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ABOUT
Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joe Kenkel (Styrofoam Winos)’s Naturale (out January 15, 2022 via Earth Libraries) opens starkly in close, three-part harmony: “A kick to the head / like a sick day in bed… by love I am led / a kick to the head.” The duality of sickness and love comingling resonates musically: a jaw harp bounces gently while guitar feedback simmers in anticipation. “Sick Day in Bed'' ends succinctly at the one-minute mark, giving way to its sister-movement, “Kick to the Head,” where a full rock arrangement glimmering with synthesizers bubbles up around Kenkel’s voice as it comes into focus:
“My love, my love / on the gray shaggy rug / gives my cold pride a tug / up through the greasy mug / looking down from above / on all the townships of me / all the no outlet streets / kids playin’ in the streets in vain / only rule of their game / some brand of shame.”
The dynamic shift of organic textures and intimate voices moving into hazy guitar tones in these two opening tracks place us immediately on the threshold of Naturale’s world: where one loses some trappings of the self by stumbling into the bizarre wilderness of love.
After growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, Kenkel moved to Nashville in 2011 and began playing songs at open mics around town, taking inspiration from the city’s rich songwriting tradition in the work of Townes Van Zandt, Gillian Welch, and others. Over the years, Kenkel’s songs and recordings became imbued with his love of other genres: the angular attitude of post-punk in the work of Patti Smith and Pere Ubu, Van Morrison’s Common One-era spiritual explorations, the compositional genius of Brazilian bossa nova composers like Antonio Carlos Jobim, and the immediacy of free-improvised music both historic and current. In 2016, Kenkel co-founded Styrofoam Winos with longtime friends Trevor Nikrant and Lou Turner and began playing a slew of bills with musicians like Josephine Foster, Bill Direen, and Simon Joyner.
Recorded primarily at home 2019-20, Naturale was co-produced, recorded and mixed by frequent collaborator Ross Collier (Katy Kirby, Bea Troxel) and mastered by Trevor Richardson (Bantug, October Tooth). Kenkel plays the majority of instruments, joined by Collier on synth, gong and background vocals, Dave Meyer on clarinet (“Like A Sweater Unsewn,” “Pond”) and Styrofoam Winos bandmates Collier, Lou Turner, Trevor Nikrant, on vocals (“Sick Day In Bed”).
Where Kenkel’s 2019 solo debut Dream Creatorpresented his songs in a world of focused grooves which explore an inner dialogue with the self, the ten songs that comprise Naturale run the gamut from his most athletic composition yet, an instrumental pulsing with electronics (“Sudden Returning”) to his most direct love song yet (“Like A Sweater Unsewn''), voice reaching a new plane of tenderness. Naturale reaches outward both lyrically and musically, moving from the head and toward others (in form as well as content, with Collier as a co-producer). However wide they span, the songs are strikingly cohesive byway of Kenkel’s intuitive melodies, confident, casual vocal delivery, and the subtly-layered textures of electronic and acoustic instruments that effortlessly blend and undulate throughout the record.