For the Record - "Canyon Candy"

Few could disagree that in the past decade the practice of music sampling has become over-hyped, even over-used. No longer a technique exclusive to producers of hip-hop, the borrowing of song elements is a method that has been adopted by artists running the gamut of musical styles.

Canyon Candy, the new album from electro sampler duo Javelin is their take on the traditional Western songbook. A blitzkrieg of lo-fi crackle and hiss, showdown dust whistling and flickering guitars, the album is proof that while the process of sampling has in some ways become irreversibly convoluted, it has not yet reached the end of its rope.  Inspired by their travels through the Southwest, cousins Thomas Van Buskirk and George Langford began to compile and record the short LP during their tour with Yeasayer last year. Given that the record took much less time to develop than the slew of mixtapes and remixed singles that culminated in the release of their first full-length No Más (also last year), it is undeniable that the underlying concept gives the album a much more cohesive feel than can be found in their previous work. In only a minute and a half’s worth of steam train, deep marching drums and a noble horn melody, the first track on the album, “Fievel Goes West,” perfectly embodies the spirit of Manifest Destiny. (Or, if you prefer the modern Kerouacian concept of the open road as inspiration … that works, too). While some of the tracks like “Estevez” and “Strawberry Roan” are rich with the placid melodies that help give the duo their signature recycled sound, it is the impeccably calculated brevity of the songs that makes Canyon Candy a Javelin record.

Their implicated desire to defy genre is present but, rather than a sound collage, the album is a successful reconditioning of the obsolete noises of the Wild West — its tired horses, lonesome cowboys and the brutal beauty of the unknown. Accordingly, familiar elements of the Western soundscape — jaw harp, harmonica, pithy vocal hymns, gunshots — abound on the album, particularly on “Winchesters” and “Saddle Sores.” And yet, the end product, which combines Javelin’s tireless crate digging/sample reconstruction with original contributions, is ultimately a hybrid Western. “Colorado Trail,” for example, pits repeated baritone vocal growls against a hip-hop drum machine. Similarly, “Trembler,” one of the most gorgeous moments on the record, opens with a massive yawning voice and pouring rain. When the background noise fades into ethereal humming that floats amidst a background of warm electric bossa rhythms, plangent strings and rattlesnake vibrations, the song beautifully invokes the desolate cold of the nighttime desert.

While Tom and George certainly owe credit to the many sources from which they have constructed their tribute, Canyon Candy might just secure Javelin their own place in the Western canon.