Devendra Banhart

New York singer/songwriter. Debut album, 'Oh Me Oh My The Way the Day Goes By The Sun is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs Of The Christmas Spirit' was well-liked by those in 'the know', where ever that actually is. Probably somewhere south of Brooklyn. Michael Gira of Young God Records says: "When I first heard the voice of this completely unknown, precociously talented 21-year-old songwriter, I could not believe it. His occasionally warbling falsetto is alternately bizarre, comical, and often a little frightening. Coupled with his advanced finger-picking guitar style - which itself often veers schizophrenically from gentle grooves into jolting, non-rhythmic stabs and weird harmonic flights of chaos - and the wildly surreal nature of his truly exceptional lyrics - each of the songs contain their own special drama and immediately memorable melodies - no mean feat when your instrumentation is acoustic guitar and voice, with only the occasional hand clap or whistle thrown in as "orchestration." It's ridiculously compelling, low-tech, utterly personal, and hand-made, devoid of any self-consciousness or artifice. Just utterly personal and idiosyncratic, magically twisted and imaginative"