Dave Fischoff
Secretly Canadian Records
Dave Fischoff focuses on what's underneath, after you slough off all the extraneous outer layers of sound and emotion. Often this means his music is so quiet as to be barely audible; almost always, this means that a fixation with life on a micro level runs through his music, a fascination with the mundane details and ambient noises of existence that borders on obsessive-compulsive. With minimal arrangements typically comprised of no more than sketchy guitar, barely-there tape loops, low-level noise, and his own feathery vocals -- the lyrics so casually enunciated you sometimes have to strain to discern the words -- Fischoff creates compositions that are revelatory in their lack of drama. Lyrically too, Fischoff celebrates the empty moments between events, the seemingly blank spaces of life we tend to disregard, showing them to be in fact teeming with color and activity that we move too quickly to notice.
Fischoff explored numerous musical forms before finding his current path. After starting his career as a more conventional rock musician, he became increasingly discontent with what he was doing, feeling like he was missing something crucial. Eventually he began using pre-recorded sounds in his live show. After awhile he arrived at his intensely intimate, decompressed approach -- a blend of hushed guitar strum and breathy crooning with muted experimental cut-ups and loops. After delivering an untitled cassette in 1997, Fischoff recorded his debut full-length, Winston Park, in his apartment over a two-week period in November 1997 using an eight-track and a single microphone. "Sallow" and "926" both come from that release. Three years later, Fischoff recorded his frail, meditative follow-up, The Ox and the Rainbow, which includes "Blemish and a Bowl of Oranges" and "We Break Up and Watch the Angels Swim."
Jesse Ashlock
last updated:
08/30/01
Similar Artists:
Songs: Ohia, Jeff Mueller, Smog, The For Carnation, East River Pipe, The Mountain Goats, Steve Von Till, Erik Sanko
Other Suggestions:
Appendix Out,
Guided by Voices,
Elliott Smith,
for Stars,
Archer Prewitt,
Pernice Brothers,
American Music Club,
Will Oldham,
Palace,
Royal City,
Cat Power,
Sarah White,
Lou Barlow,
Edith Frost,
Sharks Keep Moving,
Michael Gira,
Mark Lanegan,
Cathal Coughlan,
Michael J. Sheehy,
The Beekeeper,
Tara Jane O'Neil,
Simon Joyner,
TW Walsh,
Knife In the Water,
Alasdair Roberts,
Spokane,
Aroah,
JR,
Molasses,
Maestro Echoplex,
Bobby Birdman,
Nate Ashley,
Bright Eyes,
Megan Reilly,
Extra Glenns,
Kevin Seconds,
Super XX Man,
Matt Marque,
Owen,
Portastatic,
Franklin Bruno,
Bingo Trappers,
Two Gallants,
Migala,
Win Foster,
Patrick Phelan,
Souled American,
Bevel,
Drunk,
Geoff Farina,
Arab Strap,
Barzin,
Burd Early,
Papa M,
The Black Heart Procession,
The Roots of Orchis,
A Day Called Zero,
Aereogramme,
The New Year
