Search - Red Krayola :: Blues Hollers & Hellos

Beautiful album art, perplexing content...

G. Preston | Baltimore, MD United States | 12/22/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Another obscure offering from Mayo Thompson and friends. The album doesn't list musician credits, but from the sound of it he's back with members of Tortoise and Gastr Del Sol (particulaly, David Grubbs.) Much like those bands and the recent RK albums, this is an exercise in abstract beauty and minimalism, which translates into wonder and frustration for the listener. The first song sounds alot like Tortoise with Mayo singing a typically atonal, meandering melody on top. After a few minutes a roller-rink sounding keyboard chimes in with a repetitive riff that seems to go on forever. If you can get past that, you'll find a few pleasantly breezy, experimental "ballads." It often takes a awhile for new RK to sink in, but I'd say for the casual listener there's nothing here to impress you. But a Krayola fanatic will assuredly lap it up, much as I did."

Red Krayola - 'Blues Hollers And Hellos' (Drag City)

Mike Reed | USA | 09/28/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Wow! Yet another lesser-known Red Krayola release that turned out to be much better than I had anticipated. It's noted to be a six track EP, but it's duration is forty minutes. I like that. Cuts I got the most out of were the {creative} seventeen-minute opener "Container Of Drudgery", the easily accessible "Is There?" and the almost too way out-there "6-5-3 Blues". Looks like Krayola mainstay Mayo Thompson has obviously been putting his spare time to good use. Keep up the nice work."