Boxhead Ensemble / La Hora Magica
Album: La Hora Magica   Collection:General
Artist:Boxhead Ensemble   Added:May 2016
Label:Astral Spirits  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2016-05-29 Pull Date: 2016-07-31 Charts: Classical/Experimental
Week Ending: Jul 31 Jun 12 Jun 5
Airplays: 1 1 2

Recent Airplay
1. Jun 10, 2021: Rebroadcast: Stranded at Settembrini's
Wandering Sky
4. Jun 10, 2016: a strange pursuit
Cats Cup
2. Nov 05, 2020: Stranded at Settembrini's
Wandering Sky
5. Jun 04, 2016: Ghost Trees
Cats Cup
3. Jul 27, 2016: Brownian Motion
El Chico
6. Jun 01, 2016: Brownian Motion
Wandering Sky

Album Review
DJ Away
Reviewed 2016-05-22
Languid, loosely played, minimal, nearly ambient soundtrack music for a nonexistent revisionist Western. This is like Talk Talk if they'd moved to Arizona after making Laughing Stock. Led by Michael Krassner since its formation in the early 90s, Boxhead Ensemble have had a revolving group of players that reads like a who's who of alt-country, early post-rock, and experimental jazz, overlapping in personnel with Wilco, Califone, Will Oldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy), Pinetop Seven, Edith Frost, Squirrel Bait, Gastr Del Sol, Eleventh Dream Day, The For Carnation, Uncle Tupelo, Xylouris White, Dirty Three, Souled American, &c&c&c. This tape features Krassner with Wil Hendricks, Laraine Kaizer, and Adam Busch. At times calmly psychedelic and at others deeply melancholy, it's unassumingly beautiful throughout. Favorites: 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12. No words, no FCCs.

1. (1:32)—Soft, looped, desolate guitar.
2. *(6:52)—Peaceful, trippy guitar. Slow, minimal bass. Soft bells.
3. *(2:55)—Rippling electronics, high lonesome guitar.
4. *(2:07)—Limpid, pastoral drone.
5. *(7:11)—Twinkling melody, clopping hooves, free-flowing guitar.
6. (2:49)—Sad, keening violin. Like an excerpt from a GY!BE piece.
7. *(2:55)—Warm, psychedelic guitar loops.
8. (1:32)—Melancholy, droning guitar.
9. (2:44)—Windswept, granular, dissonant, harmonica-like drones.
10. (2:21)—More rippling electronics. Nocturnal, slightly glitchy.
11. (4:09)—Tense drones, frantically bowed violin.
12. *(4:54)—Slow guitar strumming, gleaming tones.
13. (2:24)—Dark, barren drone.
14. (8:37)—Major key drone, begins to build and then gradually disintegrates.

Track Listing
1. The Conquerors   8. Middle Fork
2. Wandering Sky   9. Wagon
3. El Chico   10. You And Me
4. Long Shadow   11. Golden Mitre
5. Cats Cup   12. Curve
6. Descend   13. Watanabe
7. Khb   14. Spinning Top