Jinder
Album: Traditional Dark
Label: Din of Ecstasy
Tracks: 9
Website: http://www.jinder.co.uk/

In the days before CDs and downloads, album covers were often works of art. The 12 inch format allowed for photographs of the artists or imaginative, and often detailed, graphics giving a sense of what the album was about. Strangely, album covers don't seem to have grown up with (or rather grown down with) the smaller CD format. They now often contain postage stamp sized photos and highly detailed graphics which can't really be appreciated in the smaller format.

The cover to Jinder's latest CD, Traditional Dark, is much better suited to the CD format. The white text, set simply upon a black background is still descriptive of the album as this minimalist format reflects the stark beauty of the songs they enclose.

Traditional Dark is Jinder's tenth solo album, but in direct contrast to his last album, Crumbs of Comfort, which was full of complex melodies and lush string arrangements, Traditional Dark is pared down to the bare essentials. The minimalist approach also influenced the recording process. The whole album was recorded in a week at Jinder's home; the songs being recorded onto a four track cassette. Amazingly perhaps, the quality of the sound does not seem to have suffered from this non-digital approach and is clear and focused throughout.

The first song, New Maps of Hell, sets the tone, both for the dark lyrics and the pared down sound. It opens with an unaccompanied voice, joined after a couple of lines by a quiet acoustic guitar gently supporting the words. And that's it. Yet there's something in the very simplicity of the song that makes you sit up and take notice.

May You Train Roll On, the second track on the album is the most up-tempo song on the album. It is a song of not-so-fond farewell and whilst the title may invoke memories of John Martyn's May You Never, with a twist and a sly wink, the lyrics continue May your train roll on / back to the place where you came from.

The 7th track on the album, Song for Jackie Leven, is a tribute to the larger-than-life Scottish singer / songwriter who died in November 2011. Leven, a hugely underrated performer once described as a mixture of Van Morrison and a psychopath, was a close friend of Jinder and it is clear that the feeling of loss is still raw. This song slips seamlessly onto one of Leven's own songs, Poortoun, rendered with great love and affection.

This simple format of voice and guitar, close miked, gives a warm, intimate feel but leaves both voice and instrument ruthlessly exposed. Any hesitancy in the voice, a finger-pick out of place is laid bare for all to see. Yet Jinder rises to the challenge with apparent grace and ease. He seems to relish the chance to perform his songs quietly but insistently into the ears of his listeners.

This is a dark album and its sparse soundscape will not appeal to everyone, but look up at the stars on a cloudless night, contemplate the immensity of the universe and I guarantee Traditional Dark will echo in the back of your mind.

Tim Goodson