HD Download - Jesca Hoop, The House That Jack Built

Jesca Hoop describes the making of her new album as "an effort on my part to grow, expand, and reach new depths in my craft. It is a reflection of my ability to do that at the time. This is an ongoing process, of course. With "Jack" I had the help of three obscenely talented friends - Tony Berg, Shawn Everett and Blake Mills - who all shared the role of "Producer".

The album is available from the Society of Sound. This is a label managed by Peter Gabriel and owned by Bowers & Wilkins.

I can only describe this album as "different". Its hard to pin down Jesca Hoop to a particular style except perhaps her own. There are some really sad songs such as D.N.R. and I did not enjoy them all. There are others that I totally love such as "The House That Jack Built" and "Ode To Bansky". This is a refreshing album where it seems like the artist was more focused on expressing her creativity rather than making a commercially successful album. In my opinion this album succeeded in achieving both.

Listen to an MP3 version of a sample track Ode To Banksy.

From Society of Sound Website - "The album was recorded at Tony Berg’s studio in Los Angeles. Jesca describes the scene: “The tracking room at Zeitgeist is about 15' by 15'. There are about 30 guitars hanging on one wall and a whole array of folk instruments hanging on another. There is a drum kit and a piano and all sorts of percussion instruments. All of these items add to the acoustic quality of the room. More specifically there is a natural reverb produced by the sound bouncing around the guitars banjos drums etc. There are stacks of amplifiers and microphones to play with as well. You can arrive at Zeitgeist Studios empty handed and leave with a fully produced record.”

Producer Tony Berg describes the experience of working with Jesca: "Making an album with Jesca Hoop is like recording the national anthem of a country that doesn't exist yet. Everything is new…even when she is referencing music from eras past.

For every inventive use of digital technology there is the unexpected flavor of a 70-year-old tamburitza; for every invented sound a vocal sung through a megaphone. And in the process of blending traditional with the not-yet-explored, a new kind of music emerges."