Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir
Reviewed by Sadie O., 8/4/08
Dark and disturbed new old-timey country blues from Calgary. Fine pickin’, strangled singing, pots banging in the background, and it’s all real good long as you don’t mind a few spiders.
FCC on track 5 – maybe there’s others, but the vocals have strep throat.
Everything is excellent; I like 12 best but that’s just me.
1. 2:59 **midtempo country blues stomp with banjo and handclaps, harmonica solo.
2. 3:10 ***downtempo swampy blues with the feel of homemade instruments. Slinky and scary, just exactly like them things down in the swamp. There’s a certain amount of snake-handling, too.
3. 3:24 **very slow, very old-timey blues, with a limping zombie feel.
4. 3:36 **slithery, slidey, slow – this one has trombones for extra slipperiness. Very bass-heavy, with which I have no problem.
5. 2:34 FCC: “fucked up again” **fast bluegrass romp, political diatribe. Quite a pretty banjo and guitar break.
6. 2:30 **fast slide guitar-based stomp, really groovy instrumental work.
7. 2:07 **jolly slide guitar strut, more Appalachia than Delta.
8. 2:25 ***midtempo slide guitar country blues, damn fine eatin’. Hoots and poots!
9. 2:40 **it’s a waltz, yes, and it’s clearly got Cajun daddies, but nobody seems to have the proper complement of legs.
10. 4:26 ***slow, plodding face-off between the snake handlers and the zombies. Jangly and disturbed as hell.
11. 3:07 **sweet intro, then uptempo crazy-man dance.
12. 4:18 ****downtempo chugging slide guitar, just as yummy and evil as makes no never mind. Fine cover of a Son House classic.
13. 3:26 **downtempo country blues – actually very close to traditional sounding (but still dark.)
14. 3:14 **fast acoustic guitar train beat – does indeed sound older than the trees.