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Pat Macdonald
degrees of gone

PAT MACDONALD releases his new solo album as a follow-up to the two highly-acclaimed efforts "Sleeps with his guitar" (1998) and 1999´s "Begging her graces", the new album being entitled "DEGREES OF GONE".

Again produced and masterly instrumented by JOHN PARISH (Goldfrapp, Eels, PJ Harvey, 16 Horsepower, Sparklehorse), MacDonald is being supported by an impressive cast of amazing talent.

The Berlin-based AvantGarde-FolkPunk-strings of THE INCHTABOKATABLES enhance the record with their own blend of intimate, highly-dynamic stringarrangements. Sometimes sparsely punctuated, sometimes epical in widescreen cinemascope, their sounds brings a red line to the album and give MacDonald´s work a rarely-heard depth and presence.

The cooperation came about through MacDonald´s manager that had been friends with THE INCHTABOKATABLES since 1996 and had long been wanting to pair these extremes – MacDonald as being the spartan, non-compromise songwriter primus – THE INCHTABOKATABLES as representatives of sheer innovation and craziness by nature.

They met at a TV-special in Cologne and got to know and like each other. "These guys have such a different style on their violins and cello and have no barriers when it comes to arrangements and style - it really impressed me", says MacDonald and B.Deutung, celloplayer for THE INCHTABOKATABLES is understanding that "Comedy" is "probably the best three minutes of music I was ever able to work on".

Glued together by JOHN PARISH, this album gives you everything that you love Pat MacDonald for, and more. Judge for yourself!

This is what the press has to say about DEGREES OF GONE:

PAT MACDONALD - DEGREES OF GONE

A lesson in life from the guitarist and songwriter.
Outside. Travelled. Vanished. Gone. Dead. Forgotten.
"Degrees of Gone". The nothing and the
next-to-nothing. "I´m out of drugs and I´m all out of
wine/ No more tears, nothing left to pine for."

Just like 1999 "Begging her graces" the new MacDonald
album has a concept without being a concept album: the
hurt that life dishes out, that makes us struggle
while trying to live it. A lesson in "jaws of life" on how to
survive and be a better person afterwards. MacDonald
sees this as part of the menu, is neither lustfully
dissecting the private psychology of pain nor fleeing
into sarcasm. The man is alive and wants to be.

Again John Parish (eels, PJ Harvey) produced and
played a lot. The strings of the notorious
INCHTABOKATABLES find a better home here - pure
luxury, but beautiful. "No One´s Daddy" would be a
Stones-cover by Polly Harvey, the ghostly Rock´n Roll
of "Baby Love" a T-Bone Burnett copy and "The Other
Side" Roy Harper if Pat didn´t have enough
personality. His vocals conjure true intimacy without
being too touchy-feely, the drums are an exquisit
rumble, and the touches of electronica are nothing but
clean, pure un-purism, authentic and honorable - not
just of the moment. Well, the man´s been refusing to
sell out since the mid-eighties and to give away the
worldhit "TFSBIGWS" for a commercial. He´d much rather
sleep under a bridge. With his guitar.

****
ROLLING STONE
(translated from German)

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