It's more heartfelt than pretentious and it speaks to your guts, but it's still skillful and intelligent as hell. Go buy it!

Don't buy this album, and expect an easy listen the first time you hear this, but give it time, because this truly is amazing stuff.
First track 'man from the anthill' starts off with a pulsating static throb, as khonnor's 'lost boy' vocals scitter in time with the ever growing number of electronic sounds. The track ends in a sky scrapping feedback, that sounds like your cd is broken... but in a good way.
From there 'daylight and delight' erupts with the simple acoustic strumming, and is soon joined by a huge swelling horn section. Have no doubts this album is loud and very swoony.
Every track on this album is fragile, and tortured. As the Observer newspaper remarked... 'it is the sound of undiluted heartache.'
Imagine my bloody valentine (yes them again..) jamming with kid A era radiohead, and you're sort of there.
Uncomfortable, beautiful and heart felt. This is a lost classic.
And if track 6 'kill2' doesn't make your heart shatter, then you don't have one.

khonnor handwriting is like that first time that your mother takes you down to your uncles house and finally tells you that hes actually your father.. When khonnor first hit the scene of the lower burke slums, it brought a new light and hope to the citizens. we knew that reform was coming, if a 17 yr old boy can make sounds like these than surely the bombing was over soon. it was almost as if enya had finally infiltrated the lower basque region of spain. and the true nature of human beings and their harmonious existence with father nature was finally complete. My boyfriend Diesel told me that it was like the lil kim first album with out the refrence to animal pornography. the thing about khonnor is that I once knew him. No seriously I know many of my fans out there are probably shaking their heads right now in disbelief. but we once shared some special moments together. oh khonnor why havent you called me. I thought you said the pill wasnt ready? it wasnt ready khonnor, we werent ready. I still carry the locket you gave me. so yeah khonnors music rocks lots of static, aaannnddd static is a good thing. Salt Lake city rules yeah. and julie if your out there lsitening I want you too listen up, its not my kid, so go look for someone else.

If you've already had enough of youngsters named Connor making great indie music, then you should probably stop reading here. Having released his first EP of music at the ripe age of 15, one Connor Kirby-Long built up a small following from his website and subsequently started work on a follow-up. That release is Handwriting, and despite the super lo-fi (supposedly the release was recorded using only one beat-up microphone, a computer, and a single PC speaker) indietronic aesthetic, I have to admit that I'm won over.

Part of what's so intriguing about releases by younger artists (like the other Connor, Patrick Wolf, and others) is that they aren't afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves. While it sometimes makes for either cringe-worthy lyrics or sonic experiments that just don't quite work, it often makes for a unique experience as well. Whereas established artists overthink things to death, sometimes younger ones simply let it roll and that exuberance carries some weight all by itself. Such is the case with Handwriting, a great little release that works in most places and is good enough in others to make you look over the mis-steps.

Drawing influences from Fennesz, David Sylvian, and even Jim O'Rourke, Handwriting is 13 tracks of fuzzed-out guitar-based electronic music that plays like it's filtered through colored glass. The opener of "Man From The Anthill" mixes beautiful washes with quiet vocals and twangs of guitars before the whole things is swallowed in a dense processed squall. "Daylight And Delight" lopes along with stuttering drums and more sheets of filtered guitars, sounding like a lost Flying Saucer Attack track while "Megan's Present" takes a more standard first half before exploding into a shimmering, beautiful second section that feels almost exuberant.

As mentioned above, the album gets a bit bogged-down in places, as on the *ahem* somewhat aptly titled "Crapstone," but completely redeems itself in plenty of others. "A Little Secret" pushes the noise boundaries a little more with squelched vocals and spluttering beats alongside gorgeous guitars and a nice piano melody while "The Stoned Night" again shows his great skill with layering warm textures. Handwriting is an excellent debut from an artist who is obviously quite talented. Here's hoping for more from him in the future.

(from almost cool music reviews)

I got this CD while traveling in Oslo, Norway... From the moment it went into my cd player til now, 6 months later I can not think of a single bad thing to say about it... Simply Amazing.

Khonnor became famous through soul-seek. That's the first I heard. Then I found out he was from Vermont. Then I found out he was seventeen. Then I found out he recorded this on a learn to speak japanese kit and a crud mic and some old pc. Then I heard the album. Now, I don't know if it was all a lie or this kids a genius with no friends. Ive yet to know how he made this on such seemingly nonesuch equipment, there are some very sophisticated electronic ramblings here, that compliment a sophmoric , sometimes mediocre guitar skill. his voice is chill, and calming, his lyrics can be a bit overbearing, but if you block them there are some very satisfying moments on this album, starting with 'Man from the Anthill', 'Dusty' and 'an ape is loose'. but other tracks dont stick as well, some just fall apart at the seams, but this doesn't mean leave it alone, because others tell me I've missed the boat and this is PURE genius. I just think it's a bit too long, but right when things get a bit too cuddly-feely he throws some wild electronic cut-paste shizzledazzle in the mix to make all dirty again. what I mean is: if this album was an acoustic singer songwriter I'd have incredible disdain for it, but I am utterly impressed by this kids skills at editing electronics. I don't know, but I think the learn japanese story is bunk, if it isn't, sorry khonnor, you really are a genius. now all youve gotta do is get out of your basement, get some friends, maybe a girlfriend, let her break your heart, and grow up with your writing skills.