Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter Marble Son
Station Grey Records
At first listen, especially to one of her earlier albums, like Reckless Burning,Oh, My Girl, or Like, Love, Lust and the Open Hallways of the Soul, you wouldn’t think that Jesse Sykes would become a desirable figure in the world of heavy music (although she does look like a raven-haired mistress of the night), but thanks to her collaboration with Boris and SunnO))) on “The Sinking Belle” from Altar, the alt-country/indie singer/songwriter has made a name for herself amongst weirdos and beardos alike. In fact, she’s toured with bands like Earth and Black Mountain, and played at Roadburn, so whether it seems like a natural fit or not, the dark side has embraced Sykes, and now on her latest release, Marble Son, she’s embraced it right back. Truth be told, Sykes’ music (which she’s always made with longtime musical partner Phil Wandscher) has always contained darker elements, but never has that been more evident than on Marble Son, which sheds the alt-country vibe of albums past for a more psychedelic feel of melancholic finger-picking, mystical strumming, and distorted magic. In fact, all of that can be found on the eight-and-a-half-minute opener, “Hushed By Devotion,” which sets the tone for the rest of the album by acting as a giant rabbit hole into which you fall, and once the title track and “Come to Mary” sink their elegant claws into you, you’re adrift on the foggy river of Sykes’ wonderland of sorrow and beauty, and there’s no turning back. And that’s saying nothing of the addictive potion that is her voice, a kind of whiskey-owned siren call of hypnotic splendor that will toss you into thralldom on such songs as “Be it Me, Or Be it None” and “Wooden Roses.” Masterful stuff, really, as electric and powerful as it is lovely and languid, bound to nothing but its bold, broad appeal.
Well, not more than a month or so removed from The Atomic Bitchwax’s single-song album, The Local Fuzz — and not more than one year removed from their last album, Run Thick in the Night — comes USX and their single-song album, The Valley Path. Now, two albums doesn’t a trend make, so it would be presumptuous to proclaim 2011 the Year of the Ambitious Jam, and truth be told, The Valley Path ain’t so much a jam as it is a 39-minute stretch of psych-drone that veers slightly off course around the 14-minute mark. It’s this subtle detour, though, that transforms The Valley Path into a more inspiring journey, moving you out of a shoe-gazing stupor and into a pulse-quickening post-rock jog. Like all USX efforts, this one contains its share of eerie ambiance, but it’s overall feel is lighter and more hopeful, and thrives on an interesting combination of Earth’s aural fortitude and Greg Dulli’s sweeping, emotional grandeur. Perhaps cognizant of its own length and our willingness to travel it, The Valley Path finishes strong, rewarding us in the end with a loud, heaving groundswell of earned enlightenment.
It seems that Dwellers, the Salt Lake City trio featuring former Iota singer/guitarist Joey Toscano, thinks that, even though their debut full-length is set to be released sometime this summer on Small Stone, we ought to hear something right now, and so we get the experimental 4-song digital EP Peace, and Other Horrors, which was made during their current recording sessions. Now, I’m not sure how indicative of the upcoming album this EP is (labelling it experimental makes me think it’s going to differ quite a bit), but hopefully they end up towing a similar line because the folksy, Americana Gothic, with its slide guitar, cymbal bows, and faucet drips, makes for some ominous tones and spooky spaghetti ambiance, and calls to mind Earth’s last handful of albums and Dege Legg’s swampy ghost songs. If the goal of releasing this EP was to get me excited for the forthcoming album, then consider the mission accomplished.
Head over to Dwellers’ Bandcamp page where you can download this EP for free!
Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter
Dwellers