***The “Great Escape Artist” is back—no, not THAT one, dude’s dead! We’re talking about Papa M (aka David Pajo), and HE’s talking ’bout Harry Houdini. At least in the title of this record, anyway: Ballads of Harry Houdini. Six years since his last LP, the all-acoustic A Broke Moon Rises, Papa M rolls into the shred zone with a fresh, fine and fat-assed set of songs—and just SIX of ‘em, so you know they’re some groovers.
After Slint’s disbandment, David Pajo whiled away the 90s playing with literally everybody who asked—Will Oldham, Stereolab, Tortoise, you name it—but he paused long enough here and there to start his own band, called M. Following the path of M records from Aerial M to Papa M, David recorded Ballads of Harry Houdini on his own, receding deep inside himself and taking the time for ideas new and old: setting down some tracks, getting lit, grabbing a guitar, getting a sound going, and soloing over ’em! With a bit of singing here and there too. Frankly, the amount of hip-shaking sleaze oozing out of these pieces blows the idea that these are simple ad-hoc assemblies right the FUNK out of the water. Sure, when David does blues scaling, he sounds a little like Billy “I’m Just a Fool for Your Stockings” Gibbons. But then there’s the insistent torn-n-fucked delirium that’s accompanied EVERY Papa M expression into the marketplace (with pride) since 1999.
For “Ode to Mark White”, David opted to jam in waltz-time—not unheard of, as long as you remember to count only to three! Papa’s got that in the bag, making for a proper shanty once his destroyed vocals blow the track up; once his guitars start licking madly at the hull, this craft takes to the (very) high seas. A hard turn from the Bolanesque riffin' of tracks like “Rainbow of Gloom”, or the M-azing guitarismo workout heard on “People’s Free Food Program”, but a song that can make you dance, sing or anything!