"i met matt himes, the man behind shep and me, in belfast, maine last spring and
i was instantly captivated by his music. using a mix of incredible folk
inspired guitar playing, tape loops, field recordings and his unique
voice, he makes some of the eeriest, most engaging folk infused
soundscapes i have ever heard. i imagine that shep and me sounds like a
collection of old dust-bowl folk recordings that have been melted
corroded and then discovered seventy five years later. ghostly, haunting
and beautiful are all adjectives that can be used to describe this
tape." time~lag
"Nasturtium Inertia. For those un-familiar, Shep and Me is the moniker of
multi-instrumentalist Matthew Himes. On Nasturtium Inertia he continues
to create hauntingly beautiful songs woven out of solo guitar and banjo
fragments with ghostly vocals layered on top of electronic drones and
warbles. Housed in gorgeous handmade sleeves, painstakingly assembled by
Himes himself, don’t miss out on some of the most unique music to come
out this year." mind skull
"smoky-folk psychedelia. originally released on cassette by El Tule in 2009, the vinyl edition of "Nasturtium Inertia" has been re-mixed, re-sequenced and remastered, with two new songs this time around not available on the cassette version. hand screen printed art-paper sleeves and double-sided full color insert with lyrics." lighten up sounds
suena el silbido melancólico de 'spaguetti bowl' y de verdad pienso que algún día me gustaría construirle un altar a Matthew Himes, reconocerle la grandeza y la importancia de su tímida trayectoria desde que hace poco surgiera de la nada con 'spring creeper', esa cinta de cassette mágica que Cabin Floor Esoterica publicó el año pasado y gracias a la cual poco a poco, casi con cuentagotas, hemos ido descubriendo sus anteriores trabajos. ahí empezó todo... no sé, de cuando te preguntas cómo estas canciones no han estado contigo, sonando cada día, recomendadas por mil blogs y páginas de música, hasta hoy, de cuando el adjetivo 'estremecedor' carecería de sentido si mientras lo lees no suenan la vocecilla y el banjo de Matthew de fondo.
'nasturtium inertia', cuya versión en cassette tiene dos canciones no incluídas en el vinilo ('aftermath of the red-ox' y "scraps and debris') y al revés ('this rate' y 'melancholy remedy'), es su mejor disco y eso es mucho decir. la voz de Matthew Himes, que parece quebrarse de pura fragilidad, será siempre la de un duende de los años cincuenta, en sus manos las notas quedan reducidas a una capa de sonido de vinilo antiguo desgastado que de tan bonito, marciano, atemporal, añejo, hace que, sin exagerar, casi se me salten las lágrimas. tan desnudo que hasta 'trees, chants and hollers' de Valerie Webb & Paul Labrecque y 'aren't you ashamed'' de Cap'n Jack parecen producidos y convencionales. nunca unas canciones sonaron tan sinceras, tan confesionales, tan tristes, como si Matthew intentase decirnos algo ('I feel like so much of that work comes from a deep place of personal
misery, and the only reason for the project to exist is to try to share
those feelings with people and get it out of my system. performing live as Shep and Me over the years became a fairly painful
experience, like method acting, or going out and crying in public, so I
eventually felt that it was healthier to not perform these songs. The
project officially started in 2001 with the first s/t cassette release,
so I put in a full decade of work into the project').
podría añadir adjetivos como maravilloso, sobrecogedor, frases como 'fuera de este mundo', 'disco del año aún siendo de hace años', pero se quedarían todos cortos para transmitir la increíble tristeza y melancolía que transmite 'nasturtium inertia'. Matthew, su voz, su forma de procesarla, sus letras, su banjo, su ukelele, su viejo radiocassette, su silbido, sus melodías y su guitarra construída por él mismo, ha sabido crear esas tonadillas imperecederas a las que vuelves una y otra vez casi por inercia, como 'scraps and debris', que podría ser una versión más desnuda y millones de veces más bonita de 'leaves on the breeze' del split con Caethua, tan por encima de cualquier adjetivo que ni siquiera importa que de repente se corte como si estuviera inacabada, como si fuera un boceto. o 'all aboard', o 'joan'. de verdad que todo lo que pueda decir se queda pequeño porque hay voces, climas, que no se pueden explicar, sólo sentir. Matthew al Olimpo de los dioses, las musas y los elfos como Washington Phillips, Ignatz, Keijo, Cap'n Jack, Josephine Foster, Lulu Jackson, Uke of Spaces Corners, Grizzly Prospector, ...ojalá algún día tenga el reconocimiento que se merece y su nombre aparezca en una imaginaria segunda antología del folk como la de Harry Smith. “a ride on a rainbow... it’s my makeshift melody... lah dah dah”
la versión que dejo para descargar es la de cassette, pero Matthew recomienda la reedición en vinilo, que suena mucho mejor y tiene dos canciones diferentes, con un halo un poco más psicodélico y minimal. agradecerle de corazón que haya querido compartirla, aún sabiendo lo poco que le gusta que sus canciones vaguen dispersas por la red en formato mp3.
fotos: jordan sullivan
buy the lp here or here ~ buy the tape ~ download the tape version
2 comments:
"scraps and debris"
"Well, it crossed my mind today,
that there must be a way
to make up my mind.
And they say
that now is a good time
for making moves.
But I'm sorry to say
that my brain boiled away,
and these boxes of scraps and debris
showing remnants of she
are just that;
Scraps and debris.
In these later days,
as I gaze at the darkening skies,
and the blinking stars,
You may think me crazed,
or insist that my luck has worn thin,
or run out like a dog
when you first get home
from a job that you hate
but you need,
So you go everyday
while your dog waits at home.
And the days become weeks,
and my bleak outlook reeks
of misanthropy,
tugging my chain.
How it stinks,
Like a bucket of piss
on a hot summer day.
Like a sewer rat
having caught fire,
from chewing on
electrical wires with it's teeth.
Cause he's drawn to the heat
like a moth is drawn to the flame."
<3
"leaves on the breeze"
"Before I was 16,
there’s a book that I read,
and it said
on the first day of fall,
That the leaves on the breeze
as they fall from the trees
are your key
to no bad luck at all.
But try as I may
Not one leaf came to me,
and oh! how I tried
snatching leaves on the breeze.
Leaves on the breeze.
In this old magazine that I had,
where the pictures were bad,
but the facts were all there,
said the average teen,
what with staring at screens
will have seen
their fair share of despair
But I fear that my time
may have been better spent,
having sat on my ass
in the grass with my eyes closed.
Can’t say thats nothing."
"That the leaves on the breeze
as they fall from the trees
are your key
to no bad luck at all."
:)
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