Antemasque - Drown All Your Witches

The rock and roll history books are littered with great partnerships. Jagger and Richards, Gilmour and Waters, John and Taupin, Morrissey and Marr; the list goes on and on. One which might not spring to mind right away is that of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala; like some of the aforementioned, theirs has been a turbulent but extremely fruitful alliance, producing one of the most acclaimed and influential post-hardcore records with ‘Relationship of Command’ in their days with At The Drive-In, and making mercurial magic with The Mars Volta for the best part of the last decade, their jazz-fusion space-prog stupefying and frustrating in equal measure. Since the Mars Volta’s public and rather messy split in January 2013 and the, um, “mixed” feedback the ATD-I reunion shows recieved, many thought the two would never work together again, but they make a grand return with new project Antemasque, releasing their debut record after only forming earlier this year. It’s quite clear this pairing have a frenetic working pace when creating, but does that translate to good music?
It’s certainly the most “normal” thing the two have produced in years; while the albums toward the tail end of The Mars Volta weren’t quite as “out there” as the earlier efforts, this finds them at their most accessible – if anything, this has more in common with the other band that emerged from the ATD-I split, Sparta. Rodriguez-Lopez has one of the most furiously creative and inventive minds of any modern musician, always with his mind on the next idea or project, and following this and last year’s icy electropop sojourn with Bosnian Rainbows, it appears he is back on the plane of us mere mortals, going back to his roots of creating tightly-wound post-hardcore jams. For those that grew quickly tired of The Mars Volta’s “dicking about”, this will be the best thing Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala have done in years; while OR-L is still enamoured of the odd guitar effect, this is wholly straightforward stuff and will go some way to reclaiming some credos as reliable songwriters rather than wild & wide-eyed hippies susceptible to 33-minute wig-outs.
While the first half of the record is pacey and pulsating, songs are interchangeable – if you had ever wondered what ATD-I would sound like if they hadn’t fallen apart after ‘RoC’, tracks like ‘4AM’, ‘I Got No Remorse’ and ‘Memento Mori’ are probably your closest equivalent, other than Bixler-Zavala’s surprisingly low vocal register on ‘Antemasque’ – the wails aren’t gone completely, but there’s a deeper snarl to CB-Z’s tone that started to come to the fore in the latter days of The Mars Volta. There’s enough to the wiry groove of the initiative stages of the album to ensure this would probably be a highly enjoyable experience in the live arena, but it’s when ‘Drown All Your Witches’ starts to experiment that this eponymous record becomes interesting. Its bluesy Latin shuffle flows into ‘Providence’, a personal album highlight, the ominous bassline setting the tone for a journey into darker territories. Perhaps it makes me a glutton for punishment to yearn for their experimental side to be unleashed as it can lead to some of the more self-indulgent material of The Mars Volta, but when TMV truly hit their stride they were magnificent, a high that is only replicated by Antemasque on the fantastic ‘Providence’.
The wonderful weirdness continues with ‘People Forget’, before ‘Rome Armed To The Teeth’ sees us out by revisiting high-octane punk rock seen in earlier realms of the self-titled album. Given OR-L’s propensity to drop projects as soon as he becomes restless, this should be treasured as what will be seen by many as a return to form; at least, a more trustworthy and reliable experience than previous outfits. This will be an effort that will please fans from all encampments of Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez’s fanbase, from fervent ATD-I fans to followers of their dazzling experimentalism, albeit perhaps not one that sticks as long in the memory as moments of the aforementioned have. What the future holds for these two is anyone’s guess, but for now this is a solid entry into the partnership’s canon, an encouraging thing given their recent history.  From: https://alreadyheard.com/album-review-antemasque-antemasque/

Agouti - State of Blue

San Fransisco psych outfit Agouti’s debut album Nodes is a triumphant ode to 70’s hard rock—rooted in themes of grief and power in self. Drawing on the sensibilities of Pink Floyd and Tame Impala, Agouti’s sound colours big walls of synth with rhythmic bass and wicked psych-rock guitars. Built around frontwoman Carmen Caruso’s light melodies and cathartic vocal stylings, Nodes is a rich and dynamic story of growth.
Nodes grapples with extreme hardship. Coping with the successive deaths of a close friend and four grandparents, and the trauma of sexual assault and sexual harassment, Carmen began the project in a life-affirming stride. She built her own studio, crafted a number of instruments by hand, and began producing a unique brand of psych rock.
The process of creating Nodes became a healing experience for Carmen. The honesty and sense of catharsis poured into the lyrics are a theme through which the psych sensibilities are built. It’s a dynamic way to take on something so raw, and it’s done seamlessly. Carmen says she hopes the album will help other people coping with grief.  From: https://happymag.tv/premiere-agoutis-debut-album-nodes-is-a-psychedelic-journey-of-personal-growth/

Buddy Miles - ABC In Concert 1973 / Helsinki, Finland 1971 / Live Montreux 1971

 Buddy Miles - ABC In Concert 1973

 

 

 Buddy Miles - Helsinki, Finland 1971

 

 Buddy Miles - Live Montreux 1971

 

Buddy Miles Live! (1971): By the time he was 12 years old, Buddy Miles had already been labeled a child prodigy.  At 12, he would play drums with his Dad's band the Bebop's, and as a teenager would spend time in Ruby and the Romantics, The Delfonics, and the Ink-Spots.
So began his storied musical career that would see him play with everyone from Mike Butterfield in seminal blues-rock outfit Electric Flag, to a stint with his friend Jimi Hendrix in the short-lived side project Band of Gypsies. After releasing a live album with a young Carlos Santana, he would even find success later in his career as the frontman to the now infamous ad campaign, California Raisins.  
This set finds Buddy in Seattle, post-Hendrix, with a group called simply the Buddy Miles band.  Over the course of the set, Miles handles drums and vocals, and shows just how experienced he was at performing all different styles of American music.  From rock, to pop, blues, funk, and soul this record touches them all.  From: https://realfolkblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/buddy-miles-buddy-miles-live-1971.html

 

 

Burdon Folk Band - Fete De La Musique, Lviv, Ukraine 2025

Burdon (“bour-don”) is a folk band from Lviv, in the west of Ukraine. The young folk musicians formed the group in 2002 and have quickly developed their music-making to an impressive level and built up a rich repertoire of traditional tunes, rural ritual songs, old ballads and cheerful dances.
Burdon's repertoire is mostly based on traditional music from Ukraine, Hungary and Romania. Their music is based on age-old tunes in modern arrangements, which paint a vivid, dramatic world full of excitement, love, mystic and enchantment. Many of the songs are taken from the local tradition of unique ethnic groups who live around Ukrainian-Polish-Slovakian borders: Lemko, Boiko and Hutsul. Some are from other parts of mysterious Carpathian region, particularly from survived Hungarian minority Csángo living in Romanian region Moldva.
With all this multicultural mix Burdon creates its own unique sound with female vocals, fiddles, bouzouki, hurdy-gurdy, moraharpa, double bass and percussion. They played many festival concerts around Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Hungary, Germany and Canada, where they have easily captured audiences.  From: https://burdon.lviv.ua/en/band.html

Neil Young - Comes A Time - Side 1

1 - Goin'Back
2 - Comes A Time
3 - Look Out For My Love
4 - Lotta Love
5 - Peace Of Mind

Reprise Records released the mostly acoustic album, Young’s ninth studio album, ‘Comes a Time‘, in October 1978. It started with him recording alone in Fort Lauderdale while he restored a WN Ragland car and ended up being produced in Nashville by Tim Mulligan. The songs were written on his boat, and one song, “Oceanside Countryside“, remains unreleased. The collection of songs was offered to the record label, by Young, as solo offerings; however, Reprise requested the presence of a rhythm section, and while it has changed the sound, this is not for the worse. Legend has it he broke records (excuse the pun) with the number of test pressings made for the particular mix. Young discovered a ‘flaw’ in the album after it was released and paid out of his pocket to have the 200,000 LPs recalled. In a March 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, Young revealed that he used a vast pile of ‘Comes a Time’ records as shingles for a barn roof.
Having split with his partner and mother to his son Zeke , Carrie Snodgress, three years previously, the album is personal and tells a story of a love relationship, from the excitement of new love to the sadness of looking back. Young said of the record, “It’s funky. Not that it’s technically great, that’s for sure… There’s something there that’s me, that record.” This authenticity, the simplicity, the lyrical balladeering, and the back-to-basics acoustic guitar, banjo and pedal steel make this album a classic americana album. Even if he is Canadian and the Godfather of Grunge.
Opening the album, ‘Goin’ Back‘ sets the tone. The first line, “I feel like going back, back where there’s nowhere to stay“, is perhaps a reference to continuing the musical and lyrical themes from ‘Harvest‘. Musically he seems to be taking a break from darkness after the ‘Ditch Trilogy’ and getting catharsis before ‘Rust Never Sleeps‘ in 1979. Young is accompanied on vocals by Nicolette Larson. Larson had recorded with Commander Cody and been a backing singer for Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, who recommended her to Young. Despite being hard-won, Young said in his biography ‘Shakey‘ that this is one of his favourite records, and the song has been a staple at his yearly Farm Aid concerts.
‘Comes a Time‘ starts with a flurry of cajun fiddle by Rufus Thibodeaux, who played for both George Jones and Jim Reeves. The song is unique and a standout, Young offering for the little folk music details such as hand percussion and electric guitar by J.J. Cale, who would play on two other tracks. Lyrically the song is about being ready for love and life and wanting to slow down long enough to settle down “this old world keeps spinnin’ ’round, it’s a wonder, tall trees ain’t layin’ down“.
‘Look Out for My Love‘ is the first of two songs backed by Crazy Horse and was written four years before. It’s an incredible piece of singer-songwriting and guitar skill which is not a surprise, but it is worth noting. Just as you think the song cannot get better, Crazy Horse chimes in with close harmonies reminiscent of all of the 70s and especially CSNY. Listen out for the cheeky addition of Shakey’s fuzzy Gibson, the only hint of an electric guitar so far in the album.
‘Lotta Love‘ is the second song backed by his band Crazy Horse and was written two years earlier in 1976 with them. Nicolette Larson, who duets with Neil Young on this album, would go on tour with ‘Rust Never Sleeps‘ the following year and released her debut album ‘Nicolette‘ just before ‘Comes a Time‘. The lead single from her album was a soft rock version of ‘Lotta Love‘. The song has endured in the sound that emanated from The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev some 20 years later. Lyrically, the song is a true pacifistic gem with phrases like “if you look in my direction and we don’t see eye to eye, my heart needs protection and so do I“, showcasing Young’s characteristic good nature.
If a listener was unconvinced of the Country nature of the album, Young adds Nashville legend Ben Keith on steel guitar and Rita Fey on autoharp and makes sure you are sure. ‘Peace of Mind’ is a love song and a sentimental one at that. Dueting with Larson, Young sings, “You know it takes a long, long time” over and over until the listener gets the message that love is rare and that trust is built with time. Having just married Pegi, the album’s middle tracks about the depth of love are perhaps a direct result of his happiness at home.  From: https://americana-uk.com/classic-americana-albums-neil-young-comes-a-time 

 

Yes - Close To The Edge - Full album

01. Close To The Edge
02. And You And I
03. Siberian Khatru

Close To The Edge features the so-called ”Classical line-up” of Yes that was formed on the previous album Fragile (1971), Jon Anderson (vocals), Chris Squire (bass), Bill Bruford (drums), Steve Howe (guitar) and Rick Wakeman (keyboards).
Fragile was a big leap from its predecessor, The Yes Album (1971), but Close To The Edge represents an even bigger step forward musically. After a successful Fragile tour, Yes was feeling energised and, finding that the band’s long songs (by then 8-11 minutes long) were being well received at gigs, the quintet decided to try something even more ambitious. Close To The Edge contains only three long songs. The A-side of the vinyl is filled with a 19-minute title epic and the B-side has two tracks of around ten minutes. Jon Anderson has compared making long songs to conquering mountains, and with Close To The Edge Yes has indeed conquered the biggest of them all.
Close To The Edge, especially its title track, was something never heard before in all its symphonic bravado and internal logic. Whereas the long songs released by other prog bands around this time, such as Jethro Tull’s ”Thick As A Brick”, Genesis’ ”Supper’s Ready” and even ELP’s staggeringly advanced ”Tarkus” had felt like the sum of more or less separate parts, Yes’ ”Close To The Edge” was a totally coherent symphonic whole. It could almost be the composition of some early 20th century symphonic master who just happened to have written for five virtuosos on electric instruments instead of a 100-piece symphony orchestra.
To continue Anderson’s mountaineering metaphor, I have to admit that writing about such a legendary and beloved album about which entire books have been written in the past also seems almost mountaineering-like and even somewhat doomed to failure, but I’ll try anyway.

Close to the Edge

Yes’s first album-length epic ”Close To The Edge” is a miracle. A miracle that even the band members didn’t seem to believe when they recorded the song. The song was driven by the vision of Steve Howe and especially Jon Anderson. Chris Squire made his own perfectionist contribution on the arrangement side. Bill Bruford and Rick Wakeman played superbly on the album, but were more or less just along for the ride, guided by Anderson and Howe. Although Wakeman’s classical training probably came in handy afterwards when the different parts of the songs were being arranged. What makes the end result so remarkable is how amazingly coherent a work the five managed to assemble from seemingly disconnected fragments after painful and frustrating months of recording sessions.
Those with a better understanding of music theory have often pointed out that ”Close To The Edge” largely follows the sonata form of art music, a popular structure in symphonies and concertos of the 1700s and 1800s. The sonata form includes an introductory section, a development section and a recapitulation section, and so it’s relatively easy for the layman to see how the four movements of Close To The Edge more or less fit into that pattern.
I mentioned the Yes quintet earlier, but actually I should talk about the sextet because producer Eddie Offord played a huge role in how the endless takes and experiments were put together to create the final piece. This is evidenced by the fact that Offord even got to be in on the inside cover shots with the actual band members.

I. The Solid Time of Change

”The Solid Time Of Change”, which begins with peaceful nature sounds, can be thought of as describing the harmony between man and nature. However, from the ancient jungle covered in mist, reminiscent of artist Roger Dean’s green cover (featuring the classic Yes logo for the first time), music slowly emerges, at first gently jangling, but soon growing chaotic. The human ego is unleashed, the connection with nature and a balanced life is lost. Suffering begins. Of course, the music itself is not a torment, but this seemingly chaotic, but in fact well thought out and virtuosically played, very complex instrumental section is one of Yes’ most stunning moments. Steve Howe’s angular and lightning-fast guitar runs and Bill Bruford’s surprisingly accentuated drum beats create an absolutely mind-blowing tension. The nervous tension of the intro is further heightened by the numerous changes of pace. Jon Anderson’s ”aaaa-aaaa” vocalizations effectively interrupt the music in between. ”The Solid Time of Change” also cleverly, and in keeping with the old sonata form, presents the themes of the entire epic ensemble, but rhythmically the piece is solidly 20th century in its complex rhythmicity, referencing Stravinsky more than Mozart. Interestingly, Jon Anderson himself has said that Sibelius’s Symphonies 6 and 7 inspired him, particularly with regard to ’Close To The Edge’, but I myself have a little difficulty in pinpointing those influences.
The vocals with actual lyrics first appear at the four-minute mark and soon introduce a chorus that will be varied and developed in many ways throughout the 19-minute epic.
Down at the edge, round by the corner
Close to the edge, down by a river
The lyrics of ”Close To The Edge” are easy to write off as mere empty phrases, but in fact they are not as abstract as Anderson’s lyrics often are (Howe also contributed to the song), but I think the basic idea is quite clear. The lyrics are about man’s aspiration towards some next spiritual level. Enlightenment. Hermann Hesse’s novel Siddharta (1922), which tells of the protagonist Siddharta’s quest for enlightenment, was an important source of inspiration for Anderson. ”The river, which features prominently in the lyrics of Close To The Edge, also plays a central role in Hesse’s book. The river leads to the sea and all roads lead to holiness or enlightenment. At the heart of ”Close To The Edge” is the idea that people are always right on the edge of enlightenment. Close to the edge. The final leap over the edge is unfortunately the most difficult part of the journey. 99% of the journey is still unfinished. You are in danger of getting off the path constantly (I get down, I get up…).

II. Total Mass Retain

Starting at the six-minute mark, ”Total Mass Retain” revisits some of the themes of the first movement with variations on them, and introduces vocals sung with intensity by Jon Anderson at first, which then become more relaxed. At the beginning of the section, Bruford and Squire create a polymetric tension by playing in different time signatures. Squire’s bass sounds like a tuba. ”Total Mass Retain”, the shortest section of ”Close To The Edge” at a couple of minutes, ends with an interlude in which Anderson sings ”I get up, I get down” for the first time, from which, accompanied by Wakeman’s organ, we move on to the next section.

III. I Get Up, I Get Down

”I Get Up, I Get Down” is the calm ”feminine” section of ”Close To The Edge” that successfully contrasts with all the storm and frenzy that preceded it. The floating and arrhythmic section surrounds the listener like a vast dripstone cave full of secrets. The impression is completed by the sound of falling water droplets. The polyphonic singing of Anderson, Squire and Howe, which begins at around the ten-minute mark, is incredibly beautiful. The atmosphere is downright devotional. Finally, Anderson takes the vocal part to its climax and the devotional part culminates in a majestic church organ solo by Rick Wakeman. The vocals return once more and then the church organs roar with even greater intensity. Perhaps enlightenment is to be found in the church and in organised religion?

IV. Seasons of Man

But no. Bruford’s drums return, the tempo increases and the whole band plays more aggressively than ever since the intro. Wakeman’s Mini-Moog solo strikes the stage with a fury as if wiping away the remnants of the old church. It’s time for man to create a new church for himself. To find a new path. Or the stream from which the journey continues to the river and from there eventually to the sea. The song culminates in a finale where the three main themes of the song are repeated and then the music fades out and closes again into the sounds of the jungle, but this time the sounds of the sea seem to ripple along with it. The circle has closed. Man is back in touch with nature and all living things.
18 minutes never feels so short as when listening to ”Close To The Edge”. After the epic ”Close To The Edge”, the two shorter songs on the b-side could be thought to be something of an anticlimax, but fortunately even those songs are among Yes’ best.

And You And I

The B-side opens with the 10 minute long ”And You And I”. ”And You And I” is the emotional centrepiece of Close To The Edge and a much more sophisticated and complex song than it appears on the surface. Like ”Close To The Edge”, ”And You And I” is a fairly seamless whole even though it is divided into four parts.
The first part ”Cord Of Life” begins in folky simplicity with Steve Howe’s casually strummed 12-string acoustic guitar, gradually growing into a kind of cosmic anthem accompanied by Rick Wakeman’s Moog licks. There’s a great moment in the chorus when the voices processed through the doppler effect created by Howe and Squire’s Leslie speaker cabinet sing a countermelody against Jon Anderson’s backdrop.
In the second part, ”Eclipse”, Rick Wakeman’s synthesizers play a central role and the song becomes a little slower and heavier. The instrumental section features some absolutely stunning harmonic development as Howe and Wakeman’s instruments blend together like shimmering streams of mercury. Anderson’s vocals return with greater emphasis before the music fades out and the 12-string guitar leads the listener into the next section.
The third part, ”The Preacher, The Teacher”, is more playful than the previous parts, with variations on the themes of the first part. At the end, however, the mood becomes more serious again in the form of an orchestral build-up.
Then the last part, ”Apocalypse”, just 40 seconds long, repeats the lyrics heard in the first part, but in a more hopeful tone.
And you and I climb, crossing the shapes of the morning.
And you and I reach over the sun for the river.
And you and I climb, clearer, towards the movement.
And you and I called over valleys of endless seas.
There is something very touching about Anderson’s delicately sung semi-abstract lines. And comforting. ”And You And I” is one of Yes’ finest ”slow” songs. A clever combination of beauty, sensitivity and technical skill.

Siberian Khatru

The album closes with the most rocking track on the album, just under 9 minutes long, ”Siberian Khatru”. ”Siberian Khatru” is a groovy and even slightly funky mini-epic disguised as a rock song. Stylistically, ”Siberian Khatru” seems to be somewhat related to the Fragile hit ”Roundabout”.
”Siberian Khatru” starts with a short ”chicken scratch” guitar intro and then the music quickly grows into a full-bodied Yes orchestration. Squire’s melodic bass lines carry the song as well as the other instruments. If you want to say something bad about Close To The Edge, Squire’s bass is generally not so much on the surface as on previous albums but more part of the overall orchestration (very effectively!), but in ”Siberian Khatru” Squire gets to rumble along satisfactorily almost as the main character in many places.
At the four minute mark, we start with Steve Howe’s electric sitar and immediately afterwards a great ringing harpsichord solo from Wakeman, which in turn turns into Howe’s ubiquitous slide guitar and from there into a snappy electric guitar solo. It’s a potentially incomprehensible mishmash of different cultures and eras from which Yes fuse together a perfectly natural-sounding piece of music. Magical!
At five and a half minutes the interesting part begins where Anderson emphatically recites individual words to form an abstract network of words:
June cast, moon fast as one changes
Heart gold leaver, soul mark mover
Christian changer, called out savior
Moon gate climber, turn round glider
The passage is a good example of how Anderson often uses words more for what they sounded like when sung than what they directly mean. Often, however, these passages provide interesting sparks for the listener’s imagination and the listener can construct tantalising meanings for the word combinations themselves. Or simply listen to the song as an instrument among others. Even more explicitly, Anderson uses vowels as an instrument in the excellent wordless da-da-duudaa-da-da-dudaadudaa-duda section-where Anderson channels with his voice a kind of combination of Balinese monkey chant and Indian rhythmic vocalization.
There is something really inspiringly effortless about the ”Siberian Khatru” and its structure. Like the earlier tracks on the album, it moves along with a real sense of seamlessness and is unfailingly driven by some kind of internal logic. None of its many twists and turns feel in any way forced. ”Siberian Khatru” is progressive ROCK at its most masterful.

From: https://pienemmatpurot.com/2024/04/23/review-yes-close-to-the-edge-1972/ 

 

The Lowest Pair - Give It All Away

Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee, collectively known as The Lowest Pair, made quite a splash last year when they released two albums simultaneously. Uncertain As It Is Uneven was a continuation of their previous releases as a banjo playing duo while Fern Girl & Ice Man employed other musicians to create a fuller band sound with both albums maintaining their interest in traditional American roots music. Both musicians had solo careers and backgrounds in playing with string bands but when they met up in 2013 they recognised their shared interest in traditional banjo techniques and started to share bills before formally setting up the band. Since then they’ve released five albums and toured relentlessly across the States and starting this week they embark on their first UK tour. 24 shows over the next month including a stint at The Shetland Folk Festival and a show at Edinburgh’s Tradfest along with a long sweep through England and Wales. Still somewhat jet lagged after his flight over and a long drive heading for the far north Palmer T. Lee spoke to Americana UK on a stopover in Stirling.

Hi there. Thanks for talking to us. Seems like you’ve been on quite a journey. Is this your first time in the UK?

Yes. This is our first time overseas although we travel a lot back home.  I’ve never been out of the States before so I’m pretty stoked.

You’re heading up to spend four or five days at the Shetland Folk Festival I believe.

I think we’re doing five shows in Shetland. We don’t really know what’s happening, as I said it’s our first time over here so the promoter is really doing all the work, we just turn up and play. All I know about Shetland is that it’s an island real far up off the mainland.

And then after that you have several shows in Scotland including a date at Edinburgh’s Tradfest before heading south for England and Wales. Will you have time to do the tourist thing?

Yeah. We’ve already been able to stop at a couple of ruined castles on the way up here and the landscape is gorgeous. I’m really curious about the beer scene and also hoping to find some good Scotch

There’s a healthy buzz about the tour after your twin album releases last year which got a lot of great reviews.

Well the records seemed to get a really warm reception so we’ve been looking forward to this trip for a while. Kendl and I were really stoked with the sound we were able to achieve with just two banjos and it’s nice to make music that people like and we were really happy that people over here seemed to like the albums.

Uncertain As It Is Uneven features just the pair of you while Fern Girl & Ice Man has some other musicians playing along. Do you see the band progressing in the direction of getting a fuller sound?

Well, the guy who produced Fern Girl, Erik Koskinen, he’s kind of a staple on the Minneapolis music scene and he played lap steel, bass and some drums on the record. He was really active throughout the production of that record and we also had Dave Simmonette on guitar and Barbara Jean Meyers on fiddle. I think we want to keep expanding and exploring potential avenues and ways of expressing ourselves but we don’t really intend ever to lose the core. We’d like to do a record and a tour with a string band and then maybe a country band but we’ll still record as a duo and have the ability to just be able to just pack up a sedan with a couple of banjos and a couple of suitcases and hit the road that way. But we don’t want to be restricted in any way you know. Maybe at some point we’ll get a couple of amps and a pile of pedals and just make a bunch of crazy noises and not really be bound by anyone else’s ideas of what we ought to be doing.

As a duo, you’ve only been going for four years but you’ve already made five albums which is quite impressive.

Yeah, well, you know, Kendl’s an incredibly prolific songwriter. She’s always got a new song on the go and right now she’s backlogged with about 30 to 35 songs and just waiting for me to catch up.

Is that one of the reasons for releasing two albums simultaneously?

Yes. We went into the studio to start recording Uncertain but then we had to go out on the road to promote Sacred Heart as that had just come out. So by the time we had done that and were able to go back into the studio a couple of months later to finish it there were enough songs for another album so we decided to make two and then just to put them out at the same time.

So have you started on the next album yet?

We haven’t got to planning any recordings as yet. As I said, we’re toying with the idea of continuing to expand in Fern Girl’s direction so we’re just coming up with ideas of who we’d like to work with on the next record and where we’d like to do it. The folk scene we play in, it’s a kind of tight knit community and we find that everyone knows everyone else and we’re all big fans of each other so people are always willing and excited to collaborate so we’re still thinking about it.

You recorded Uncertain and Fern Girl in Minneapolis, is that where you’re based?

We’re in Minneapolis more or less but we also work out of Olympia, Washington where Kendl’s based. Two years ago I wintered in Minneapolis but last winter I stayed in Olympia. Kendl’s pretty settled out there in Olympia, she’s got a houseboat that’s pretty cool and I had a place there for a few months but it burned down. So right now I’m kind of just floating in the wind and trying to figure out where I’m going to settle next.

You’re probably asked this all the time but I was wondering if you can tell us how the band got its name (The Lowest Pair is a poem by John Hartford which is on his Mark Twang album, an irreverent take on The Lord’s Prayer).

Well when we started the project the initial idea was that it was going to be a collaboration between two songwriters and banjo players. It was pretty loose, we played some shows co billed and we just wanted to see how it would work out and because it was going so well we decided we needed a band name. And because we were primarily banjo players we decided to pay homage to John Hartford, one of our favourite weirdo banjo players so I started pitching some of his song titles to Kendl and The Lowest Pair just seemed the most fitting for a pair of banjo players setting out.

Did you ever see John Hartford play?

No. I wasn’t aware of him really until after he had died but I love albums like The Walls We Bounce Off Of. Nobody Knows What You Do is one I’m really digging into right now.

Do you ever play any of his songs on stage or cover any traditional material?

We never really have done a Hartford song although I read the poem sometimes. But our album I Reckon I’m Fixin’ on Kickin’ Round to Pick a Little is a collection of traditional tunes and some we had written that were very much influenced by them or based on traditional tunes. It’s got a song we do live that John Hartford recorded, Darling Corey, although he called it Dig A Hole and it was his version that inspired us to record it.

So what can we expect from The Lowest Pair live experience?

Well, we just like to keep things weird you know, the weirder the better. So we just hope that people come out and not expect us to sound like one particular thing and just dig into the intensity of our weirdness.

From: https://americana-uk.com/interview-the-lowest-pair 

Swans - I Am The Sun / In the Eyes of Nature / Love of Life / Why Are We Alive

 Swans - I Am The Sun

 Swans - In the Eyes of Nature

 Swans - Love of Life

 Swans - Why Are We Alive

Interspersed with a variety of instrumental pieces and loops which add nicely to the album's overall flow -- including a number of random interview clips which would become an even more central motif to the band's work in future albums -- Love of Life continues the astounding creative roll Swans found themselves on with White Light. As with that album, the group here consists first and foremost of Gira and Jarboe, with a variety of assisting performers: Westberg has finally left the picture entirely, leaving Steele as the new main guitarist, and interestingly enough, two long-time veterans return -- the rhythm section of Kizys and Parsons -- though other bassists and drummers perform on the album as well. Again, though, this is very much Gira and Jarboe's album, given that they're in charge of all songwriting, as well as all keyboards and arrangements, building from the newly refined combination of epic scope and delicacy of touch from White Light. The first two full songs provide a near-perfect start for Love: The title track has a quick, rushed pace and pulse, with stabs of further percussion and keyboards to provide underscoring energy to Gira's excellent singing, while "The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed by the Sea" captures Swans at their most self-consciously mythic, with a subtly descending chord defining the sweeping, string-heavy song as Gira invokes near Blakean images of crowds, shorelines, and the titular boy, laden with deceptively simple power. Jarboe's own vocals, as ever, are exquisite, investing "The Other Side of the World" and her own lyric "She Crys (For Spider)" with her beautiful, rich singing. With such further successes as the first gentle then pounding love song "Her" (combined with a poignant interview clip) and the snarling kick of "Amnesia" to its overall credit as well, Love of Life unsurprisingly proves to be yet another Swans masterpiece.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/love-of-life-mw0000073942 

And I am the sun 
I rise above the world 
And when the light goes out 
I kill another child 
And I am insane 
I crawl into your mouth 
I grow like a flower 
I grow a suicide 
And I am the sun 
And I am the light 
And I am the sun 
Yeah I am the light 
And I am the dark
I cut out my eyes 
Yeah I will nullify 
My true love creation 
And I am the sun 
I love everyone 
I live inside your chest 
I grow like a cancer 
And I am the sun 
And I am the light 
Yeah I am the sun 
Yeah I am the light 
I love everyone 
I love everyone

No We Have Never Been Here
And We'll Never Be Gone
I Saw Your Voice Rise Up
And Cut Into The Heart Of The Sun
I Kissed The Lips Of A Girl
She Took Her First Breath When The World Was Young
I Felt The Cold Of The Air As It Burned By Empty Lungs
And We Have Never Been Born
And We Will Be Consumed
And Unreality Is Buried Beneath The Truth
And Though We've Never Been Here
We Will Never Be Contained
And Reality Is Naked Beneath The Moon
So We'll Go Down To The Ocean
And Wash Our Memory Clean
We'll See The World For The First Time
Through An Unburied Eye
And Though The World Will Stay The Same
And We're Certain To Die
We'll Raise Our Hands Up To Heaven
And Sacrifice Our Limitations
And The Pain And Frustration
Are Equal To The Bliss Of Release
And In The Eyes Of Nature
We'll Live For An Eternity
And In The Eyes Of Nature
We Could Never Have Been Born
And The Light That Surrounds Us
Will Take Us Into It's Arms
And When We Die We'll Disappear
Into The Eyes Of Nature
And We're Here Just For A Little While
And Then Our Body Disappears
Into The Eyes Of Nature
Into The Arms Of God
Into The Mouth Of Indifference
Into The Eyes Of Nature
And We Are Nothing But Experience
In The Eyes Of Nature
And We Will Live Forever
In The Eyes Of Nature

Now, I'm not a man
And I don't feel love
And I don't see anything
Coming down from above
But this world spins slowly
And I see a light
Rising from behind the horizon
Up into the clear black sky
But I don't see you
In my line of sight
In fact, I can't remember
Why we are alive
Why are we alive?
Why are we alive?
Why are we alive?
Why are we? 

Baskery - The Brave

Recently I flipped on yet another faux-country alt.folk album and listened to university educated people pretending they were Appalachian mountain dwellers imbued with a rural spirit and old time religion. I thought, "Spare me much more of this!"
And then comes this album to reinvigorate my interest in a mighty crowded genre -- and of course they are the furtherest thing from rural America.
The three Bondesson sisters Greta, Stella and Sunniva come from Stockholm and I never figured on Sweden as a hotbed of country-punk, alt.Americana and banjos.
But this album, recorded live on small stage in the studio with no overdubs, fairly rocks off the disc and whether it be in the close harmony and more considered work (Oscar Jr Restaurant Bar, Hold On) or the foot stompers (the flat tack banjo-pickin' Out-of-Towner with the hook "I don't want to go to bed with a man from town") these gals sound . . . well obviously not like "the real thing" because there is no such thing these days.
But they sure sound like they are enjoying themselves and that is infectious. Comparisons are odious but certainly they would sit well alongside the Dixie Chicks.
In some quarters they have been criticised for lacking authenticity (oh, like Gillian Welch was born in a shotgun shack, right?) and indulging in American references they can't possibly know (so Springsteen had to steal cars and go on the run before he could write about it?)
It is fair to note this is at its strongest when it simply rocks out over double bass, fast strummed acoustic and foot stomps, but over the 12 originals the duds are remarkably few. And this is a whole lot better than that whining, bookish thing I was listening to the other day.  From: https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/music/2750/baskery-fall-among-thieves-glitterhouse-yellow-eye/ 

National Park Radio - Wander

Describing themselves as indie-folk, National Park Radio have slowly and determinedly been building their profile since being formed by husband and wife duo, Stefan and Kerrie Szabo. Having roots in the Ozark Mountains has meant that the band are more than adept at using America’s many and varied landscapes as metaphors for age-old human conditions and challenges. ‘Canyons’ is National Park Radio’s first full-length album in over five years. Moreover, in 2022 the band’s fans raised $60,000 to enable them to go to Nashville to record their songs with a fully developed sound, rather than their previous DIY approach. They spent their money with Nashville-based producer Nick Bullock and ‘Canyons’ is the result. Existing fans of the band will probably have heard most or all of the songs on the album because each track has been released as a single prior to the full album’s formal release.
National Park Radio state their manifesto from the get-go with the opening track and lead single, ‘Wander’, which is about the journey and not necessarily the destination. The sound echoes the current-day sounds of Mumford And Sons, but there is also a more timeless older element to the voices of the Szabos riding on top of drums, bass, piano, keyboards and a hint of banjo.  From: https://americana-uk.com/national-park-radio-canyons

 

Baby Queens - Tired of Love

Hometown: Cardiff. The lineup: Monique B (vocals), Cara Elise (vocals, guitar), Estelle Ios (vocals, bass), Vanity Jay (vocals, guitar), Ruth Vibes (vocals, guitar).
The background: Baby Queens have been likened to TLC produced by Portishead, and for once the impossibly alluring one-line pitch isn’t too wide of the mark. They’re an all-girl outfit (token male drummer, Leroy, not pictured) allying flawless R&B harmonies to gritty, sometimes retro, sometimes reggae, soul, hip-hop, rocky or even trip-hop tinged production and arrangements. To put it another way, they’re En Vogue mixed by Massive Attack. Or Destiny’s Child at their most polished given some studio murk by Tricky. They’ve been called a girl group with a difference, which might be fanciful, or might rather suit this bunch of DJs, tattooed bouncers and anti-nuclear activists (about which, more later).
Clashes of opposites, meetings of minds from different aesthetic universes, often sound better on paper than in reality but with Baby Queens it works. Actually, although some of the production techniques are indeed trip-hoppy and 90s-inflected, it’s not one of the crucial Bristol three at the controls, it’s someone from over the (Bristol) channel: synth wizard Cian Ciarán of Super Furry Animals. He has put Baby Queens’ soulful singing and their 60s Motown and modern R&B beats and melodies through the console at Strangetown Studios in Cardiff and they’ve come out the other side sounding like, well, SWV produced by SFA.
The results can be heard on their imminent self-titled debut album, and they’re uniformly excellent. The single, Tired of Love, opens with soulful melismas, just to prove they can do all that X Factor exhibitionism lark, but this is more than just a showcase for technically fancy warbling. There is a gospel sadness to it, even as the song becomes increasingly exultant, with handclaps and a rousing melody. “Ruth grew up going to church, so we wanted to bring some of that to the song,” explains Estelle. Melodi opens with Beach Boys harmonies and has the graceful glide of Marvin’s What’s Going On, with production that splits the difference between coolly classic and edgy-modern. You and I is one of many songs that, if you were told it was a cover version by an obscure soul artist, you wouldn’t blink. The lyrics (“About love and life,” says Estelle, not very helpfully) are a weak point on this entirely self-penned album, with too many banal rhymes of the “high”/“die” or “pain”/“insane” variety, but really, if Noel Gallagher can get away with it, why can’t they? Besides, as Estelle says, “The lyrics are the least important part for me – it’s about the feeling, the whole song in general.”
The music more than makes up for any lyrical shortcomings. It Feels Like - with its ghostly, spacious production – will be loved by those for whom Unfinished Sympathy is a Year Zero artefact. Forever is King Tubby-dubby, not so much lovers rock as lovers trip-hop. Samsara, a solo writing effort from Estelle, appears to have come from a different group, and there’s a good reason for that: she initially intended it for Zefur Wolves, the “shoegazey-grunge” band she’s in with her partner, Ciarán. She’s often in the studio with him, offering advice on production. “We try and stay away from cliched beats,” she says – her favourite SFA track is Some Things Come from Nothing, and you can tell why from its scuffed, acoustic-electronic ambience.
Baby Queens cover the waterfront in terms of vocal styles and positions on the singing scale: Estelle and Ruth sing low, Monique takes the mid-range, and Cara (the one with the neon pink hair in the photo) and Vanity handle the high notes. There’s a reason they’re simpatico: Estelle and Cara are sisters, while Ruth and Monique are cousins, with Vanity their adopted sister. Cara’s breathy-cute sigh takes the lead on Had My Heart, with shades of the Mya/Aaliyah/Ciara school of R&B . Does Estelle think people will be able to tell where Baby Queens are from, from listening to them? Could they be a NYC girl group, or does essence-of-Cardiff spill out of their music? “I don’t think it’s a Cardiff thing,” she says. “New York to me is a band like Interpol. There are cities with their own individual flavour - Detroit techno, say, or Iceland’s electro dream-pop - but I think we could be from anywhere.”
There are no simpering stage school sirens here. Estelle used to be in a punk band with her sister called IDFT which stood for If Destroys Feel True, but they weren’t angry – she’s more into “the melodic side of punk, like Ramones”. She identifies her and Cara’s style as “surf and skate” while Monique and Ruth are urban and Vanity with the purple hair is “more feminine and R&B”. She goes further: Vanity is the “happy” Baby Queen, with a day job as a carer in an old people’s home. Monique – the “cool” BQ – is a DJ. Cara is the “spaced-out” one who looks after children with disabilities. Ruth is “serious on the surface but knows how to have a laugh” – she works as a nightclub bouncer. As for Estelle herself, she’s “chilled” (she’s a massage therapist), with a side order of righteous indignation: she’s an anti-Trident campaigner who regularly goes on marches with CND. “I’m the politically charged one,” she laughs. Still, you won’t hear any protests from us about Baby Queens and their marvellous, moody girl group soul-pop.  From: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/05/new-band-of-the-week-baby-queens-trip-hop-r-and-b

Our Girl - Our Girl

Soph Nathan is currently living her best life. Firstly she is a member of Our Girl. This London/Brighton trio have released a slew of flawless EPs and singles since forming four years ago. It’s safe to say that their music contains exquisite melodies, and a wall of feedback, strong enough to make you addicted to their brand of fuzzed out guitars and harmonies.
Secondly Nathan is part of The Big Moon, whose debut album ‘Love in the 4th Dimension’ was was a high water mark of 2017, and received a nomination for the Mercury Prize. What separates the two bands is attitude and style. The Big Moon are delicate and thought provoking. Their songs never impose upon you. Our Girl, on the other hand, are an all-consuming force of nature that switch from commonplace observations to raging ballads about first meetings and nights in.
Thirdly, and most importantly, Our Girl have released their debut album Stranger Today. This is a record that has been rumoured for a while and had a load of hype levelled at it. But it not only lives up to it, but it surpasses it. This is even more impressive considering that the band doesn’t have a lot of time to write, practice and record as other bands, see above; jobs and life get in the way of the creative process.
Stranger Today opens with ‘Our Girl’. After a psych influenced intro, a blistering guitar and tight rhythm section courtesy of Lauren Wilson and Josh Tyler explodes from the speakers. As the song winds and skews you are gently pulled in to the band's skew-whiff and fuzzy world view. ‘Being Around’ is up next, chugging guitars and husky vocals are the order of the day before, possible, the guitar riff of the album erupts, shaking the song to its core.
‘In My Head’ follows suit with its baggy rhythms and huge sing-a-long chorus, and faster and faster outro. ‘I Really Like It’ is the first indication that Our Girl can write pop infused songs with its catchy verse/chorus/verse set-up and a captivating guitar riff to boot.
The real power of Stranger Today is the connection between Nathan and her guitar. At times they are pulling against each other. Nathan croons softly and gently, while it sounds like she’s torturing her instrument and effects pedals. Then a moment later, they are both in unison and everything around you loses perspective and fades into background. This is evident in ‘Josephine’. The vocals are emotive and visceral, and the guitar matches, until its elongated and lurid outro starts up. This feels like a classic end of album wig out, but you then realise its only track five, and there are six more left. You immediately question, and get excited about, what’s still to come.
Each track hits you like a beautiful wave. As the songs build, their current pulls you under; if they want to pummel you, there is very little you can do. If they want to give you a slightly melodic respite to catch your breath, ‘Level’ and ‘Sub Rosa’, then you just go with it. ‘Two Life’ features one of the stand out moments on ‘Stranger Today’. A hypnotic riff builds and builds until it’s an all-consuming beast.
The six-minute ‘Boring’ closes the album. It not only delivers the goods, it unpacks the bags and puts them away for you. After Our Girl do what they do best, building a song up through layers, then stripping it back, only to build it up they deliver an incendiary riff that gently hypnotises. With a minute left the song starts to branch out into a new groove, and vibe. At one time it feels like there are two different songs vying for your attention, but instead of fighting against each other, they manage to coordinate and cooperate to create something utterly transfixing.
While Nathan is the star of the show, her glory wouldn’t be possible if Wilson and Tyler weren’t as tight as they are. Thanks to their restraint and solidity, Nathan is allowed the opportunity to do, pretty much, what she wants and it works. It’s the musical version of watching Thierry Henry or Dennis Bergkamp at their prime. They fit in with the team’s system and shape, but when needed they can go off on their own and win the game.  From: https://drownedinsound.com/releases/20409/reviews/4151962

  

The Youngbloods - Smug / Sunlight / Beautiful

The writing on The Youngbloods' Elephant Mountain is confident and assured; songs like Ride The Wind, Beautiful, Smug and Darkness Darkness captured the sensibilities of the late sixties, many of these expressions of love, friendship, betrayal and one's role in society, were prevalent in much of the rock music from this period except here it lacks the pretension that graced many records in the late sixties.  The primary reason for this?  Jesse Colin Young's angelic voice for one along with the eccentric approach to making music.  
The Youngbloods, much like the UK band Traffic, frequently made keyboard-based material and this lack of a guitar driven sound ultimately made the band stand out somewhat.  At the time, I thought Elephant Mountain to be one of the best albums of 1969 and it stands the test of time, still sounding fresh after all these years.  The record features an oddball mix of ragtime, bluesy jazz, ersatz classical and simple balladry that slowly insinuates itself into your overall music-head. 
Jesse Colin Young interview on bestclassicband.com: 
“Charlie Daniels produced that album. What was he like?"  
Jesse Colin Young: “You should have seen Charlie in a rayon suit with short hair and milk bottle-bottom glasses. He was a perfect producer. He explained it to me. He said, 'Sometimes artists need you to get behind them and push them, and then other times you get in front of them and hold them back, but I think you guys just needed me to be there.'”  
The band became a trio at that time. What happened to Jerry Corbitt?  
Jesse Colin Young: "Three tunes into the Elephant Mountain album, Corbitt left the band. He said, 'I can’t fly anymore.' Here we are at the beginning an album; we were recording in L.A. at RCA Studios. So we just carried on and Charlie was the transition. He was always in a good mood, always ready, always appreciative and supportive. He got us through it.”
With the departure of member and co-founder Jerry Corbitt, Jesse Colin Young became the primary songwriter of the band, penning seven of the 13 tracks on the album, and co-writing four more with Lowell Banana Levinger and Joe Bauer. Young's songwriting ranges from jazzy acoustic ballads (Sunlight and Ride the Wind), to country/folk pop (Smug and Beautiful) and bluesy hard rock (Sham). Darkness, Darkness and Quicksand are songs dealing with depression and suicide, quite at odds with the optimistic to happy-go-lucky image of the band created by songs like Get Together and Grizzly Bear). The four tracks credited to Young, Banana, and Bauer are all instrumentals.  
Levinger's On Sir Francis Drake is another inventive instrumental named after Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Marin County, an area in California where the band had recently moved. At 6:44 it is the longest track on the album, consisting of two sections, the first an electric piano-based waltz, the second a blues jam with some bass soloing by Young. The remaining song on the album, Rain Song (Don't Let the Rain Bring You Down), was co-written by Jerry Corbitt, Felix Pappalardi (of Mountain) and Gail Collins, his wife.  
Lester Bangs was enthusiastic in Rolling Stone, saying “this is one of the most encouraging albums I have heard in months…This album exudes that supremely rare commodity in these dark, bored, destructive times – joy.”  
Years later, Rolling Stone said the album bridges the gap between the last days of psychedelia and the outbreak of country-rock that had afflicted artists like the Byrds and Neil Young.  From: https://msmokemusic.com/blogs/mind-smoke-blog/posts/5867393/hot-platters-elephant-mountain-the-youngbloods-rca-records-1969

Tristen - Doomsday

My first interfacing with the fiery, spunky singer-songwriter simply known as Tristen was at a Justin Townes Earle concert in May of 2012. I didn’t know her or her music from Adam, but there she was on stage, all 5 foot nothing in glittering green hot pants, kicking our collective asses with her songs that were so easy to befriend and so hard to forget. And like any opening artist hopes for, there I was the next day dropping coinage on her 2011 record Charlatans At The Garden Gate, and Googling the hell out of her to my little music nerdy heart’s content.
Tristen is nothing short of a creative powerhouse. She’s a Chicago native, a member of independent music’s hot east Nashville contingent, akin to an artist like Caitlin Rose for example, who happens to be friends with Caitlin and has shared bass players with her in the past. Tristen is also a perennial performer on the cool country roots program Music City Roots. If you squint really hard, and maybe listen very selectively to her music, you might be able to convince yourself that what Tristen has done in the past could be construed with the right amount of rhetoric and coercion as “country,” but really Tristen is simply a songwriter, who seems to have little regard for a genre-specific career path, if she doesn’t downright loathe the idea.
Tristen is not a hunter, she’s a gatherer, listening intently to any song or influence regardless of format or era, and eagerly mining the little nuggets of nostalgic, retro gold that allow the warmth of memories to flow freely from the inner mind of listeners to lovingly embellish a song. She then embeds this warmth into her completely original, modern-day compositions resulting in music that is both fresh and hauntingly familiar. The magic Tristen spins is really akin in spirit what a band like BR549, or some other country neo-traditionalist act might do by referring to the past in the modern-day context, but Tristen has the confidence, knowledge base, and insight to not discriminate based on traditional genre distinctions.
Her 2011 album Charlatans At The Garden Gate is like a big, rotund watermelon: it just keeps on giving, parceling out little treats, and there’s not a soft patch to be had. Songs like “Eager For Your Love” and “Doomsday” are just screaming to be scooped up by some big name and be made into mega hits, while tunes such as “Avalanche” and “Battle Of The Gods” may be a little more fey, but refer to Tristen’s competency in advanced composition. “Baby Drugs” is sinisterly crafted, speaking right at the heart of how the modern-day 20-something brooding male is just about worthless, and frustrating in the arms of driven females looking for fulfillment and only finding unmotivated, drooling pot hungry video game addicts for sexual partners. The song is also accompanied by a genius video.  From: https://savingcountrymusic.com/tristen-beyond-the-glittering-green-hot-pants/