Adem - 'Takes' (Domino) Released 12/05/08

Adem's third studio recording comes back to earth after the flight of 2006's 'Love & Other Planets', and 'Takes' finds the urban folkster Adem Ilhan moving from home-based recording to a studio environment, where the maverick multi-instrumentalist indulges in recording and playing all the instruments himself. Performing a homage et deux, Adem focuses on the years 1991 to 2001 as the flowering of his musical tastes, displaying his eclecticism on a smorgasbord of cover tracks from PJ Harvey, Bjork, Smashing Pumpkins, an instrumental by Tortoise and a rousing cover of Aphex Twin amongst others. 
 
While delicate opener 'Bedside Table' by Bedhead takes some warming to with tiring repetitive verse about cutting your head on the bedside table, it's Adem's chords that pull the track together, while P.J. Harvey's 'Oh My Lover' leaps and bounds with standing bass, cello and plucked violin and that throaty vocal, singing "...oh my lover/ don't you know it's alright/ you can love her/ and you can love me at the same time...". Better still is Pinback's 'Loro' which displays a glorious holographic arrangement of hypnotic vocal, toms and arpeggiated guitar, and Aphex Twin's 'To Cure A Weakling + Boy/Girl Song' shows an audacious makeover that finds the soul and melody in the Richard James's arrangement with Adem's banjo and xylophone coming across like a one-man Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Sir, give this man gold and booty!
 
A mood shift comes across on Yo La Tengo's 'Tears Are In Your Eyes' with the tender ballad adopting a weariness of tone and drawled vocal, while a baroque broodiness is explored on Lisa Germano's 'Slide' with accordion and harp, and 'Hotellounge' by dEUS has all those tinkly music box trademarks of Adem. Adem cuts the Colmans once again on a spectral cover of Smashing Pumpkin's 'Starla' that stretches the range of his vocals from the gruff to the songbird, while Adem gets down for a talented low-down with his acoustic guitar on Tortoise's 'Gamera', and flourishes on our pixie friend Bjork's 'Unravel' with harp and stretched vocals. Forgiveness is due for the inclusion of a weaker offering of The Breeders song, 'Invisible Man', which comes across like a Donovan hippy dippy moment, but Low's 'Laser Beam' ensures the listener is sent home with a smile, warmed by the Tim Buckley-esque vocals, singing - "...I need your grace/ alloowwwwannnnee...".
 
'Takes' shows Adem to be a multi-instrumentalist without peer, a one-man quintet and remarkable solo artist. Understandably in demand as a bassist with Kieran Hebden in his Fridge off-shoot and as a session musician, it's an obvious charge that Adem isn't the world's greatest vocalist and admits to only singing from 2002. What he brings to the songs is an authenticity of emotion and meaning as he has shown on the tales of his own songs.  With pastoral-styled stand-outs in their plenitude and scattered with summery glints, the simplicity and harmony of arrangement throughout 'Takes' bookends the collection next to James Yorkston and King Creosote, and proves easier to reach for than Cat Power's and Patti Smith's latest covers albums.