On his second album, The Fatalist, Carl Buffalo Nichols does things with the blues that might catch you off guard. Theres 808 programming, chopped up Charley Patton samples, washes of synth. Theres a consideration of the fullness of the sonic stage and the atmospherics of the music that can only come with a long engagement with electronic music. But this is no gimmicky hybrid or attempt to turn the blues into 21st century music by simply dressing it with skittering hi-hats. Nichols vision for th...