Phantom Dog Beneath the Moon - The Trees, The Sea in a Lunar Stream

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4...according to our Clinton on Sat 01 May, 2010.

Here's a long overdue new thing on Ireland's super Rusted Rail label (or maybe I just haven't been paying attention). In lovely handmade arigato packaging and containing a 12 track bonus CD (I mean what else could you ask for?). The music is mysterious home spun folk music. Long drawn out dusty distant songs that at times recall a more palatable Richard Youngs (if anyone hasn't heard his high water mark 'Sapphie' you should do right away). It's full of eerie melodies, finger picked acoustic guitars and high pitched lost, longing vocals. Cello's weep despondently but theres a soothing quality to the music and after a few spins the subtle melodies start emerging from the murk. Recommended.

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It is with great pleasure that Rusted Rail can announce the release of "The Trees, The Sea in a Lunar Stream" by Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon. An Irish duo made up of Aaron Hurley and Scott McLaughlin, their music combines many elements from avant-folk to shoegaze, modern composition to indie rock. Recorded in England and Ireland, this album combines avant singer-songwriter moves with a contemporary classical sensibility as songwriter Hurley and multi-instrumentalist McLaughlin conjure music from vocals, guitars, piano, cello, glockenspiel, bass guitar, melodica, double bass, harpsichord, vibraphone and electronics. An ambitious recording with many experimental textures, Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon veer from rustic folk to glacial atmospheres, from haunted songs to spooked shoegaze soundscapes. The album is housed in a hand-assembled and hand stamped recycled card sleeve. Never staying in the same place for very long in either name, geography or style, yet consistently evolving and engaging, Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon have amped up their acoustic aesthetic, plugged into the grid and entered a new sound world featuring live percussion, sonic sorcery, and plaintive singing wrapped in warm cello and vibraphonic action. Their "Through A Forest Only" extended player for Rusted Rail features twenty minutes of delicate, driven, dreamy and haunted hymns on a 3 inch EP in a handmade sleeve.

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