josephine foster

josephine foster - graphic as a star (fire records, 2009)

Fire Records are very excited to have Josephine Foster joining the roster. Her new album Graphic as a Star is based upon the poems of the 19th century American poet Emily Dickenson. Josephine lays stairsteppy melodies beneath a collection of Dickenson gems and sings them with a burnished soulfullness like the purple sunsets so often described in the poems. Massachusetts mountains pearled spiderwebs and folk heroe William Tell are all present in this unforgetable meeting of Dickensons posey and Fosters music making a natural and inevitable whole.

No acabo de comprender la etiqueta de freak-folk que casi unánimemente se ha venido adherir con el paso del tiempo a las críticas de josie, no porque me disguste sino porque su música es producto de la inquietud. Para 'Graphic as a Star' la de Colorado vuelve a retroceder en el tiempo para anclarse en el S. XIX.

La insipiración parece ser que nació del aislamiento en un pueblecito de nuestro país, como si se tratase del Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band en busca de su 'Trout Mask Replica' particular. Sólo que aquí no hay experimentación, ni vanguardia (entendida como tal), josie opta por refugiarse en los poemas de Emily Dickenson y los recita a su manera, no los reinterpreta. Así nos encontramos con canciones mínimas que en realidad, son los poemas en la tan especial voz de Josephine, la cual es de capaz de contarte historias de héroes, montañas y naturaleza y conseguir que más de un escalofrío recorra tu cuerpo.

Tal es el respeto a la obra de Dickenson que varios de sus poemas son recitados a capella 'exultation is the going', 'wild nights!' o 'how happy is the little stone' donde parece estar más cerca que nunca de Shirley Collins. También hay serpenteantes melodías 'tell as a marksman', rasgeos mínimos 'the spider holds a silver ball', una harmónica mágica 'she sweeps with many-colored brooms'...en un disco tan único y personal que al igual que 'A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing' sólo de josie podría salir. Sí hoy día habláramos de appalachian-folk sólo esto podría ser.

aldea f.: jose-pine, a wolf in sheep's clothing, josie & the cherry blossoms, this coming gladness
microphones in the trees: australian tour, a diadem
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diminished men

diminished men - shadow instrumentals lp (abduction, 2009)

Seattles Diminished Men present a full-length record for the Abduction label. This LP is a limited edition of 500 copies and comes pressed on 180 gram vinyl. "If current instrumental music was always as majestic and compelling as this, Id hang up my retro-Italian soundtrack collectors boots for good. From the explosive drums rolls on the opening track, the only cover on the record, "LAppel du Vere," from Roman Polanskis The Tenant (music by Philippe Sarde), to the darkly exotic finale, "A Housewifes Dram," this album is a superbly crafted mosaic of whip-cracking vengeance, speak-easy hallucinations and haunted geography. Besides the Italian-Western overtones, the carnival-esque freakshow backdrops, Korshid-Egyptian guitar passages, and flipped-out electronic space-psych, are perhaps the best surf-inspired tracks Ive heard in years. Its spine-chilling how producer Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Earth, Eyvind Kang, Sun City Girls, Secret Chiefs 3, Six Organs Of Admittance, Wayne Horvitz, Matt Chamberlain, Grails, Wolves In The Throne Room, etc.) managed to make this record the ultimate mid-60s surf-vampire-Western revival soundtrack. Elements of Joe Meeks best Moontrekkers productions cross with a dash of Badalamenti murder blues-drama, setting the stage for Steve Schmitts cobra-twilight guitar work and the outlaw drums of Dave Abramson to leave their indelible stains across this 41-minute epic journey." - Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls).

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