Dan Patlansky: Dear Silence Thieves Review
Blues rock powerhouse Dan Patlansky delivers an album with Dear Silence Thieves which checks off the two most important of the blues rock prerequisites: a balance between powerful emotional guitar work, and intelligent and well-crafted songwriting. Dan’s guitar skills are prodigious but they are here to not to overwhelm the listener with pyrotechnics, but are used to support a series of songs that simply leave you waiting for what’s next.
“Backbite” kicks things off. This one is a rhythm guitar workout, which should please everyone with a need to rock. “Pop Collar Jockey” starts out with a ponderous bass drum beat under a twangy guitar line that sets a sort of ominous tone for the song. The pace of the song never picks up but Dan masterfully ratchets the tension up and down with his guitar playing throughout the song. “Fetch Your Spade” picks the pace back up and delivers a head nodding good time. “Hold On” is a brilliant slow song filled with emotion, finesse, and an excellent solo that eventually weaves in and out with the repeated chorus to close the song out.
“Windmills and the Sea” is a mostly acoustic guitar piece that floats along. Dan uses some beautifully understated guitar playing that perfectly supports the lyrics in a way that you can picture yourself walking along the coast. After that is the excellent “Only an Ocean” from his previous 2006 release Real, which gets reprised with a much more intense clean and clear guitar tone and a little more urgency in the rhythm that lends it a slightly more upbeat feel than the original. Things get dark and gritty again with “Your War,” but the mood quickly changes with “Feels Like Home” where you won’t be able to help but stomp your foot along to the beat as Dan pulls some studio effect pedal magic in the middle that makes it sound like he’s ripping off arpeggios on a dozen different guitars one after another. “Madison Lane” closes the album out with a rolling acoustic line that strays from the grittier rock sound on the rest of the album. It’s much more upbeat and happy song and pairs nicely with “Windmills and the Sea” to counter the harder rock sounds of the rest of this album.
After over a decade of making albums for us, Dan’s seventh album continues to deliver the goods that have made him the premier blues rock guitar player in South Africa if not one of the top in the world. Balanced between well written songs and his excellent guitar playing, we are treated to another top notch album with Dear Silence Thieves.
The Review: 9/10
Can’t Miss Tracks
– Only and Ocean
– Hold On
– Windmills and the Sea
– Feels Like Home
The Big Hit
– Hold On
Review by Kevin O’Rourke
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Where can I buy the cd I live in london
Hello, all iis going perfectly here and ofcourse every one iss sharing facts, that’s genuinely excellent, keep up
writing.
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Love you work Dan… Keep on Rocking !
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