Ugh, so trying to finish my taxes is pretty much the worst thing. Here you goβ¦. In this collection, medieval Bonham thunk and febrile Iommi guitar leads crowd out the bluesy Americana that foregrounded those bands, replacing hippie pastoralism with mythology, armored conflict, sorcery, and doom. This music hails from an occluded realm, somewhere just beyond the pot-addled minds of its creators. Lyrically, the Darkscorch Canticles trifle with themes most grave: crippling fear, pagan hostility, paranoia, power addiction β even necromancy.
These worried, warlike Canticles occupy a miniscule niche in the American underground of self-released rock, but their appeal is more broad today than in any previous era. In both LP and CD formats, eye-crushing band logos dominate the cover in false pen ink, all of it ensconced in an embossed Wibalin weave, foil-stamped by licks from the fire-lake of Eldara. Randall Dunn was their first and best choice to record and co-produce the music β and as the session progressed, all three men found themselves acting as a trio to bring the music.
And in the end, this album was made by a trio of players. Decamped in an old radio station in Kortrijk, Belgium, they filled a bare, stripped live broadcast room with the needed equipment as well as other amazing old pieces made available by the gearheads of the European lowlands. With guitars, drums, analog synthesizers, vibes, crotales, Sruti box and a mellotron, deep emanations were evoked, while other spirits emerged from the old wooden sound panels in the room β the ghosts of music makers past?
It will suffice to say that all who were there contributed something. Over the next 30 years, the beloved indie-pop four-piece produced a wealth of classic releases including three EPs, seven albums and a pair of retrospective collections.
Awash in the haunting beauty and bittersweet melodies the group would carry on throughout their storied career. An auspicious introduction to a band that has since become an institution of the New Zealand music scene. Originally issued on Decca in , the strong 8-song set displayed a significant evolution in sound from that of their first outing with much more highly melodic, complex songs, and more elaborate musicianship.
