MOST VALUABLE PLAYER-
dave longstreth: 12 string guitar
charlie looker: guitar
brett deschenes: trumpet
will glass: drums
matt bauder: clarinet, bass clarinet
chris taylor: production, engineer, flute
current BAND-
brett deschenes: trumpet
jeremy leclair: alto sax
alex mead: guitar
will glass: drums
contact me / booking - nat.baldwin@hotmail.com
management: Darius Zelkha/Tough Love - darius@thisistoughlove.com
"Lights Out": 7.8 / 10
"[Lights Out] feels like one desperate night alone."
-Pitchfork Media
As far as I know, Nat Baldwin doesn't use staff paper (at least he didn't when I saw him play last week), but his facility in the manipulation of both the spatial and temporal aspects of music suggests that he either uses a musical staff (wrought of what? ebony?) that imparts to him god-like powers of emotional evocation, or a competent musical staff of advisors, wonks and mandarins … soaring, monastic vocals … Write home about this; it's something to write home about.
-Said the Gramophone
It seems as though Nat Baldwin is sharing all of his personal secrets with us, and it's uncomfortably beautiful.
-Tiny Voices
With a voice somewhere between Karl Blau and Jeff Buckley, Baldwin lays hallucinatory vocal textures over abstract instrumental textures, creating genuine drama.
-Popmatters
It isn't very often that a musician comes along and redefines the capabilities of the instrument he's mastered. Hendrix did it with the electric guitar in the 1960s. Miles with the wah-wah trumpet in the 1970s. More recently, Andrew Bird's been expanding the limits of the violin. Now, it's time to add to this short but revered list Portsmouth native Nat Baldwin and his intricate work on the double bass.
-Northeast Performer
Because Baldwin, whose virtuosity on the hardwood was enough to make college recruiters swoon up until he chose to pursue music instead, is about to make most everybody's ears do the same. The New Hampshire-native (and Anthony Braxton disciple) rains hyper-melodic chamber fire, three choice cuts of which are now available here in all their melismatic, cinematic glory. Hold them. Love them. Cherish them.
-RCRD LBL on "Lake Erie," "One Two Three" and "Mask I Wear"
…an epic horn driven jam that climaxes and climaxes and dissolves into rolling drums and an addictingly repetitive chorus…
-FADER on "Dome Branches"
