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All Music Guide:
Working out of the small town of Anacortes in northern Washington state, Karl Blau has released several cassettes, as well as a CD, Shell Collection, on the small Knw-Yr-Own label. Shell Collection, from 1997, is comprised of four-track recordings that are among the more intriguing and versatile sounds to have come out of the lo-fi indie underground. With a vibe that is both down-home and whimsical, Blau grafts parts of winsome folk-rock onto lazy jamming blues, vintage rocksteady reggae, high '70s soul harmonies, and ceremonial-sounding flutes in his unpredictable and shifting mixture of elements. While it's true the recordings could be tighter in execution and clearer in fidelity, their spontaneity and lack of calculation is also integral to their charm and conviction. Blau is also part of the jam band Captain Fathom, whose Knw-Yr-Own CD is more conventional (though not enormously so) in songwriting, and more disciplined in performance and recording dynamics.
Wikipedia:
Karl Blau is an indie rock and folk musician based in Anacortes, Washington, and member of the Knw-Yr-Own/K Records collective. His music is eclectic, incorporating elements of folk, dub, R&B, bossa nova, grunge, hip hop, drone, and worldbeat.
Blau is a singer-songwriter who releases his music through a subscription service called the "Kelp Lunacy Advanced Plagiarism Society", retitled from "Kelp Monthly" as new releases were not produced and sent out on time. He has played in several bands over the years, such as D+, Brothers Blau, Captain Fathom and Your Heart Breaks. He also has collaborated extensively with other Washington-based musicians, including Phil Elvrum of the groups The Microphones and Mount Eerie. In addition, he has toured and recorded with Laura Veirs, whose career also began in the Pacific Northwest. He currently plays bass in Earth.
In December 2007, a grassroots online petition drive began gathering signatures urging Knw-Yr-Own Records in Anacortes to reissue the Shell Collection compilation of Blau's early 4-track recordings. As part of the campaign, Blau posted a statement on his MySpace page calling for the release of the album on vinyl, stating "everything sounds better on LP not to mention the art is bigger".
Blau was referenced in a song carrying his name by London punk band Video Nasties.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).
