Sample Stream of Espers (the album)
Sample Stream of The Weed Tree
A thick medieval forest, Robin Hood is long since hung, the merry men dismantled and scattered. However, flute, guitars, cello and bells remain. Someone is there to play and sing, but not for the poor – this time the receiving end is the ghosts of dwellers forgotten, and well, anyone else in a haunted mood.
There is something very old in the Espers’ songs, but as the case is with all soothsaying, the future is touched. “Soft voices rendered in perfection”, spaces filled with guitar magic, both black and white. Occasionally exploding in a manner reminding of folk transcendence.
“Beside this tree of oak and moss most innocently
The sedentary song describes our willingness to lie”
Start your journey to a land of cloaks, hearts and daggers with “voices” or “meadows” and see how deep you are willing to follow. For more apocalyptic nature talk to the “Dead king”, and if you feel strong enough after that (or not weak enough) consult the “Dead queen” – she may hurt you, but will not leave you indifferent.
“In softness as in stone we find regrettably
The solitary song describes our willingness to die”
Scatter some berries on your path inside.
Links:
Locust Music
Official Homepage
By Noam Kovacs
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Filed in music
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Standing out from the mild “Enlightened Family” compilation, Diane cluck struck an honest note on the first listening. This American Singer/Songwriter has a “cut the bullshit” approach to her songs, applied through minimal production and virtually no guitar riffs or gimmicks, giving room to the stardom of her singing voice. This dark version of Josephine Foster will not let you sit idly and listen pleasantly. She will scratch your ear and heart until one of them breaks. She will not. After all she’s a New Yorker. Her album “Oh Vanille” does not have an eluding style. You will not have to listen more then once to find out if this is your kind of therapy. A good start will be “1/2 a Millions Miles From Home”. Making use of multiple voice recordings alternating on surprising quarter tone changes, her singing melodies are enchanting and far from trivial. For those of you who appreciate the art of stating elusive insights through poetry, check out “Easy to be Around”.
By Noam Kovacs
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Filed in music
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Contradicting his stage name, Bill Callahan gives out a very lucid feeling in his new record, “A River Ain’t Too Much to Love”. Listening to the album for the first time I immediately felt like meeting one of those old friends, with whom you feel totally comfortable the second you hook up, even if you haven’t seen them in years, or ever. Smog sits by you in a small room with a fire and antique artifacts on the walls, telling you with a stark naked voice about the things he encountered during his poetic travels. His voice longs for a younger (and more lively) Johnny Cash, and his simply arranged melodies and lyrics tell it to your face, using approachable yet refreshing metaphors even I can grasp.
I’m pretty sure even Curt Kobain will find solace in Smog’s version of “In the Pines”, which gives a feeling of benevolent acceptance. In “Say Valley Maker”, one of the most recommended tracks to sample from this record, the lo-fi guitar sound, which is characteristic of the whole record, is accompanied compatibly by a marching rhythm. Some of you will also be happy to hear Joanna Newsom’s piano rise from the fathoms on “Rock Bottom Riser”. The record just surfs the thin line between depression and country music, delivering a genuine homogeneous and compassionate journey.
Smog released A River Ain’t Too Much to Love on Drag City records (DC292) on May and is currently touring the US, check out the dates here. Lyrics for his songs can be found here. There are tons of samples to listen to (but not one MP3!) here, and the video clip (low quality) for I Feel Like the Mother of the World here.
By Noam Kovacs
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Filed in music
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The debut CocoRosie album, “le Maison de Mon Reve” was a genre defining album, the first I noticed since Portishead’s “Dummy”. It doesn’t fit exactly with Devandra Banhart’s mainstream freak-folk (an oxymoron, if you ever heard him), but rather creates its own world of sound and reality, which is exactly what makes it worth buying. The funny thing about genre defining albums is, although they create a genre, no album ever comes out that reaches their high mark on the soul. This may be for the best, as the world CocoRosie created only has room for one album, maybe two. The sister’s second album, “Noah’s Ark”, exists in the same atmosphere as the first one, perhaps a little bit more self aware. There are also a few aliens inside, Banhart who adapts like a chameleon, and Antony who stays a bit out of context with his quivering mumblings. The spotlight is still on Bianca’s broken voice,accompaniedd by Sierra’ss classic harmonious backup. If by some remote chance South 2nd leaves you indifferent, Tekno love song will sink you tears first in the CocoRosie ocean. Who needs the white dove anyway?
By Noam Kovacs
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Filed in music
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Following the guitar virtuose “six organs of admittance” and the slightly disturbing “white magic” couple, Joanna went on stage. She took five whole minutes to set her harp and vocal mics just right, apparently this is not done easily single handed while holding a 6 foot harp (measurement may be an exaggeration). When she was done it was evident form her childlike smile. There was nothing preventing her now from jumping up to the front of the stage and spontaneously busting into an ‘a capella’ of “yarn & glue”. Any misperceptions that this maybe be some little girl-elf with no stage confidence were wiped in the first few rhythm claps of her hands.
Her voice, combining a whispering child and a tidings bearing crow, may take some getting used to, but this non-mechanic and magically organic attribute is exactly what makes her so unique. The silent gaps are filled up with impressive harp technique, which could be described as not entirely unlike a piano and guitar all in one. Harmonies and isolated phrases get etched in memory
“How I would love to gnaw,
gnaw on your bones so white,
and watch as the freight trains paw,
paw at the wild, wild night.”
Miao. Joanna is later joined by a flute player, whichi stressed the harmony superlatives to heart stopping, by accompanying the harps’ pulses with a fuzzy carpet of wind. After about seven minutes of encore requests from the audience Joanna came back, suggesting by playing a haunting new song that this is no one-album wonder. It seems the tunes are archaic, but are waking anew in a freak-folk Newsom package;
“This is an old song,
these are old blues.
This is not my tune,
but it’s mine to use.”
By Noam Kovacs
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Filed in music
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A rare combination of cunning lyrics and quirky melodies, a Fiona Apple album is still what it used to be. In a world of crestfallen artists like Tori Amos and Billy Corgan this cannot be taken for granted. Actually I think it “let me down when it didn’t disappoint me”. Incredible machine sounds like her last two albums, with her own idiosyncrasies amplified. The tunes sound right, like they have always existed somewhere in the back of some collective mind and she just picked them with no effort.
Oh sailor - she is not even trying hard, the music and lyrics are so compatible, all she has to do is cite the words along - which of course only adds to the feeling to “Wabi” - that lonely yearning which some of her songs induce. There is also a feeling of dialog between song triplets from her three albums. Shadow boxer ->the way things are ->oh sailor, or criminal ->a mistake ->get him back, build your own formula etc.
“give us something familiar, something similar, that we know already” Sony probably requested. Well Fiona chose to rock the boat with some circus strings, elephant trumpets and uncompromising piano rhythm chords- still you’d have to be tone deaf not to release this album. “I’m better then fine” Apple sings. I agree.
By Noam Kovacs
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Filed in music
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