With Duende, Shrimp Boat's wide-eyed fascination with the scattershot
strands of American musical tradition congeals into a remarkably vivid
and engaging whole -- encompassing pop, jazz, country and seemingly everything
in between, it's a laconic potluck of sounds which sounds like nothing
so much as a postmodern Music from Big Pink. Between the jaunty Eastern
European rhythms of the aptly titled opener "Back to the Ukraine"
and the free-form sax blowing of the finale "Tartar's Mark,"
Duende also detours into old-timey melancholia ("Sad Banjo"),
late-night pop ("I Swear, Happy Days Are Mine") and even reggae
("Limerick"), all with a casual disregard for the confines of
structure and form; although they borrow from everywhere, Shrimp Boat
sounds quite like no one else, making music that gives back as much as
it takes.
(by Jason Ankeny, All
Music Guide)
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