Blithe Sons - We Walk the Young Earth
(Family Vineyard)
The Blithe Sons are a member of an increasingly noteworthy assemblage which operates under the guise of the Jewelled Antler Collective. It is led by the band Thuja, which has two people from the also-awesome-but-now-broken-up Mirza. The Blithe Sons is 2/3 of Thuja (Glenn Donaldson and Loren Chasse). The first two albums from The Blithe Sons were self-released on their Jewelled Antler CDR label. Luckily for everyone who hasn't been keeping up with the Jewelled Antler releases and doesn't have those first two, the folks at Family Vineyard have decided to handle their third album, We Walk the Young Earth.
Their first album blended recordings made in a studio with various field recordings. Their second, Waves of Grass, literally combines the two by recording the songs in fields and capturing the music and the buzzings and blowings of the outdoors all at once. We Walk the Young Earth continues that trend by taking all of its recordings from sessions done inside of a WWII bunker on a sea cliff and under a creek bridge. The ambience of the locations figure heavily into the vibe, but the sound of the outdoors doesn't interfere with the basic quality of the sound. In fact, I'm surprised at how well this is recorded. This element of The Blithe Sons sets them apart from most bands in that they are carrying their Earth themes to the point where the sound and mood of the Earth is a vital element of the music itself. It's one thing to say your band operates under the concept of a certain inspiration, but it's an altogether different thing to live that inspiration out in such a direct way.
The music itself is made using acoustic guitar, vocals, cymbals, harmonium, harps, bells, battery powered keyboards, drums, bell-blocks, gongs submerged in a creek, toy amplifiers, birds, branches and of course, the environment they've chosen to play in. With these instruments, it's no wonder a band like No Neck Blues Band comes to mind at various points throughout the album. Though, the occasional folk hymn peeps its head out from the pleasant humming and buzzing. The opening track, "The Book of Names" is a great example of Glenn's ability to write a great folk-raga while Loren arches his tones across the sky, underpinning the picked guitar and vocals. Keeping an eye towards the occasional song prevents them from ever **actually** sounding like NNCK, instead inhabiting a much warmer, cozier hippie utopia where an album recorded in a cave with birds singing over the washes of synthesizer and twinkling bells can actually work and sound incredible.
|
