Jai Agnish – Awake When You Dream
(free digital download; 2008)
New Jersey based indie artist Jai Agnish has released his third album, Awake When You Dream, as a free digital download. Agnish, known for his work as an electro-acoustic pop experimentalist — wanted to see what he could pull off without the machines.
Agnish sets out on this 11-song journey with his trusty Gibson J-45 and a 1980′s Roland synth. The songs are grounded in acoustic guitar rhythm with Agnish weaving lead guitar and synth melodies playfully throughout. Agnish performs all the instruments and is occasionally joined on vocals by Peg Carlin. Agnish also multi-tracks his own voice in new ways while experimenting with harmony and spatial nuance. Even without drums the songs are surprisingly rhythmic as Agnish takes advantage of upbeats and less obvious rhythmic patterns without losing the listener. The music, which was recorded by Agnish over a year-long period on his home computer, has the intimacy of a home-recording but the clarity of a “for-real” studio.
Lyrically, Agnish explores the imaginative and political. Topics range from love and dreams to shopping mall sprawl, protests and family adventure stories. With “India” Agnish shares his impressions of connecting with his Indian heritage when he visited the country for the first time. “Lightning Bugs” is a fantastical tale Agnish wrote for his 2-year-old nephew.
Jai Agnish – Mechanical Sunshine
(released on ClerestoryAV; 2006)
Buy this CD from Jai’s store or buy the songs (MP3, FLAC, more)
at Bandcamp by clicking on the player above. Also available at iTunes.
Mechanical Sunshine marked the maturation of Agnish’s foray into the electro-folk-tronica experiment. This 15-track CD was released on ClerestoryAV in 2006 and features a new drum machine and several guest musicians.
JSRockit returns for a guest rap appearance and some programming. Two of the songs are without electronic elements — foreshadowing Agnish’s temporary departure from machine-inspired song-writing.
Read a review of the CD that ran in the Chicago Tribune here.
Jai Agnish – Automata
(self-released on Blue Bunny Records; 2000)
CD is out of print. Download the songs (MP3, FLAC, more)
through Bandcamp by clicking on the player above.
In 2000 Agnish self-released his debut full-length CD, Automata, on his Blue Bunny Records. Here, with 11 tracks, he merged drum machine generated beats and melody and toy samples with acoustic guitar-based singing and song-writing. The sound — electro-folk, folk-tronica, or maybe indie-tronica — prompted The Toronto Star to call Agnish a “techno-savvy, 21st-century descendant of Nick Drake or Leonard Cohen.”
Pitchfork, in a favorable review (7.6 rating) said “Agnish blends electronics, toys, and folk into a chalice and offers it to you as a gift. Both familiar and unlike anything else, you’d be wise to taste it.” The album was spun on college radio, debuting at number 121 on the CMJ charts.
Sufjan Stevens, a former band-mate who toured and performed regularly with Agnish in support of the album, recorded melodica on one song and analog synth on another. JSRockit, a long-time friend and musical influence who accompanies Agnish on other releases, contributes programming on two of the songs on Automata. Agnish toured in support of the CD with Stevens, Half-Handed Cloud, Soul-Junk, Danielson, and Unwed Sailor.
Jai Agnish – Our Split EP
(released on Men of Israel Records; 2003)
Buy this CD from Jai’s store or buy Jai’s songs (MP3, FLAC)
at Bandcamp by clicking on the player above.
Agnish joined up with the Israeli-based band, The Pit That Became a Tower (formerly Gospel Zombie), for a split E.P. in 2003.
Agnish’s six tracks feature early, pre-Automata drum machine and Casio keyboard experiments. Two newer tracks recorded around the time of Mechanical Sunshine were also included here.
8.21 a blue bunny compilation
(released on Blue Bunny Records; 2000)
Buy this CD from Jai’s store or buy Jai’s songs (MP3, FLAC)
at Bandcamp by clicking on the player above.
8.21 was a collaborative project organized and funded in 2000 by Agnish and Sufjan Stevens together with the bands that appear on the compilation. All but one of the songs are exclusive to this compilation and don’t appear anywhere else.
The bands/artists here are Jai Agnish, Sufjan Stevens, Soul-Junk, JSRockit, Friends of the Band (Soul-Junk side project), therefore (Michael Kaufmann of Asthmatic Kitty Records and Soul-Junk) Modern Synthetic and White Trash Inc. (Orchestra) (Scott Hatch of Burnt Toast Vinyl). Each of the eight bands were given around 10 minutes of space on the compilation for a total of 21 tracks. Stevens created the cover art.
TRACK LIST
Friends of the Band: Autumn Attic Ease, Love/Gong, Supersharp
JSRockit: (untitled), (untitled), Woke Up on the Wrong Side of a Dream
Sufjan Stevens: Woman at the Well, (Year of the) Ox, Far Physician’s Son
therefore: Rinse, Like Room, Entitled
Soul-Junk: If You Quaff the Obligations, When We Are Eaten By Lions, She’s an Old Bat
Jai Agnish: Wade Through, Atomic Elbows, Collide
Modern Synthetic: Straight Economics, Earthlight
White Trash Inc.: Abolish the Racist White Overclass
