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March 2021 = |
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Andrew DR Abbott |
Barry Walker
Jr |
New Bums |
Urdog |
James
Johnston and Steve Gullick |
Reality
Anonymous |
Marcos
Resende & Index |
Antonio
Neves |
Kitchen
Cynics |
River
Flows Reverse |
Smote |
Sky Burrow Tales |
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ANDREW
DR ABBOTT – EREWYREHVE
(LP on ADRA
Records/Bandcamp)
Regular readers of Terrascope Online will be familiar with Andy Abbott
and the glowing recommendation that your scribe
gave to his ‘Dead In Chellow Dean’ album back in
2019. Those of you lucky enough to bag a copy of
the latest Terrascopaedia will also find out a
little more about Andy, his inspirations and his
various projects and plans. Along with other
artists such as Dean McPhee, Andy is a leading
light in the folk influenced experimental music
scene which flourishes in and around the South
Pennines and with Dean’s new release ‘Witch’s
Ladder’ (see January reviews) this year is
already blessed with two fine examples of the
art with the imminent arrival of Andy’s
‘Erewyrehve’. It’s effectively the final part of
a trilogy of releases that also includes ‘Live
on Daisy Hill’ from 2018 and the aforementioned
‘Chellow Dean’. It would be remiss not to also
mention last year’s lovely cassette release ‘Six
Principles of Erewyrehve’ which gave us a
sketchbook of home recorded experiments,
explorations and
meditations that inspired and guided the new
record.
‘Erewyrehve’ is in a sense a concept album, themed around the discovery
of a post-capitalist utopia. The record is a
dream journey through this state and as such it
continues the focus established earlier in the
trilogy on time depth, people and place as
depicted through evocative and often seductive
and immersive musical paintings. In Andy’s words
it is a broadly optimistic record that takes the
imagination on a journey out of the bleak
conditions that engulfed Bradford, one of many
towns and cities affected badly by COVID-19 and
where this record was recorded in 2020.
Once again the 8 String Baritone Guitar takes centre stage and is
augmented by a range of other instruments that
provide colour, texture and at times an
otherworldly exotica namely Melodica, Tongue
Drum, Mbira and Sheng. There are 10 tracks
starting with ‘First Sight’, a short and perhaps
wistful melodica theme that is part low key
anthem and part sea shanty in tone before ‘Theme
from Erewyrehve’ takes us to sunnier climes in a
jaunty acoustic piece that has colours of
Mediterranean folk dance and country blues.
‘Homeward Unbound’ feels like a journey and
continues the upbeat theme, moving up a gear
with a sprightly momentum that showcases the 8
String Baritone beautifully in a style
reminiscent of Michael Chapman at his most
expressive. ‘Bell Pits on Plenty Moor’ is a
short, pacey but spare percussive piece that
gently touches on gamelan and elemental sounds
before ‘Ava/Paige’ returns to the guitar albeit
for a more spacious and delicate melodic country
blues flecked portrait piece. ‘Pity Beck’ has a
turbulence in its bending and warping melody
lines, tempo changes and tumbling slide work
that perhaps has more of a disturbed,
melancholic or reflective feel than other
tracks. ‘Butterley Tunnel’ is another short
percussive interlude – a little bit mysterious
but also playful in tone. ‘Egress’ follows and
is a shorter guitar piece that eschews the
rolling upbeat picking style of earlier tunes
for something more reflective. The penultimate
piece is also the longest piece, ‘Red Sky Over
Erewyrehve’ and it is for want of a better
phrase, a lovely sky painting for guitar where
more percussive playing, spacious chords and
melodic patterns suggest its ever changing moods
and fascination. To finish our journey ‘Last
Glance’ returns to the lonesome Melodica theme
and brings to an end this lovely audio journey.
On the download version an extra treat
‘Erewyrehve Return’ gives a well deserved encore
to the 8 String Baritone.
This is another gorgeous release from Andy who has taken an imaginary
place as a theme but has clearly used the
inspiration on his doorstep in real life and
added a little musical fairy dust to transport
the listener and the landscape to another place.
The everyday, everywhere becomes somewhere
special and memorable in Andy’s hands. Whilst
I may have fretted over my spell checking of
‘Erewyrehve’ at regular intervals in writing
this review, I have no hesitation in
recommending that you pay a visit and what is
more you won’t have to quarantine for 14 days on
your return.
(Francis
Comyn)
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BARRY
WALKER JR. – SHOULDA ZENITH
(LP on Holy Mountain)
Barry
Walker Jr. is an American pedal steel guitarist.
That, however, only tells you half the story.
Bazzer is equally at home coaxing
beautiful textural flourishes out of the
instrument as he is using it as a noisy weapon
of mass distraction, and the results of this
dichotomy are utterly captivating. His latest
solo project Shoulda Zenith finds him
exploring the outer fringes of not only cosmic
country but psychedelia, exotica, and even
dissonant experimental rawk too. The transition
from ‘Totally Tan’ into the blissful wistfulness
of ‘Derr of the Schwann’ [Break of the Dawn]
evokes the gradual fading of a harvest moon as
its luminosity is dimmed by the sun. On ‘Insect
Interlude (Circa The Airbase),’ the opening
pedal steel’s loops and swirls gradually
disintegrate into something ever more alien
sounding; that however is a mere teaser for the
masterful title track, which attains near
critical levels of dissonance before erupting
into a blazing frenzy of shrieking
psychedelia. And then at the close we
find Walker on rhythm guitar and lead vocals:
‘Like A Prisoner’ is a telling title in itself,
as if to say no matter what sonic exploration he
undertakes, his choice of instrument means Barry
Walker Jr is forever doomed to be considered a
Nashville-style balladeer. Valerie Osterberg’s
sweet harmonies on the chorus serve to underpin
the sad irony of the fact. Several reasons to
explore this record therefore, and my money’s on
you enjoying the dissonant psych most of all.
(Phil
McMullen)
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NEW
BUMS – LAST TIME I SAW
GRACE
(LP/DL from https://www.dragcity.com)
Featuring old Terrastock associate Ben Chasney (Six Organs of
Admittance), and Sky Green Leopard Donovan
Quinn, Last Time I Saw Grace is the belated follow-up to New Bums’ 2014’s Voices
In a Rented Room and finds them scratching
a seven-year itch. In contrast to the
intentionally lo-fi, bedsit-bumble of its
predecessor, the material here sounds stronger
and more fully formed, although with just the
right amount of polish so as not to completely
mask the quirky bouquet of DIY.
Still mostly reliant on two guitars and voices (but with some discreet
keyboard and tasteful string driven
accompaniment) ...Grace finds Chasney and Quinn coming across as a pair of
millennial, West Coast troubadours, not so much
Laurel Canyon as Lockdown Canyon cowboys. As you
might expect, the overall sound features
indelible hallmarks of both men’s “day jobs”,
although ‘Billy God Damn’ contains trace
elements of Kurts Weil and Ralske and also a
lesser polka dotted Robyn Hitchcock while
‘Obliteration Time’ sounds like Six Organs
channelling Beard of Stars era T Rex. Melodically, ‘Onward To Devastation’
belies its portentous title, the strained vocal
melodies accentuating a lightness of touch that
makes this one of the album’s stand-out cuts,
punctuated by some dextrously busy guitar licks
in the coda. ‘Wild Dogs’, meanwhile, takes the
descending note-style intro of ‘Needle and the
Damage’ and mixes it with some Led Zep III-style
balladry and is another of the album’s
touchstone track.
There are some genuine sparks of inspiration to be found here, such as
the guitar on ‘Cover Band’ where you can almost
hear the coyotes howling back by way of
response. ‘Turned to Graffiti’ evokes their
earlier outing, a delightfully simple, route one
knockabout,
while ‘Street
Of Spies’ and ‘Follow Them Up That Slope’ make
best use of stringed accompaniment as does the
oh-so brief instrumental ‘So Long Kus’, on which
Chasney’s nimble picking is underscored by a
droning member of la
famille du violon .
While still tastefully low key, then, Last Time I Saw Grace is possessed of a more studied and cultivated
charm and one that you sense is more likely to
appeal to a wider listenership than last time
around. It’d be nice to see them over here,
sometime. These crazy days can’t last forever.
Can they?
(Ian
Fraser)
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URDOG
– LONG SHADOWS: 2003-06
(LP/DL from https://rocketrecordings.bandcamp.com)
Look up “Urdog” on the ol’ Google box and you’ll see that this mysterious
three-piece Rhode Island outfit decided to take
indefinite leave after their performance at Terrastock
6 in 2006,
which we’d like to think is something they’d
planned and wasn’t due to anything we said or
did at the time. Long
Shadows 2003-2006 mines material from
their two original albums and its welcome
release marks something of a departure for those
onwards and upwards forever questing Rocket
twins, being their first foray into retro-land
compilations. Either that’s an oddly artistic
manifestation of cabin fever in these times of
stricture or, as is more likely, a heartfelt
expression of appreciation and a desire to bring
to a wider audience a little known gem. And
believe me when I tell you that this is an
absolute pearl.
Brief introductory incantation aside, it’s ‘Ice On Water’ that hurls us
full tilt into a mid-noughties maelstrom of
tribal tub-thumping and chanting and
kid-in-a-toy-shop gleefulness in the abuse of
drums, guitars, Farfisa organ and goodness knows
what else. This is the one that Chris Rocket
gets asked about when he DJs it at gigs (older
readers may remember those). Ah but strip it,
and much else here, of all flimflam back to its
essence and it could nestle or perhaps that
should be lurk, somewhere under a broad folk
canopy while simultaneously giving the disparate
likes of Comus and Amon Duul I and II a fright.
As things stand, though, it marks an
experimental Devil may care approach, where wig
outs and ambient blissfulness somehow co-exist
and whereby, figuratively speaking, Father Yod’s
crew go In
Search Of Space to wild abandon. It would
have all sounded anachronistic - but no less fun
- at the time of release (or for that matter any
time after about 1971), but which now sounds
oddly prescient, fitting in with a lot of what
labels like Rocket and indeed other labels like
Riot Season and Cardinal Fuzz have been bringing
us over the past decade. Incredibly this seems
like the perfect fit, the missing piece of the
jigsaw that links contemporary psychedelia with
its primal sixties roots.
You can well imagine how Urdog went down at Terrastock 6, maybe you were
even there. If so and if you still have your
freak flag, then wave it now, for this is truly
an underground artefact rescued from the
undeserved obscurity of the archives of
oblivion. Whether this bit of well-deserved
exposure will tempt them out of self-imposed
suspended animation remains to be seen. One
thing’s for sure, though, and that is it was
well worth the punt taken by the label when they
contacted a 15 year old email address, evidently
more out of hope than conviction. Sometimes you
have to follow your nose. Then you feed your
head.
(Ian
Fraser)
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JAMES
JOHNSTON AND STEVE GULLICK – WE TRAVEL TIME
(LP/CD/DL from https://godunknownrecords.bandcamp)
This intriguing hook-up between one-time Gallon Drunk and Bad Seed,
Johnston, and Steve Gullick is a stark and at
times quite beautiful work, delivered in a
laconic style and which makes plenty of good use
of the empty space between the notes. Our
protagonists divide their time between music and
painting (Johnston) and music photography
(Gullick) which may help to account for the
paint-spattered apron cover and which might
otherwise be mistaken for that of a butcher
(vegans, breathe).
We
Travel Time
exudes a considerable tenderness and melancholy
grace that belies much of Johnston’s more
intense, upbeat previous work. ‘First Light’
with its gorgeous, classically blended piano and
violin should, if there is any justice, be much
in demand for soundtracks. ‘Seven Seas’ evokes
Johnston’s former boss Cave in reflective mood,
but instead of the latter’s solo piano plinking
we have squeaky, slightly queasy scrapings of
bow strings to underline the nautical theme.
There is an unerringly funereal stab at early
solo Mark Lanegan (whom Gullick has worked
with). courtesy of ‘Poised To Fall’ and which
they duly nail to the cross. There are traces
here too of ‘Soon I Will Be Gone’ – Free, to my
mind, being usually more convincing as
miserablist balladeers than blues rockers.
Returning us to the briny, the all to brief
‘Stormy Sea’ is broodingly efficient, more Gira
than Cave this time, while ‘Big Star Falls’
rivals the opener ‘First Light’ in its desolate
charm. Into the final few furlongs and ‘Swing
Me’ shimmers, Morricone style, although by this
stage the mariachi band has succumbed to the
bennies and beer, and the languid seesaw of ‘We
Sail’ finds our heroes cast adrift on a windless
and no doubt dying sea without land in site,
before summoning strength for their longest
voyage here. Fittingly it is the title track,
another one of a clutch of exquisite numbers
that would have rendered We Travel Time an absolutely essential mini-album but which even in
its long form is a treat well worthy of
exploration. It’s as gratifying a way in which
to play out as I have experienced in many a
moon. No bad thing, I’m sure you’ll agree.
(Ian
Fraser)
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REALITY
ANONYMOUS - THE GHOST HOST VOL. 1
(2LP/DL from Night
World)
Reality Anonymous is the new alter ego of
Danish-born, Chicago-based actor/screenwriter
Lyn Vaus (Next
Stop
Wonderland, Temptation)
with Rob Myers from Thievery Corporation and
Soft Candy’s “Magic Alexx” Rowney assisting his
Philip Stevenson/Blase Settecase rhythm section.
A decade after his Floating
Celebration debut (which
we enjoyed immensely)
, Vaus & Co. finally return with a dreamy
collection of Sunday afternoon hammock-swaying
cloud-starers (talk about sophomore slumps!)
‘Penny’ is a dizzy nodder mixing equal doses of
a-Syd and Brian Jonestown Massacre and the
laidback mood continues throughout.
Kenthony
Redmond
(Infrared Quintet)’s flute adds an acid folky
touch to the wistful ‘Bathhouse Frieze’ and
‘Dot’ which put me in a Spirit-ual state of mind
with Ethereal Counterbalance residuals, and
‘Page Boy & The Dead Letter’ has an
hallucinatory glow that makes its seven minutes
seem like an hour! The glistening waterfall of
‘I Love Her Everywhere’ bears more than a
passing resemblance to the gentle pop of
Lawrence and Felt, and you’ll lose more than
your ‘Context Lens’ [sic] during the
sitar-drenched headswirler ‘Neti Neti’. The
monotonic drone of ‘Yemamja’ continues earlier
vestiges of Lou Reed/John Cale on a downer, so
hide the razor blades for this one. Elsewhere,
‘Corn Mummies’ evinces a funky David Byrne vibe
with a mean sax solo for extra enjoyment.
The
decade sabbatical was worth it, as this is even
better than the debut. And you’ll spend hours
unravelling the mysteries behind Dale Simpson’s
brilliant cover art! Hint: Lyn assures me that
the paintings have a correlation with the songs
- there are 16 of each; it’s up to you to match
them!
(Jeff Penczak)
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MARCOS
RESENDE & INDEX –
MARCOS RESENDE & INDEX
(LP/CD/Digital on Far
Out
Recordings)
This previously unreleased gem of
Brazilian jazz fusion from 1976, the debut
recording from Marcos Resende & Index, comes
as a much-needed breath of fresh air.
Although the group’s 1978 follow-up
‘Festa Para Um Novo Rei’ was released, and to
great acclaim, many didn’t even know this
earlier album had been recorded.
Resende was a musical prodigy who
initially went to Portugal to study medicine,
despite already having the chops to easily
become the highly successful musician he would
eventually go on to become.
Returning to his native Brazil amid
political upheaval in Portugal in 1974, he
focused on music for good.
Newly decked out with keyboards and
synths galore, he formed this sterling
four-piece with Claudio Caribe on drums, Rubão
Sabino on bass, and Oberdan Magalhães,
now sadly passed, on tenor and soprano saxes,
and flute.
Inspired by British prog rock and US
fusion, they recorded this album with ace
engineer Toninho Barbosa, who, with a long list
of classic recordings to his name is sometimes
called the “Brazilian Rudy Van Gelder.”
Though there were suitors for LP’s label,
the closest being CTI, Resende never got the
deal he wanted, and shelved the master tapes.
Later, despite the second album’s
success, Resende would switch to keyboard
session work in which he would have a long,
successful career.
In 2018, Resende agreed to work with Far
Out Recordings’ main man Joe Davis on an
eventual release of Marcos Resende & Index.
After two years spent restoring the
tapes, the album finally sees the light of day.
Tragically, Marcos Resende would succumb
to cancer in November 2020, just a few short
weeks before its release.
The album springs forth immediately and
brightly with the indelible sounds of its time.
Overflowing with breezy, positive vibes,
it sounds like many more than four guys, thanks
to overdubbing and their multi-instrumental
talents. It
has virtually every ingredient in the Brazilian
jazz cookbook (except guitar).
The band keeps the funky energy flowing
with a steady stream of synths, saxes and
flutes, all anchored by Resende’s virtuoso work
on the Fender Rhodes.
The rhythms are varied, often
astonishingly complex, and Claudio Caribe’s
percussion extends from drums to a dizzying
welter of hand instruments.
The music compares to northern
contemporaries like Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea,
and, when Oberdan Magalhães
is
wailing away on sax, Tom Scott.
But more to the point, they carry the
flame of great Brazilian bands of the day such
as Azymüth.
The
six tracks are penned by Resende, except the
frenetic-paced “Nina Neném,”
written by bassist Rubão
Sabino. “Nergal”
is perhaps the biggest standout track.
Resende pulls out all the stops here by
welcoming a giant 14-piece cast of Brazilian
musical elites, including a six-piece horn
section, the band Café, and percussionist Wilson
Meirelles. “Nergal”
consists of an exuberant main theme which comes
and goes repeatedly, with several interludes
varying from quiet moods to breakneck blowouts
threaded throughout its nine minutes.
And despite that huge supporting cast
behind him, as with the other tracks, it’s still
Resende’s keyboards that make “Nergal” great,
with Marcos masterfully playing the Mini-Moog,
Fender Rhodes, Yamaha CP-708, and the Prophet-5
synthesizers.
It may have been delayed 45 years, but
we’re lucky to finally have Marcos Resende &
Index coming out of our speakers.
It’s hard to believe such great quality
could’ve languished so long.
Kudos to Far Out for making it possible,
and of course to the late Resende and friends
for playing their hearts out at the time.
(Mark
Feingold)
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ANTONIO
NEVES – A PEGADA AGORA É
ESSA (THE SWAY NOW)
(LP/CD/Digital
on Far
Out Recordings)
This
is the second of two cracking new releases of
Brazilian jazz on Far Out in recent weeks, the
first being the above Marcos Resende &
Index. While
the Marcos Resende album is peak fusion from
1976, this sparkler is brand new, from the force
to be reckoned with from Rio De Janeiro that is
Antonio Neves. It’s
big production, big band sound bursting with
mischievous enthusiasm.
Instrumentally,
Neves is that rarest of breeds, the
trombonist-drummer (cue the David Attenborough
narration). And
it’s perhaps because of that internal alliance
between swooping melody leads and rhythm that
Neves brings such remarkable balance to his
compositions and arrangements.
With one previous album under his belt,
2017’s ‘Pa7,’ this time Neves expanded his
palette and ambitions.
He
began by writing down a list of all the greatest
musicians from Rio that he would love to
collaborate with, both long-time legends and
young guns. He
must be a persuasive recruiter, because the cast
of credits reads more like the Rio phone book.
Opener
“Simba” is a brief bit of chaos that starts
amusingly with one of the voices yelling
“Aaaaah!” and features a mishmash of instruments
including jew’s harp, not something you’d
expect. Things
settle down quickly as “Simba” segues into the
title track, which is also the album’s top
highlight/delight.
“A Pegada Agora É Essa” is so infectious
and playful, it sounds like all the musicians
are absolutely having the time of their life.
From the shakin’ and jivin’ rhythm track
that just won’t quit, to the rapid-fire bird
call-like sound of the cuicá, to Marcos Alcides
‘Esguleba’’s gleeful voiceover, which reminds me
of the entertainer Geoffrey Holder or Louis
Prima’s deep, good-natured exhortations, on “A
Pegada…” the Sway sure is Now.
It switches back and forth between the
big horn section to some amazing layered
keyboard solos, and good luck sitting still.
Neves
gives an eerie treatment to Dorival Caymmi’s
1959 “Noite de Temporal,” with the vocal
hauntingly performed by Caymmi’s granddaughter
Alice Caymmi, no less.
After tiptoeing and wobbling cautiously
through the song’s first four minutes, the band
explodes in the final minute in a
multi-dimensional reverie of rhythms, keyboards
and vocals.
Next,
Neves turns to Nelson Cavaquinho’s “Luz Negra,”
in a kaleidoscopic arrangement highlighted by
Ana Frango Elétrico’s dreamy vocals (she also
did the Art Direction for the album).
It’s as if the psychedelic party scene
from ‘Midnight Cowboy’ was relocated to a posh,
swinging Rio beachfront hangout.
“Forte
Apache” features the exquisite playing
throughout of the great Hamilton De Holanda on
the bandolin, a 15-stringed Ecuadorian distant
cousin of the mandolin.
“Lamento De Um Perplexo” has some sweet
sax by the esteemed Leo Gandelman, enfolded by
the other horns.
Gershwin’s “Summertime” gets a steamy,
simmering portrayal, including Neves’ own
slippery vocals (in his defense, I’m not sure
how good his English is).
On closer “Jongo no Feudo,” Eduardo Neves
(not sure if they’re related) plays a spirited
flute over an arrangement that spreads out the
whole band.
Far
Out Recordings is on a roll to start the year
with two superb releases out of the starting
gate. Antonio
Neves should be a star for many years to come if
this record is any indication.
His playing, composing and arranging are
first-rate. He
knows how to pull in the finest musicians and
get the absolute best out of them.
Most of all, he makes things fun, as
there’s not one minute of this record that
doesn’t sound like the musicians were having a
ball. Finally,
props go out to Angelo Wolf, for mixing,
mastering and sound engineering.
The audio quality on this record is
second to none.
(Mark
Feingold)
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KITCHEN
CYNICS - REEKINHAME
Available as a Les
Enfants Du Paradiddle download
So I’m sat here on Alan Davidson’s
birthday and can think of no better way to
celebrate than to kick back
and enjoy his 124th (!) album as the
inimitable Kitchen Cynic. And those are only the
ones he’s self-released over the past 30 years
on his wonderfully-named Les Enfants Du
Paradiddle imprint (named, of course, after
Marcel Carné’s brilliant 1945 classic, Les
Enfants Du Paradise!) Newbies and the
faithful alike will warm to Davidson’s gently
whispered story songs and tenderly plucked
acoustic guitar accompaniment. ‘The Fall of Dr.
Strang’ opens the album with a campfire tale of
horror and trepidation (and the temptation to
add that final “e” only adds to the tension as
we await the final verdict). Davidson imbues
Keith Christmas’s ‘The Fawn’ with shards of
flickering guitar dancing on a golden pond like
rays of sunshine piercing through a canopy of
evergreens on a winter’s afternoon.
The
fairy tale of ‘John and Joan - The Clown’s
Courtship’ doesn’t end well for our star-crossed
lovers and the eerie ghost story of ‘Dunnideer’,
an ancient hillfort, castle and megalithic stone
circle near Davidson’s home in Aberdeenshire
revisits his love for local history that is a
key part of many of his songs. The accomplished
‘Emboldened’ features multiple guitars,
keyboards, and echoing harmonics bouncing around
the room that will have your head a-swooning in
time to the vibrating rhythms coming at you from
all directions. Let’s just say that the
preponderance of mushrooms adorning the
elaborate cover art collage that Davidson has
assembled adds to the set and setting rules of
engagement common amongst a certain group of
enlightenment seekers that will have much to
contemplate whilst sitting cross-legged on the
floor absorbing the album in full headphone
glory! A very happy birthday present from
Davidson to his many fans.
(Jeff Penczak)
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RIVER
FLOWS REVERSE – WHEN RIVER
FLOWS REVERSE
(psychedelic
source
records)
This
is a truly lovely work of wyrd folk coming from
Hungary. There
is almost zero information out there about the
mysterious River Flows Reverse, as they appear
to be a loose aggregation from the underrated
psychedelic source collective.
Certainly, this appears to be their debut
album.
Fans
of Beautify Junkyards will find a lot to like
here, as ‘When River Runs Reverse’ reminds me in
some ways of the wonderful band from Portugal.
And at an hour long, you get more than
your money’s worth of their haunting music.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I love
artists who create their own little sound worlds
within a record, as River Flows Reverse does
here. What
you get, as with Beautify Junkyards, is their
own form of folk, buttressed by massive loads of
atmosphere and style, and reflective of their
ethnic heart. And
they do it with great economy, often with spare
arrangements of, say, an electric guitar, banjo,
bass, drums, woodwinds, an occasional trumpet,
and some gorgeous vocals.
Like
the titular river, the album flows along in a
meandering fashion, giving the listener a warm
sense of tranquility.
You, the listener, never get the sense of
where a song is heading, nor will you really
care, so calming is their style.
The album is about 80% instrumental.
Songs may go on for long wordless
stretches, giving you the impression that the
track is an instrumental, then vocals will
finally appear several minutes in, only to drift
away again. The
enchanting vocals, with their off-kilter
harmonies, are mostly by Kriszti Benus (Lemurian
Folk Songs). Most
of the vocals are in English, but there are a
few instances, as with “At the Gates of the
Perennial” and “El Sendero II and III,” where a
man utters a few sentences of spoken word in
Hungarian buried deep within the middle of an
otherwise lengthy instrumental track.
These lines hail from Lao Tzu, from the
Tao Te Ching, and translate to “the gates of
heaven and earth open and close” and “Behold, it
was born of ancient chastity, born before heaven
and earth, how peaceful, how empty.”
The
album is hypnotic, mesmerizing, and full of
quiet, pastoral beauty.
Besides the aforementioned Beautify
Junkyards, the tracks can remind me of
Pentangle, or Miles Davis, incredibly within the
same song. Kriszti
Bensus’ vocals really shine on “Final Run,”
“Rain It Rages,” and “Oriental Western,”
sounding both icily indifferent and bewitching.
For an album its members claim was
“recorded in a cold shed in the middle of the
muddy forest of Hungary” it sounds weirdly
magnetic and beguiling.
‘When River Flows Reverse’ gets my
highest recommendation.
(Mark
Feingold)
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SMOTE
– BODKIN (LP
on The
Weird Beard Records)
Smote
is the solo project of Newcastle Upon Tyne based
Daniel Foggin and this is his debut full length
release following a series of EP’s that came out
on very limited cassette runs. The music takes
its influences from psych rock and more
traditional, at times medieval sources and
brings them together with intelligence and not a
little style across a varied 5 tracks.
‘Psolstice’
opens the record and immediately showcases a
propulsive psych rocker. Distant gothic tinged
and ritualistic chanted vocals permeate the
brewing and indeed brooding storm of guitar and
drums with high flying flute rising above it all
and adding otherworldly and mysterious colours
to the growing cacophony. It’s like an extended
Gregorian Hawkwind trance jam, hypnotic and with
a nailed down groove. ‘Fohrt’ opens with a
squall of electronic noise before settling into
a lively Eastern tinged, folk infused melody
with touches of flute once more used to good
effect. Traces of Pentangle, Incredible String
Band and indeed Jethro Tull style fusions are at
play and that’s a good thing. The electronic
drone never goes away but is sensibly used to
bookend the piece, dramatic without
being either jarring or overpowering. ‘Moninna’
is driven by a more leisurely, mellow groove and
subtly explores more spacey colours and textures
in a lengthy instrumental which reminded
me at times of Sendelica’s extended journeys
into the void. ‘Motte’ opens with shimmering
waves of cymbals and electronic sound and is
more overtly experimental within the context of
a spacious jam extending beyond 11 minutes that
blends choral drones and incantations akin to
medieval religious rituals with eastern mystery
and mysticism and pastoral folk flourishes. It’s
loose but never rambling with a constancy to the
repeating core melody that adds to the intensity
of the music and its feel. Gradually things
become louder and more gripping as the guitars
briefly become unhinged but things then fade to
a calm conclusion. This is music for long
forgotten and obscure ceremonies in elemental
places and it’s a fine listen. The title track
completes the record and its wailing eastern
coloured drones and crashing chords and cymbals
create a dark, dense and elemental mood
emphasised by the powerful dynamics of loud and
pummelling repetition reminiscent of Swans.
This
is a record of moods, sometimes powerful and
elemental, at times elegant, occasionally of
distant times and never less than imaginative.
It uses light and shade cleverly to create
evocative sound worlds of mystery and
imagination where influences both ancient and
modern create a very rewarding listen. As always
this is a limited run release so make sure to
set your Smote alarms as the Fire Brigade might
say.
(Francis
Comyn)
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SKY BURROW
TALES - BACKPORCHIN’ & SEAFARIN’
(LP from Feathered
Coyote
Records)
It was the whimsical acid-folk-meditations set
against star-speckled forest soundscapes that
first pulled me in, although if that hadn’t
already won me over then the laid-back
interstellar jams with echoes (ha!) of Steve
Hillage in his pomp would’ve floored me. As it
is, this evocative debut album, with each track
book-ended by field recordings of miscellaneous
bird-song and the sound of tumbling streams,
reminds me of the sacred texts of Fit and Limo -
and that’s an appropriate analogy too as it tuns
out, since the driving force behind Sky Burrow
Tales is another duo, in this case Ulrich
Musa-Rois and Swantje, who recorded the album in
their home studios in Vienna.
Although the record is (as is so often the case)
most rewarding when listened to as an album,
i.e. from start to finish with no interruptions,
the real stand-out for me has to be the title
track ‘The Road to Sky Burrow,’
an eleven-minute long acid-drenched
dreamscape that set against a repetitive
electronic drum pattern. Imagine if you will
Neu! and MV & EE jamming together at some
celestial Terrastock third stage and you’ll be
part way there.
(Phil
McMullen)
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