2010 release from the London-based American Country beatnik. Recorded for ?6 on a Sony cassette dictaphone as a demo for his soon-to-be music publishers (MuteSong), Emit Bloch's Dictaphones Vol. 1 is truly a credit-crunch album. Fuelled by Bloch's rapid-fire lyricism, unique guitar styling and cosmic/comic imagery, the 16 songs collected here are a tour through a wild west of eloquent grifters, talking rivers, bleeding clouds, interplanetary frontiersmen and neighborly psychopaths. Born on a cattle ranch in Utah and transplanted by his professor father to Berkeley, CA -ground zero for all things beatnik - Bloch has a rich history to draw on when creating his distinct American music.