Distant Reader / Place of Words Now Gone
Album: Place of Words Now Gone   Collection:General
Artist:Distant Reader   Added:Nov 2024
Label:Lily Tapes & Discs  

Album Review
HYPRK
Reviewed 2024-11-15
Ambient folk / literary slowcore with a strong narrative voice. Written during a cross-country train trip, recorded in rural Texas, and produced/engineered by Andrew Weathers. Most songs have long instrumental intros and outros which lends a really nice expansiveness to the project. Songs are poetically sincere and atmospherically ace. Lyrics are the centerpiece and they construct a storyline of a distant reality where a community is slowly and mysteriously curtained in silence. The narrator ruminates on the void left behind in the disappearances and what takes the "place of words now gone." Fun fact: Distant Reader is the alter ego of KZSU's DJ Away, so show some support!

RIYL: Bedhead, Sun Kil Moon, SUSS, Barn Owl, Codeine, The Weather Station
FCC Clean
Try: 1, 2, 6

*1. (6:24) Very quiet intro (20 sec) leads into some nice slides and strums. Great dynamics. Lyrics are emergency-themed, and there's a really nice anxious flutter in this one
*2. (3:46) Extended guitar intro. Powerful vocals and swells of noise meet in an epic crescendo
3. (5:52) Guitar-forward. Fluttering, moody vocals, lots of lap steel. Really epic drone swirls at the 4 min mark
4. (4:50) Lonesome. Seagulls squawking, warm guitar, a bit of saxophone. Really nice
5. (6:50) Opens with the scratchy sound of scissors on paper, blossoms into heartfelt folk with keyboard elements
*6. (4:21) Slow lilty guitar melody. Gentle vocals, tasteful delay effects, a bit of saxophone
7. (5:21) Somber with plucky metallic strings, buzzy synth and sparse rattling percussion

Track Listing
1. Emergency (6:24)   4. Ten Houses (4:50)
2. Landscape With No Near End (3:46)   5. From High Remove (6:50)
3. Outpost (5:52)   6. Porch Light (4:21)
  7. One Day (5:21)