 |
|
0 items in your cart, sadly. |
Hiss Golden Messenger
|
|
Description: | Star-studded, Bowie-endorsed LP and download on Paradise of Bachelors, numbered of 500, LAST COPIES |
|---|---|---|
| Format: | LP | |
| Genre(s): | Alt. Country/Americana/Country Rock, Gothic Folk / Neofolk | |
| Label: | Paradise of Bachelors | |
| Price: |
£21.99
|
|
| Availability: | Sold out / currently unavailable. Sorry! |
...according to our Mike on 22 November 2011.
According to the press release this guy/band is endorsed by none other than Saint David of Bowie himself, which pretty much doubled my expectations upon spinning this beautifully packaged platter - not to mention that he’s accompanied on this record by members of just about every current alt-country band worth a crap. As you’d imagine, this is a totally slick recording, with ambitiously arranged country shuffles aplenty. Think Songs:Ohia’s comparatively upbeat ‘Magnolia Electric Co’ LP crossed with Dire Straits. Think a slightly slinkier Lambchop fronted by Tom Petty. This genuinely sounds like it could’ve come out in the late sixties to mid seventies. There’s certainly not a lot of evidence of any influences later than that. That said, though, it is a pleasure to hear a record like this with lots of skilled musicians making an understated and organic sound that’s this slick and radio-friendly. It’s the comforting sound of real people playing real instruments without being homogenised by any of the production shortcuts that the home computer revolution has made so ubiquitous. While it’s hardly the most innovative record I’ve heard lately, the musicianship and production is top notch throughout and Americana purists everywhere should snap this one up while it’s still available (this is a hand-numbered edition of 500 so I can’t see them staying around all that long). This is ten times better than that Ryan Adams album everyone’s losing their shit over right now. Maybe even eleven.
Following the success of "Said I Had a Vision: Songs & Labels of David Lee, 1960-1988," the inaugural record on Paradise of Bachelors, we’re excited to venture into contemporary music with "Poor Moon" by Hiss Golden Messenger. Composed and arranged by Head Messenger M.C. Taylor at his home in the rural Piedmont mill town of Pittsboro and recorded with longtime collaborator Scott Hirsch in New York, California and North Carolina, "Poor Moon" offers a moving culmination of the spiritually-charged song cycle commenced on last year’s critically acclaimed "Bad Debt" album for London's Blackmaps label. Featuring contributions from members of the Black Twig Pickers, Pelt, D. Charles Speer & the Helix, Brightblack Morning Light, and Taylor's prior band The Court & Spark, to name a few, "Poor Moon" represents both an elaboration and inversion of previous Hiss Golden Messenger efforts, proposing an America at perpetual sundown, wracked by devotion, wrecked by celebration. David Bowie provides perhaps the most apt description of Hiss Golden Messenger's sound, which he deems "mystical country, an eerie, yellowing photograph."
On November 1, 2011, this autumnal album of twelve songs will be available in a limited, hand-numbered edition of 500 copies, pressed on 150-gram virgin vinyl, packaged in tip-on sleeves with drawings by visual artist Alex Jako, and including digital download coupons.
