Feb 9, 2012

ryley walker & daniel bachman


It’s hard to fathom what the Appalachian musical landscape must have been like in the early 1900s when musicians would sit on their front porch surrounded by family and friends while they picked away, but we here at Plustapes have long extolled the virtues of that missing link in guitar wunderkid Ryley Walker. It was thanks to a chance encounter while Daniel Bachman
(a.k.a. Sacred Harp) was on tour through the Midwest that their collaborative effort, Of Deathly Premonitions, came to be. Walker was excited to meet this fellow fingerstyle guitar traveller of comparable age and equal ability – the first thing they talked about was a shared love for Loren Connors and Sandy Bull. Not long after, they were talking record collections and collaborations. Of Deathly Premonitions is the result, four songs birthed from a relaxed session in the middle of the week during a trip Walker made to Bachman’s hometown of Fredericksberg, Virginia this past spring. With a few beers and a bit of ambition, the pastoral past meets the fingerstyle future. 100 copies.

No puedo más que confirmar las sensaciones del año pasado. Daniel Bachman se ha convertido ya en uno de esos imprescindibles fingerpickings de esta aldea y las doce cuerdas de Ryley Walker ayudan a ello.

Jan 16, 2012

savaging spires


Enchanting from the off, their eponymous debut is set to become a real cult classic, crossing secret paths between pastoral psych collaging and knowingly meticulous folk composition in the flicker of a hare's whisker. Wicker Man references abound, but there's something far more wyrd at play here, an instinctively organic flow between seemingly improvised jamming and full blown choral harmonies bound to take your breath away. critical heights

Savaging Spires play improvised lullabies and outro jams with here and there a song context but mostly the vocals are with nananas and lalalas in very nice group harmonies, girls and boys in separate choirs. The instruments remain somewhat steady as instant found percussions and hand claps, acoustic guitar strums and pickings, banjos, flute and glockenspiel, here and there a cello texture. This is a staring at a nice forest and environment at a doorstep, a celebration to a time standing still place. Themes like songs are only repetitions of just one sentence. The sound of their improvisations are really nice, which is psych-folk/acid folk minded, performed by new hippies with a forest mind, but it is getting a bit long and limited for a full release doing only that outro, intro, intermezzo, and lullaby jam stuff. psychedelic folk

Oct 23, 2011

john terlazzo (rare earth XXVI)


"Dark loner poet folk/rock. Very heavy Leonard Cohen influence, but makes LC seem cheerful by comparison. Even the one song that is upbeat, almost good-timey, has a dark undertone. Terlazzo is accompanied on many tracks by a beautiful haunting female backing vocal which is often wordless. Several tracks have fine electric guitar leads and solos. The poetic nature of his writing rather stark and often “esoteric” lyric images, brought out well by his rather limited baritone voice. I rate this at the top of the loner folkie heap." Patrick Lundborg /Acid Archives.

No sé que más añadir, sólo la poesía de 'Avalanche' de Leonard Cohen o 'Things Behind The Sun' de Nick Drake se acerca a 'Honour Among Thieves' o 'The Older Code'.

Sep 15, 2011

the family elan


Fusion is a dirty word, implying clinicism and a dry sense of conscious matchmaking. “Bow Low Bright Glow” is a more a communal excavation and re-presentation of buried European folk and
sufi-hearted music than any form of experiment. Family Elan are alone in their field. Here, Chris Hladowski has put together a collection of original numbers, visions created from lost/found tapes and traditional pieces (including a absolutely gorgeous “The BlackPlanets Of Her Eyes”) that are a fitting companion to Family Elan’s “Stare of Dawn” debut.

Alongside Hladowski’s voice, there’s the vocal input of Nalle’s Hanna Tuulikki – a voice as easily capable of gentle Qawwali as it is folk song. This is a record of heavy treble intricacy, Hladowski’s saz and bouzouki playing encompassing drones, folk, dervish progressive work and a woozy shimmer over and through the entwining melodies. Family Elan are more than just a project or a band, Hladowski has endowed the music here with a such a unique voice that shaky shorthand comparisons would be pointless and a short sell. Music that hints at the devotional rarely feels as inclusive, as communal and as enjoyable as this.

Abandonado Locust y tras tres años de larga espera, el proyecto de
Chris Hladowski y Hanna Tuulikki, una debilidad personal, regresa al traditional-folk del Eastern Europe y lo rodea de múltiples referencias, drones, una sensibilidad más propia de Clive's Original Band e intricadas melodías al saz y al bouzouki que revolotearán sin cesar en tu subconsciente.

Sep 3, 2011

georgia's horse


This five track EP features the skewed and magnetic vision of singer/songwriter Teresa Maldonado but her brittle and skeletal songs are fleshed out by multi-instrumentalist Tiziano Hernandez (bass/guitars), Brad Thomason (drums) and Melly Rose (cello). But thats not to say that this recording sounds like it was handled by some kind of your mothers your brother, lives in a barn hillman. Their recent collaboration with hotly tipped Pitchfork favourites and electronic/dub step pioneers Various Productions (As It Stops Raining, Fire Records) has certainly influenced the group the title track and Snake & Sparrow, creak and echo as if recorded in a haunted house, on haunted equipment. From the most basic of set ups, a deeply affecting and subtle beauty is achieved.

Aug 22, 2011

bonifrate

bonifrate - um futuro inteiro (cloud chapel, 2011)

‘Um Futuro Inteiro’ is a marvel of home recording. Accurate arrangements built by the bard himself with contributions of his gang formed by Filipe Giraknob, Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov, Diogo Valentino, Augusto Malbouisson and Digital Ameríndio (...) Its the album 'Um Futuro Inteiro' (A Whole Future) by a guy who calls himself Bonifrate, a kind of rural psychedelic fella who was born and raised in Paraty, a small coastal city between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Jul 26, 2011

clawfoot slumber


There is a moment upon awakening when the difference between dream and reality cannot be distinguished…for a moment, we are left believing that the fantastic is possible and the banal is nonexistent. Clawfoot Slumber’s Silly Little Dream occupies this space, weaving together a series of tracks that navigates the intricacies, vagaries, and mysteries of a dreamscape that is at times solemn, joyous, and terrifying. alex callenberger, the creative force behind Clawfoot Slumber, has striven to create music that is not merely aural, but visual as well…in his own words, he has begun to “sculpt” his work, focusing “on the interpretation of sounds as images and feelings within the sonic realm.” His music has become a canvas, his art an instrument…colors, abstractions, and images ride upon the sounds of each track of Silly Little Dream, melding together reality and fancy in a wave of resonance and reverb. the needle & the groove

Jun 25, 2011

adam bleckley

adam bleckley - reverse (self-released, 2011)

I'm an musician from Birmingham in the U.K. I create hypnotic music using different sources of sound. The aim is to make music where the listener can lose themselves in the different textures of the noise. When I made the record I was hoping to create something which drew its listeners into a sort of trance state. I'd say that I wasn't focusing on a particular emotion but rather the ability to make listeners and myself apply their own feelings and ideas on to the music. The naming of each song is just based upon how I felt when listening to each song over and the events around me at the time. Adam

Hay ciertas cosas que pese a todo te hacen buscar un momento y volver. Sumergirse de primera mano en 'Unleashed, you spoke' o 'Revere' y perderse en ese viaje pastoral de drones de baja densidad e hipnóticas soundscapes, bien lo merecen.