badgerlore

badgerlore - we are all hopeful farmers, we are all scared rabbits (table of the elements, 2007)

"Founders Rob Fisk (Deerhoof, 7-Year Rabbit Cycle) and Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Comets on Fire) released their debut in 2002. Tom Carter (Charalambides) and Pete Swanson (Yellow Swans) joined in 2004; in 2006, Glenn Donaldson (Blithe Sons, Jewelled Antler) and Liz Harris (Grouper) added their voices. Now the clan extends its cadence of mantras, dirges, prayers and curses with its third full-length release, We Are All Hopeful Farmers, We Are All Scared Rabbits, produced by Tom Carter.

While the group enlarges, the form compresses, into a brambled nexus of sound, as quaverous organs and guitars, humid vocals, and florid tape manipulations all intertwine. It's their most song-oriented recording to date, the tracks functioning as tightly-clasped fetishes and buried amulets, exerting a phantasmic pull on the listener. Together the musicians proceed with masterful nuance and inexorable tension. It is the sound of effigy mounds slowly rousing from prehistoric slumber.

Forget New Weird America; forget Old Weird America. In devotional murmurs and arboreal whispers, the denizens of the Badgerlore lodge summon the dreadful, breathing shadow of the Old Weird Universe.

Features original artwork and tintypes by San Francisco artist Allison Watkins; graphic design by Grammy Award-winner Susan Archie.

Release date: April 24, 2007"

suena 'furbearer' y ahí está la sensación agradable de reencontrarte con Ben Chasny, Tom Carter y Glenn Donaldson. dan ganas de que el disco se detenga en esa primera canción, una de las más bonitas y tristes, con permiso de 'the crops that you tend', del disco. pero siguen (despacito y con buena letra) en diez temas más donde todo funciona en 'slow motion', narcotizando las notas mediante unos arreglos de terciopelo que acarician más que sustentan. si Stories for Owls era un manual musicado de cómo construyen sus nidos los pájaros, 'We are all hopeful farmers...' podría ser el diario de un campesino cualquiera del siglo pasado, su particular canto a la tierra, a las cosechas, a los granjeros que las cuidan y a los animales que lo habitan, el encuentro soñado gracias a Table of the Elements entre Loren Connors, Jewelled Antler y Flying Saucer Attack. profundizan en ese ambiente taciturno y delicado a través de Susan Archie, creadora de la portada (suya también es esa preciosidad de Albert Ayler llamada Holy Ghost) y catalizadora de postales musicales tan emocionantes como 'mountain wine', guiño imaginario a Hush Arbors y ...¿Spokane?