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By Bootleg Al The 99th release from the rather phenomenal Kranky sees Mathew Sweet aka Boduf Songs return to his bedroom turned studio for his debut full-length, turning the humble and delicate folk stylings of last years self-titled EP into a huge, dark, bitter LP full of fantasy and desire. A profound alchemist, Sweet has (according to his press-release) ‘developed the powers to mysteriously transform a minimal palette of common musical elements into something extraordinary’. Not strictly conventional folk music, Sweet draws upon elements of psychedelia, minimalism and drone. Recorded on his trusty 4-track and a single microphone, Sweet utilises acoustic guitar, cymbals, an e-bow autoharp, toy piano and manipulated field recordings to create a world of delicate darkness, mystery and challenge. Over this he uses his vocal minimally as he almost whispers his tales of our failing human condition and doomed existence with close-mic’d delivery. This quiet noise approach results in some amazingly intimate poetic ramblings regarding destruction and death, the title of the record itself incidentally derives from alchemical imagery with the sun representing consciousness and the lion symbolising emotion. Lion
Devours the Sun is a very challenging record that can be pretty hard
going at times. I often found myself zoning out into my subconscious as
the plucked acoustic guitar riffs pulled me into a droned trance. Musically
the record didn’t particularly move me and while the vocal whispering
itself was quite comforting to listen to, creating a nice juxtaposition
to the violent and dark imagery of the lyrics, they often washed over
me without acknowledgment or interpretation. Overall the record disappointingly
lacked command and I more often than not found myself confused, bored
and frustrated. |
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BODUF
SONGS - LION DEVOURS THE SUN