I don't listen to Hope Sandoval when I'm happy. No, Hope's cds are playing when it's a lonesome autumn night, stars are in the sky, I'm thinking of that girl I used to know, and the bottle of Pinot is getting near empty. Why sleep when those memories are gonna keep you up anyway? So I hit repeat, and sink into the soft caress of The Warm Inventions one more time.

Like Tom Waits' "Early Years", Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" or The Velvet Underground's 3rd album, Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions' latest, "Through the Devil Softly", is what you play when you need an album that will put its arm around your shoulder and hold you close. Like those albums, the performances here are incredibly intimate; this is not music that jumps out of your speakers; rather, it's music that casts a spell through its softness, its fragility, its restraint, and the way it flows through your body like liquid morphine. It's a sound where you actually hear fingers sliding on strings, where the vocals seem to be whispered straight into your ear, and where a single drum hit echoes like a gunshot in the forest.

Playing Hope's latest, my first impression was that it sounded a lot like her last one, "Bavarian Fruit Bread", also with The Warm Inventions. Now if there were dozens of vocalists out there doing this sound, that might bother me, but there aren't. In fact, there's just one, Hope Sandoval, who -love her or hate her- has carved out an absolutely distinctive style, as unique as any Norah or Bjork or Amy, all feline dragged-out slurs and slides and breathy blues. The other thing I knew, based on past experience, was that these songs would start to blossom over 5 or 10 listens, and sure enough they have.

The album opens with a clear "single", "Blanchard", which features more of a full band sound: Strummed acoustic guitars, rolling piano chords, a touch of Velvety bent-string twang, and a subdued rhythm section establish a tres Mazzy Star vibe -all bluesy-junkie-acid-folk- over which Hope purrs and whispers her reverb-drenched vocals. The words, though, seem deliberately blurry, hazy, just one step beyond comprehension unless you really, really listen. Which may be the point.

"Wild Roses" drops you deeper into the album's vibe: just a finger-picked guitar line with Hope's voice following it, running from it, following it again, "to leave, or to come back." A lonesome Neil Young harmonica will join in later, but when the entire band kicks in on the chorus, it will just grab your soul and refuse to give it back. An echoing, fuzzy bassline in a loping 3/4 rhythm establishes "For the Rest of Your Life", with some vibraphone (or maybe xylaphone) keeping a subdued feel until some fuzz guitar crashes in like a foot through your ceiling. Hope plays the siren here, taunting a lover like Patricia Arquette in that empty house in David Lynch's "Lost Highway" ("you'll never have me.") Dark, dark, dark.

"Sets The Blaze" is a stunner, with a very creative arrangement that's typical of the way Sandoval & The Warm Inventions polish a song till it shines like a gem, not a single note played unless it's absolutely necessary. So much of their sound is about space, about refusing to clutter things up, and this song is a perfect example. Delicate finger-picked guitar lines and tentative plunked keys set the mood, with a shimmer of cello that emerges like a mirage. No drums. Hope's vocals dance around the other lines, and every now and then the vocals double up with a harmony that seems like a reflection shimmering on the water. The lyrics remain impressionistic, full of mystery, suggesting much without getting pinned down. Hope's voice, sensual and breathy, hits you like a dream.

"Blue Bird", like "Sets The Blaze", also references the devil -which seems to me the code word for madness and breakdown here, or perhaps temptation and desire- and like that song it's sheer perfection. Just listen to that opening. A strummed chord, a line of vocals, the chord again, another line, then ... a beautifully placed pause leaves you dangling, waiting for that chord to make things right. They tease out this intro, with each line, each chord, seeming like it's being dragged into existence, and then Hope asks, "is that the devil in your eyes?", and the band kicks in, and it will leave you floored, an absolutely breathtaking moment. The song builds to a languid climax, then a beautiful breakdown at 3:30 leaves that chord hanging again, with one more question from Hope, and then it builds all over again. "Never / let me go" sings Hope, and you wish the song would do just that.

It's kind of mind-boggling to realise I've been listening to Hope's voice for about 20 years now. Some people might say she hasn't changed all that much, but I would argue that it's pretty amazing how fully formed she was as a vocalist already on Mazzy Star's debut, "She Hangs Brightly". The fact that she has only recorded 5 albums in a 2-decade span testifies to the love and care and real feeling that goes into each one, and "Through The Devil Softly" is no exception. In a better world, she'd be as popular as Norah Jones, but for those of us who know, she's our secret pleasure, our purring chanteuse & intoxicating muse. So slip the headphones on, open that bottle, and slide into the amber netherworld of The Warm Inventions...

Classic post-punk tracks from a Boston act who were part of that early-80s explosion of talent that included Mission of Burma, The Dangerous Birds, Christmas, The Neats, V;, Native Tongue and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. Tense, angsty, jagged -- all the usual post-punk adjectives apply here. Angular trebly guitar, fluid chorused bass, and rolling drum lines all show some Go4/early Cure-influence, but the band was really noted for sharp lyrics and --like Burma --song structures that shifted gears and took a step away from the conventional. B-side has some scorching sax which drove the guitar-oriented post-punkers crazy, but is entirely appropriate; I haven't heard this record in maybe a decade but could play-back that entire solo in my head while typing this. Also a great nod to Patti Smith in the lyrics. Limbo Race finished an entire album -- half their lean trio sound, half expanded with keyboards and sax -- and it's The Great Lost Record of the post-punk era. I probably listened to the cassette demo I had as much as I did Burma's "signals, calls, and marches", which is to say A LOT. Astoundingly tight post-punk gems like "Cigarettes", "Bless Me Father", "Die Jung", and "No Intro" --such a shame it never got released. I'm off to dig it up now...

There used to be a wonderful program on WZBC in Boston on Sat. mornings from 6am till noon or so called Music To Sleep Late To, and this album was regularly featured. Music you can just drift in and out of with ease, and ever so dreamy. I prefer Sheila's vocals with a bit of accompaniment, and this album sees her using wild amounts of layering and overdubbing on the vocals accompanied by simple, hypnotic, gem-like melodies on sitar & piano, with layers of swarmandel and tamboura shimmering amidst a haze of reverb trails. No pop songs, and no drums: what rhythm there is comes from chanted, exhaled vocal patterns and such. Everything is breathy and floating and suspended in time, and the vocal layering is quite something in headphones!Incense-like music that wafts inside your head and sends you far, far away. This is still Sheila's best recording bar none, IMO, and better yet, this version comes with side A from "Nada Brahma" tacked on as bonus tracks, which is in a similar style to "Quiet" and just as good. If there is one essential Indipop Sheila Chandra album, this is clearly it. Sounds as original today as when it was made, and remains the best (only?) ambient Indian vocal album ever.

This is not an actual release.

We pressed 500 copies of "Universal" as a giveaway for Hikari (Bali-based clothing brand) in 2000. There were a few leftover sleeves, and we got many requests for copies of this, so we burnt maybe 10 on cdr that were sold with the original sleeve, and an extra track (Holistic Resonance -- Pulsar remix) added as a bonus. The bonus track originally appeared on the "Strong Sun Moon" comp, Japan-only...