Dntel / Dumb Luck - SP725

Thirteen years after starting to work under the Dntel moniker and almost six years after releasing his last Dntel full-length, Life is Full of Possibilities (Plug Research), Jimmy Tamborello has painstakingly built and birthed Dumb Luck, an album five years in the making. In addition to his own vocals on the title track, the record’s sometimes spacious, sometimes texturally intense compositions center around vocal contributions from Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley), Edward Droste (Grizzly Bear), Valerie Trebeljahr and Markus Acher of Lali Puna, Mia Doi Todd, Grant Olsen and Sonya Westcott (Arthur & Yu), Andrew Broder (Fog), Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) and Christopher and Jennifer Gunst (Mystic Chords of Memory). Chris Hathwell (Moving Units) plays drums throughout, and Paul Larson (The Minor Canon) adds guitar as well. Thick with Tamborello’s signature sampler finessing, warm electronic washes and genius beat placement, Dumb Luck is an album lyrically as much about human distance as connection. Like Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake (Plug Research), his 2006 release under the name James Figurine, and The Postal Service’s 2003 release Give Up, Tamborello meticulously labored over each element in his LA home studio. This is Dntel’s first album with Sub Pop.

Jimmy is a curious and interesting dude and he’s created what he calls “a 40-minute drone piece” which is really him alone in the studio doing what he does in long-format. We’re giving away copies of this on CD if you pre-order (through 4/22/07) the record at subpop.com and they are super limited so hurry up.

Released: 2007-02-12 (CD), 2007-02-12 (LP), 2007-04-24 (MP3s)