pocahaunted

pocahaunted - island diamonds lp (arbor 2008)

"Teepees turned in for shanties. Moccasins turned in for high tops. Spirit fog turned in for purple haze. This is the sound of the world town. Amanda and Bethany have had S. LA metal head Bobb Bruno play electric drums on their tracks in the past, but the results of this album is something entirely different than anything they attempted before. It is less Bobb playing drums with Pocahaunted, than it is an entirely new entity operating in perfect unity. Dubbed out and drenched in the grime of the streets, Island Diamonds features the same vocal come downs and chord repetition/progression to infinity that P-haunt is know for, but with the addition of almost (dare I say) “danceable” beats. This is the record that Pocahaunted have always wanted to make, the crown jewel of an epic sistership. Rub soap in your eye make it red so you look raw. Recorded/mixed/mastered over a period of three months, and the effort/time shows; Pocahaunted’s most developed/realized work yet; features additional saxophone riffage by Andy Spore (of Raccoo-oo-oon, Youth of the Beast, Pukers) mastered by James Plotkin. In an edition of 500 Rasta colored LP’s on clear yellow vinyl with pro-printed jackets with art by Crystal Stokowski, labels by A+B, and an insert." arbor

no se puede pedir más: las voces de Bethany y Amanda empapadas de dub

...para muestra, un botón

christina carter

christina carter - texas working blues (blackest rainbow 2008)

"Texas Working Blues is an impressive coup for the burgeoning Blackest Rainbow cassette / CD-R label. It might well seem like over-the-top claim to make having only lived with this tape for a short while, but this is Christina Carter’s finest solo material yet. It doesn’t top the enchantment of the Carter/Murray/Carter Charalambides line-up, it’s too song-based for that comparison, but it isn’t too far in the wake of it.

Despite the title and the Texan-referencing liners, there doesn’t feel like there’s a profound Texas influence in the expected sense of the word. It’s more in the way she interleaves sun-fried guitar and the vocals-through-haze shimmer. “Bird’s Nest” makes this intangibly explicit, lost somewhere between Autumnal wanders and summer smog. The jangle of quiet guitars and breathy vocals is offset with lead guitar parts that sound like her Charalambides partner Tom Carter may not responsible for the most skyward parts of their chemistry. All the usual Christina Carter superlatives apply here, only tenfold – gorgeous tunes, dust rising in sunshine sounds, clipped notes of honeyed 70s psych and with enough disassociation to keep it non-pop. There are flavours of Richard Youngs’ primitive-weird-traditional “Autumn Response” vibe across “Texas Working Blues”. The mix of weird sidereal guitar sounds with the gentle feedback lulling and wire-crawling electric lead lines gives Carter a perfect balance between worlds. 10/10" scott mckeating (foxy digitalis)

seguro que Kath Bloom y Loren Mazzacane Connors tienen algo que ver en el sonido de de Texas Working Blues, deliciosa psicodelia de atmósfera tejana. para mí lo más bonito de Ms. Carter. es tan prolífica que me daría pena que este disco se perdiese como uno más.

download part I & II

beggin’ your pardon miss joan

click

meg ashling

"cuando Meg Ashling apareció en el escenario me quedé sorprendido. era, bueno...alta. y en aquel escenario relativamente pequeño, parecía más grande que la vida en muchos sentidos, especialmente cuando empezó a cantar.

Meg también es la cantante y guitarrista del grupo de Minneapolis the Gilded Age. supongo que la comparación con Billie Holiday es bastante obvia. no es su doble, pero sí puedes sentir el característico trino de Holiday. y aunque sí es cierto que muchas cantantes suenan como Billie Holiday (ahora mismo me viene a la cabeza Madeleine Peyroux) es interesante ver cómo utiliza ese sonido en canciones de country y folk. ella y Jolie Holland deberían hacer un duo algún día.

...y además hace una versión de Cracklin' Rosie" music for robots

de momento no hay nada publicado, tan sólo un disco casero con demos, tan bonito y especial como aquel primer disco de Jolie Holland.

download

vetiver

vetiver - thing of the past (gnomonsong 2008)

"two years after To Find Me Gone, Andy Cabic and Vetiver return with a new album of old songs, all hidden treasures, entitled Thing of the Past. Think of it as Cabic's fully realized mix tape to the world--a collection of some of his favorite songs from some of his favorite records--but presented, sequenced, and in this case performed by Cabic himself, with a little help from his friends far and wide. includes contributions from two of Cabic's heroes, Vashti Bunyan (who duets on "Sleep A Million Years") and Michael Hurley (who does likewise on his own "Blue Driver").

From good-time rocking on Hawkwind's "Hurry On Sundown" and Loudon Wainwright III's "The Swimming Song" to the beautiful triptych of songs that runs from Biff Rose's "To Baby" through Ian Matthews' "Road To Ronderlin" and Garland Jeffreys' "Lon Chaney," this is a diverse and harmonious collection of songs. As Cabic comments, "I think this is the best album I've yet to make, in no small part because the songs are so good, but also because I didn't write them, which offered me a useful combination of restraint and freedom in performing them, bringing out the best in myself and the other musicians. It was an experiment, and it was one of the best experiences I've yet to have recording anything." midheaven

versiones de clásicos que me recuerdan a otros clásicos como fleetwood mac, a 'a horse with no name' de america, a 'cottton fields' de creedence. 'roll on babe' es ya como una caricia, 'hook & ladder' es demasiado bonita, 'the swimming song' es la esencia, elegante, sencilla y con banjo. y luego está 'road to ronderlin' que es, desde ya, una de mis canciones favoritas...y así todas

one fine summer morning

01 pocahaunted - warpaint
02 cursillistas - moccasin tramp
03 amber lions - faretheewell
04 meg ashling - lovely like wine
05 evie sands - one fine summer morning
06 karen dalton - something on your mind
07 holly golightly - whoopie ti yi yo
08 odetta - gallows tree, gallows pole
09 djuna bel - mighty
10 fern knight - loch na fooey
11 pajaro sunrise - romeos tune
12 grizzly bear - plans
13 pepi ginsberg - in my bones
14 the cave singers - royal lawns
15 fire on fire - liberty unknown
16 wooden wand - blood
17 inca ore - sun
18 pocahaunted - time fist
19 fursaxa - kokopelli
20 desert linx - supple spine steals day sun from only one
21 hezekiah jones - dark hollow
22 isobel campbell & mark lanegan - something to believe
23 mateo messina - up the spout
24 the cave singers - cold eye
25 fleet foxes - white winter hymnal

imagen: 'remember when' de katie

download part I & II

the child readers

The Child Readers - Music Heard Far Off (Soft Abuse 2008)

"Heartbreaking and childlike, “Music Heard Far Off” evokes the surreal poetry of good Dylan with a saner than Daniel Johnston, but still as awed a worldview. If Brian Wilson had been born in 1970, he would have made this record at some point.

Even semi-abrasive tracks like the muted metallic sheen of “Planet Waters” or the lo-fi skronk of “A Tree Waits” have awesomely positive vibes. There is hope by the bucketsful in the seeming chaos and improvisational daring.

This is a naked record too, as the duo of Jason Honea (Social Unrest) and Loren Chasse (Thuja) offer literate haikus that sound confessional even when surreal. Listening to “Son of Man” in particular, one of the more stripped down tracks, feels like an invasion of privacy.

Guitars acoustic and electric drive the grooves, though there are touches of ambient and musique concrete, as well as a dull hiss that often appears as a kind of guide through this poetic and disorienting landscape.

The Child Readers can be trusted, and “Music Heard Far Off” makes you want to trust. This is a gorgeous, if unsettling release that mixes the avant-garde and traditional, the hermetic and open, in stunning fashion. 9/10" Mike Wood (Foxy Digitalis)

por fin se ha hecho realidad el nuevo disco de the Child Readers, y escuchando 'Son of Man' creo que ha valido la pena esperar un año. 'oraciones musicales al campo, momentos del día', y mucha variedad en el tipo de canciones, tonos y referencias (Jewelled Antler, sello carismático y entrañable donde los haya). dieciséis canciones de colores pastel que nacen y mueren en apenas dos minutos, siempre a punto de romperse, como si fueran grabadas con lo que había a mano...

download

peaceable kingdom

emule / torrent

no he podido evitar pensar en esto el día de la tierra, felicidades!

dolphins of east belgium / edgar wappenhalter

dolphins of east belgium /edgar wappenhalter - split (cauliflower dreams 2007)

"very lookalike action.... Dolphins play the new hyms of the ages. duo consisting of Pulsating in the Eye of Vision and Wietske Van Gils. heavy trance. Edgar Wappenhalter sings the message of the future. he is a member of the Funeral Folk / Silvester Anfang troupe of kindred spirits. secret folkballads, sung for the heart. xerox cover, full color inserts."

"...his side of this split is an absolute smash from beginning to enddroning, smokey ragas smelling like musty Sandy Bull bootlegs, particularly when Sandy plays along to tapes because Wappenhalter's got a tabla thing going here that's just totally in tune. There's a couple of other magnificently minimal solo guitar think-overs and even some nice tunes with dazed, murky female vocals. Elsewhere he peppers a dark acoustic number strangely reminiscent of "Stairway to Heaven" with tightly-wound electronic squeaks, drags out a ghostly bummer of a folk song that sounds like it was sourced from twelfth-generation recordings, and contemporary-sounding death chant-ed loner mantras.

...Dolphins of East Belgium, on the other hand, are a duo featuring members known from releases under the names Wietske Van Gils and Pulsating in the Eye of Vision. What you get is another splended side, this one featuring individual-sized portions of gentle looped drones, generated via synthesizers and keyboards and tape players and the like. At first I was in Kathmandu with Angus MacLise but as the tracks came and went I was even picking up more Spacemen 3 feels, don't ask. Another reference point immediately jumping out was Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's Twonicorn tape..." outer space gamelan

davenport, ben reynolds, dolphins into the future, ...un disco bonito descubierto gracias a Clay Ruby

download

lau nau

lau nau: painovoimaa, valoa

nalle

nalle - the sirens wave (locust 2008)

Nalle is the Glasgow based avant folk trio of visual artist Hanna Tuulikki, Chris Hladowski and Aby Vulliamy, from The One Ensemble and Scatter. Hanna’s enthralling multioctave vocal range and singular delivery brought comparisons to other women vocalists who have explored the limits of the voice within traditional musical conventions but as the Wire noted, Nalle’s “clear individuality banishes lazy comparisons to others operative in this area of folk-inflected new music, like Lau Nau or Joanna Newsom.” Top this off with a fearless and accomplished integration of the musical traditions & instruments of the world’s people and you have the prescription for something that, in its very globally minded embrace , touches on the other worldly. Siren’s Wave is a dense & deliberate album of tightly woven song suites where few sounds and few silences, if any, are left unconsidered..." locust

download

fursaxa

fursaxa - kobold moon (sylph 2008)

"What a stunning album! Simply breathtaking! This is easily my favorite Fursaxa outing since her infamous Mandrake. It's certainly one of her most trippy to date. Listening to Kobold Moon is like traveling to a far off place where witches, folkloric gods and bizarre beasts, both fascinating and repulsive, still roam the planet. Either that or this is the result of one hell of a shamanic drug experience; but I prefer thinking of this album in terms of the fantastic. Alternating between absolute beauty and awkward, eerie moments, Kobold Moon is like experiencing a fable, an ancient children's tale. Not reading it, living it! The unfamiliar, the comic, the tender, the terrifying and the weird!" my record collection

"Limited album from Tara Burke aka Fursaxa, packaged in marbled, psychedelic card slipcases and wraparound inner sleeves and released on her own label.. The whole disc has a heavy Judee Sill feel that hasn’t really been so apparent in her back catalogue until now. It all ends with one of the most spell-binding movements in her entire catalogue, with a chaos of vocal hiss functioning as a long, slow pan through the kind of fog-bound territory previously mapped by Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann as Mirror. One of her darkest and most otherworldly set of space-whispers to date. Highly recommended." volcanic tongue

foto: alexander binder

download

nalle

nalle - live cdr (secret eye 2008)

"Nalle from Glasgow, Scotland are Hanna Tuulikki (vocals, kantele, flute), Aby Vulliamy (viola) & Chris Hladowski (bouzouki, clarinet) - they are also members of The One Ensemble. Beautiful improvisation, folky instrumentation, lovely floating vocals. We prepared this live cd-r to coincide with Nalle's first usa tour (March 2008), which was booked by Secret Eye. Numbered edition of 100."

download

christina carter

christina carter - masque femine (many breaths 2008)

"A concept album. Interpretations of seventeen jazz and show tune 'standards', mostly solo voice. Recorded in two late night sessions, impromptu melodies were created for classic lyrics, all telling the story of 'the end of a love affair'. Four of the songs feature multi-tracked resonator guitar accompaniment." many breaths

"Latest dazzling jewel in Christina Carter's growing discography. All covers of standards and ballads, and aside from a couple of acoustic guitar numbers, all solo voice. Melt. Hand made addition of 80 copies. Terrifyingly good." root blog

download

charalambides / pocahaunted

charalambides/pocahaunted - bored fortress year 3 vol. 2 split 7” (not not fun 2008)

"charalambides side is an extra pristine hi fi slice of harmolodic vox/gtr layering recorded live in basque country in 2007. i've been on the farm so i haven't heard the pocahaunted side, but based on live evidence it's got to be great. this is part of the bored fortress split 7". wholly other

"Charalambides venture even further into Lilith Fair terrain, guitar outlining the blues around its Rubenesque form. Can’t hang. Pocahaunted, who I’ve not heard before this, offer up a likable loose psych drone, building up a nice atmospheric head of corroding guitar before the big, booming rhythm section lumbers in. Can’t argue with it; it’s an agreeable, spaced-out late evening exploration into the sunset. Sounds like the first Bardo Pond single, almost. Looks like subscriptions are still available if you wanna get in the grind this year." dusted

foto: ellen rogers

download

mountainhood

mountainhood - brother the cloud (reverb worship 2008)

“Limited edition of 50 copies. Brother The Cloud is a 78 minute, nineteen track acidic psychedelic folk album. Following on from his sold out Year Of The Mountain ep. The album is a big leap on from the ep. It features varied instrumentation, guitars, percussion, recorders, hand claps and communal style singing. The eye-catching covers are printed in fluorescent orange and lime green on red, yellow, orange and purple card.” reverb worship

"Mountainhood is the new project from the guy who formerly recorded as Almaden and this is his second release on Reverb Worship; the first sold out pretty fast. The deals in similar territory late night lo-fi melancholy..." apex on line

download part I & part II