Theo Angell; Dearly Beloved (Amish Records)
Lo-fi, bluesy sedate folk w/some hints of freak-folkish stuff (Angell founded Hall of Fame and worked w/ Jackie O’Motherfucker). Blues vox w/lots of lo-fi reverb. Emulates old blues record crackle + white noise on some tracks, but gets hi-fi by #4 for a bit. Spiritual feel. Songs seems to ramble…tshis give music a tense, taut mood. Often sparse; the wanderings of J-O’MFer/Wooden Wand laid bare w/o the layers. Some tracks have cool spiritual vox. The fact sheet claims that this album was partially inspired by the spirit of a parakeet named Sassy. It took me until # 8 to warm up to the atmosphere. Distant cousin of Pink Mountaintops?
Order of preference: #1, 8, 2, 7, 4, 5, 10, 6, 3, 9; FCC clean.
1) 1:33- soul, spiritual; almost a capella (bits of percussion). Reverb, harmonic vox.
2) 4:20 – fast weirdo-blues. quick banjo. Lo-fi vox + handclaps. Awkward dance beat. Cool layered vox.
3) 2:36 – lo-fi blues. Crackly, buzzy vox + up-beat folk strums. Faux-old blues record feel.
4) 3:23 – church organ. intimate vox + bass. Handfuls of pretty folk glitter (Acoustic gitter, xylophone, mandolin, breathy white noise).
5) 2:53 –darker, midtempo. folk guitar, human vox percussion.
6) 5:12 –sad, gothic (almost apoco) folk. Moody guitar. Warbling vox. Sparse. Synth strings later. Gets slow near end.
7) 8:28 – quiet, slow, SOFT, SPARSE. lo-fi vox. Rambling vox melody guitar picking. This would sound best late at night. Improv?
8) 4:19 – primitive electro-dance beat w/ soul lo-fi vox. Cool interweaving of simples harmonies make this a good track.
9) 3:57 – quick, gothic folk. Dark. Rapid acoustic finger picking. Brooding vox.
10) 2:44 – full, intimate vox returns. Spiritual + hymnals. Hopeful, sparse. Simple acoustic guitar. Pretty guitar 2/3 to end.