The Worst of Black Box Recorder is actually very good. Hints of Grandaddy filter through on waves of Wilco-esque banjo and guitar. Like his heroes XTC and Tom Waits, Sanko fashions oddly compelling songs from mangled melodies and ragged scraps of rhyme. Beck band members Mike Boito, David Brown, David Ralicke, Smokey Hormel and DJ Swamp join a cast of LA session vets to blend sounds and samples with elements of tropicalia, jazz, surf, hip-hop and rock on this 1999 debut album.
Some folks prefer a whisper to a scream.
The artists collected below are certainly in that category. But that is not to say that they don't have their own brand of hushed tones.