Spencer Dobbs - If The Moon Don't Turn Its Back On You & Lunar Yearling

I have really liked Spencer Dobbs ever since I heard his 2016 tape Changed Fool (check here), and I've listened to all his later releases in which he plays bluesy/folksy acoustic depressing music with great lyrics. He was kind enough to send me links to two of his most recent releases and If The Moon Don't Turn Its Back On You is the most extraordinary of his work, as it doesn't follow his usual acoustic pattern, but is more improvised and psych folk centered on electric guitars with slides, glissandos, in-song detunings, quite close to Neil Young's Dead Man soundtrack and Karen Dalton freaked folk invocations. It's certainly slightly more ugly and sinister than most of his stuff and it's superb. Get your ass up and download it at the Dust Press bandcamp here.

His most recent 2023 tape is called Lunar Yearling, he says that he recorded it in one take drinking Genesee Cream Ale, and is closer to his more expected beautiful melancholic stuff. I'd dare to say that it's probably my favorite album of his. It's hard to emphasize how heartbreakingly desperate and down to earth it is. Go order it right away at the Dust Press bandcamp here.

Tremolo Ghosts - A Cardboard Sunset

Another very interesting release by Wormhole World, who have just released Xqui's Capitulate, is the upcoming cd by Tremolo Ghosts, the solo project of Owen Chambers, who participates in the Liquid Library label, presented in an earlier issue of TQ. The basis for the music here is acoustic folky stuff, with Owen's very characteristic high-pitched voice, which somehow reminds me of Yes's Jon Anderson in a higher and warmer tone. However, in comparison with earlier releases such as Gibraltar or Clutter Flies there's a more psych mood, more diverse instrumentation with electric guitars, reverbs, and improvised guitar snippets, and there's even a noise interlude. I get a very maritime feel here, and a melancholy air but filled with hope and conviction. Another great early 2019 release that's gonna keep me good company for the year. Go to the bandcamp, and pre-order it, it's worth the money.

Roses Never Fade - Fade To Black cd

I've expressed my adoration for Integrity quite a few times in the blog, as they are probably the one band I can really call my favorite one, in their mixing of my best-liked styles, hardcore punk with extreme metal and noise, with a dark, evil, and twisted aesthetic. Roses Never Fade was the moniker singer and only remaining original member Dwid used after he completely ceased Integrity in the wake of the excellent To Die For. It's quite away from traditional Integrity, i.e. metallic hardcore with gruff vocals and mind-blowing guitar solos; in this album, where he is accompanied by two members of Pale Creation, they play acoustic dark neo-folk, close to Of The Wand And The Moon, albeit with a style that is also close to gothic, ambient, and post-punk, and in that sense it's not THAT far removed from the Closure album Dwid released as Integrity in 2001. Dwid doesn't really sing (yeah he doesn't have the voice for that anyway), but he mostly whispers, while the guys play mournful and epic acoustic melodies, and also offer some solos at a point that would not be alien in an acoustic version of Integrity, or in their calmer moments. My favorite track is "Fear For You" which has a more Death In June vibe. Despite his controversial music ventures and his choice to continue Integrity without any of the original members that really shaped much of the modern hardcore punk landscape, I've always thought that Dwid has been consistent in making good music no matter what the setting and his collaborators, and this album is also evidence of that. Of course, that excludes the Integrity 2000 albums... and of course his utterly worthless fucking Relapse releases since last year, which once more prove that Relapse is set on destroying any band that they manage to capture in their corporate nets. Meh. 2005 album on Rock Vegas Records.

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Tom Settle - Dried Plumes tape

Beautiful acoustic guitar experiments by Tom Settle a-la John Fahey, early David Gilmour with an ambient/drone edge very close to his associate Jon Collin, which means guaranteed quality. Must listen. 2010 tape on Winebox Press, re-pressed in 2016 by Early Music.

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Spencer Dobbs - Changed Fool tape (Sloow Tapes)

Beautiful, deep, desperate, drunken late in the night acoustic folk music by this musician from Texas. It starts in a deceptively hopeful manner with "Artifact Moon," which is similar to the tracks from Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska but quickly descends into very depressive territory, kinda similar in attitude to the acoustic folk albums of Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till of Neurosis, but with a much richer sound accentuated by piano, harmonica and a heartbreaking saxophone. I hear influences from the darkest moments of Leonard Cohen and Neil Young's Tonight's The Night, and the psychedelic textures owes to Charalambides, with whom Spencer is affiliated. And then the tape closes with the beautiful, epic and again kinda hopeful "There Is A Dream," closing the circle. Very highly recommended music. I see there is a double cdr version of this on his Bandcamp, containing an extra track and a booklet, and I think he deserves some good support, so snatch it. 2016 tape on Sloow Tapes.

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Jon Collin - Early Music tape

One of the best guitar players around at the moment, Jon Collin creates a link between psychedelic/acid folk and ambient music, improvising with every possible sound his acoustic guitar can create as well as playing melodies evoking images of lying under a starry sky in the desert, being something of a crossing between Derek Bailey, the ambient moments of Pat Metheny and David Gilmour in his acoustic/folky Ummagumma/Atom Heart Mother/ Meddle days. 2016 tape on Early Music.

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