*300 copies limited edition* "What a pleasure it is to hear this new album from France’s Jean-Baptiste Favory, long-distance associate of Los Lichis, presenter of France’s longest running avant garde radio show (Epsilonia), and a goddamn great musician. I Was Thinking is the solo third album we’ve done with J-B (preceded by Things Under and Ciels), and we think it’s the most varied and fascinating one yet. Using guitars, keyboards and electronics, Favory explores the edges between avant-rock, experimental composition and free form madness, in all their dark glory. 

The tracks here rarely follow merely one or another of these threads. They tend to careen wildly through all of them in sequence or even simultaneously. For example, the title track opens with a crackling field recording of frogs peeping in vernal pools, accompanied by guitar playing whose lines are as abstract as they are genteel. Slowly everything gets swamped in surface noise, stuttering electronic waves and pulses until the whole scene fades out in smoke.

But (today anyway) my faves tracks are an odd couple. “The Seasick Sailor” is a primarily electronic composition, which starts with what sounds like a cold wind blowing straight up Popeye’s ass, forcing him into a position that allows Bluto to give him an Indian Ropeburn. None of this is explicit, of course, but how else could we interpret such sounds? On a completely different note, “Under Things” begins with J-B playing acoustic guitar in a yearn-drenched neo-folk style. Eventually swirling layers of organ drone start to cover everything and the track draws to a sweetly shuddering close.

And these are but two of the ten tracks, none of which makes much effort to ape that which came before. I Was Thinking offers listeners a goddamn smorgasbord of sounds, as brilliantly arcane as any you are likely to find this year, or any year. We suggest you play it often and with gusto." – Byron Coley