Boduf Songs - How Shadows Chase The Balance

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4...according to our Brett on Thu 18 Sep, 2008.

How Shadows Take the Balance is the new one from Kranky outfit Boduf Songs and a very somber affair it is too. Crawling along at a largely funereal pace you get acoustic guitar accompanied by breathy downbeat vocals, spiced up by the occasional bit of noise along with spectral howls and music box tingles. All very, very atmospheric and reminding me a little of The For Carnation in tone, like their stuff this is the sort of thing it's great to stick on in the pitch black early morning where you feel like you're the only person left in the world. The final track is called 'Last Glimmer on a Hill at Dusk' and leaves us with a welcome shred of hope, the best way for an album like this to go out.

The second full length release from this uk resident follows his Lion Devours the Sun album from late 2006 on kranky. A lot of artists are described as "outsiders" or "underground", but with Mathew Sweet this is actually an apt description as he belongs to no ’scene’ and is working on the farthest fringes of the ’music business’.

On his second full length release, How The Shadows Chase The Balance, Mathew Sweet uses the same formula that he has employed previously; one microphone, one acoustic guitar, a few random instruments, a couple of field recordings, and a deft, understated touch with the mixing process. He locked himself away in his home studio (to be honest, his bedroom) and no one else heard a single note until he was finished.

Musically the album is akin to Iron & Wine/M Ward with the themes of death, alienation, fear, hatred and isolation that are his forte, as well as his affinity for gothic imagery.

If you listen closely you can hear small bits of rain hitting the window, and cars sliding by on wet roads. The final result is one of the most unassuming, and engaging recordings of the year. It is intimate, extremely personal, and spectral in presence.

Tracklisting: 1. Mission Creep 2. Things Not To Be Done On The Sabbath 3. I Can’t See A Thing In Here 4. Quiet When Group 5. Pitiful Shadow Engulfed In Darkness 6. A Spirit Harness 7. Found On The Bodies Of Fallen Whales 8. Last Glimmer On A Hill At Dusk

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