Mellow cuts for a rainy day.
BLACK HEART PROCESSION
"Tangled"
The Spell
(Touch and Go Records)
A dark piano intro (a la Tori Amos on her best day), sleepy staccato guitar intertwined with dirge-y drums and low-mixed vocals: It's all about conjuring up a hot, updated witch, wisping through a Scottish meadow, or maybe Catherine and Heathcliff if they lived on the Lower East Side. This is a song whose smoky atmosphere would lull you pleasantly to sleep, if only it weren't so spooky.
FROM MONUMENT TO MASSES
"Deafening"
Schools of Thought Contend
(Dim Mak Records)
"Deafening" it is not. Rather, this single is a post-rock mini-opus, with a mellow spoken intro shifting seamlessly into a violin-and-bell section backed by light, infectious drum machine percussion, slightly punctuated with occasional guitar lines. Think Explosions in the Sky, if they had soundtracked a remake of
1984
instead of
Friday Night Lights
, except four minutes in, the song shifts over into a harder jam out, with strong guitars, live drums and almost metal rhythms: the storm after the calm.
BRIGHTBLACK MORNING LIGHT
"Everybody Daylight"
Brightblack Morning Light
(Matador Records)
Jammed awkwardly into the "Freak Folk" category, BBML's early output transcends a humble rural Alabama background, as well as outracing, at the tempo of a content turtle, the confines of Devendra Barnhart's kingdom. Low-mixed flutes and hi-hat support "Everybody Daylight," with its soulful organ and spaced out vocals that sound like a country alien is fronting the band. This is a single that sounds like a low fog lifting off the gully, or a slow stroll to the country store, rich and thoughtful and taking its sweet time.
