Jandek - Upon the Grandeur

"I was 17 when somebody called me 'the ambient late '00s Jandek', based solely on the absurd volume of dissonant, broken-sounding amateur soundscapes I was trying to create out of bedroom software that only 2009 home recording technology could offer. Ever since that day, and the subsequent download of Chair Beside a Window that came with it, I've eaten up whatever I can of this stunner's output. Inherently broken sounding, both wildly articulate while linguistically vague, join this man as he strums his guitar and vocalizes whatever might be on his mind. Any listener lucky enough to discover this outsider is in for the rawest musical experience of their life." Discussions of Jandek rarely begin with the man's music, as unique as that is. The enigma, the riddle, the mystery, is what normally comes first. Very few artists have created such a catalogue of music, over 40 albums so far, whilst revealing so little about themselves. The few known facts about Jandek are as follows: His albums contain no information within the packaging. The cover picture is normally of the man himself, or of a street or house, even occasionally giving us a glimpse of the inside of the house. No artist or album title ever appears on the front. The back cover will have the title, tracklist and track times, plus an address for the PO box of the record label Corwood Industries. It is presumed the man behind Jandek is Sterling R. Smith, because that is the name written on the back of cheques which are returned with your order from that PO Box. He will not do interviews or discuss his music in any way; the only journalists to have spoken with Jandek are "Outsider Music" compiler Irwin Chusid, Byron Coley of Spin magazine, and Katy Vine, who tracked him down to his house, only to be refused any discussion of his music. Until very recently, he never, ever played live. The music itself is what's important though, and that all began in 1978, with the release of the dark and foreboding Ready for the House. Originally released under the name The Units, it was the work of one man. A strange, desolate acoustic blues album, guitar tuning and chords were seemingly thrown out of the window, this was the sound of one man strumming and clanging almost randomly at his instrument, whilst mournfully croaking out abstract stream-of-consciousness tales. His next album, Six and Six was released a full three years later. One would say that nothing was heard from him for three years, but in reality, few would hear of him at all for many years to come, despite his seemingly unending stream of releases from then on. In the sleeve notes to Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music, Irwin Chusid likened Jandek's (then) 28 albums to the sound of 28 trees falling in the forest. There was no-one to hear them, he wasn't interested in publicising them, but still they kept on coming. Changes in style came about: there have been electric albums, albums heavily featuring piano, even three spoken word albums. Some albums feature uncredited other musicians, "Eddie" on guitar, "John" on drums, "Nancy" on vocals, all only mentioned either in track titles, or within the track themselves. Rarely have conventional chords, singing, or even tunings been used on any of his releases. The world kept on turning, Jandek kept on releasing new albums, all seemed normal. Until 2004, when Jandek performed live for the very first time, 26 years after his debut release. The 2004 Instal festival at Glasgow featured a performance by Jandek (announcing himself as "a representative from Corwood Industries"), backed by Richard Youngs on bass, and Alex Neilson on drums. Although on that occasion he played only on the grounds that he wasn't on the bill, and was unannounced, he seems to have developed a taste for the live arena, playing live twice more in the North of England in 2005. Perhaps, as Jandek enters his later years, he will finally shrug off his recluse tag, and become available to his public.