Albums
Blood Karaoke
2022
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 2022
By Daniel Bromfield
Reviewed April 15, 2022
Assembled from samples of unwatched YouTube videos, the Big Thief drummer’s solo album harnesses a harsh and overwhelming torrent of information to convey how the internet skews reality.
James Krivchenia is drawn to projects with a wide-eyed view of the world and a hopeful interest in the interconnectedness of all things. It’s true of the nature-worshipping music he makes as part of Big Thief and Mega Bog, and it’s also true of his work with Taylor Swift, in whose hands a scarf or cardigan can take on cosmic significance. His new solo album presents the same unknowable vastness of existence through the lens of a computer screen, but this time, the overload of information it shoots through the listener’s brain feels claustrophobic, airless, humid, and chemical. Listening to this information-age nightmare next to the rootsy, utopian sprawl of Big Thief’s Krivchenia-produced Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is a great argument for logging off and touching grass.