a r t i s t : Badgerlore
t i t l e : We Are All Hopeful Farmers, We Are All Scared Rabbits
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : Xeric
c a t : XER 114 CD
s o u r c e : CDDA
g e n r e : Folk
r l s. d a t e : Apr/2007
t r a c k s : 10
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 48,6 MB
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We were never looking for a 'freak folk' supergroup, I mean
with rock music you kind of expect it - a coked up industry
party, after hours bourbon-sipping and in a drunken,
hedonistic stupor the asymmetrically haircutted buffoon from a
badly punctuated rock band agrees to do form a band with a
similarly afflicted singer. 'Freak folk' though, it's much
more sprawling - I'm sure there are parties somewhere where
the scene's top celebs (Devendra, Islaja, Vashti, Sunburned
Hand of the Man?) swap stories about gardening and ancient
Egyptian history while they sip their organic smoothies and
shuffle around the room awkwardly, but I certainly haven't
found one. Clearly Badgerlore however stumbled into this
mysterious world, a meeting of some of the finest minds in the
whole darned scene, we have Rob Fisk (ex-Deerhoof), Ben Chasny
(Six Organs of Admittance), Liz Harris (Grouper), Tom Carter
(Charalambides), Pete Swanson (Yellow Swans) and Glen
Donaldson (Thuja, Jewelled Antler Collective) ganging up
together to create a record of epic proportions. Don't get
worried, it's still quiet and measured, but somehow with 'We
are all Hopeful Farmers, we are all Scared Rabbits' we get
what we really want to hear, an album that truly sounds like a
collaboration with all of the artists involved. I can hear
fragments of Liz Harris's patented swirling ghostly vocals,
occasional lapses into Chasny's raga-folk, the submerged,
soil-drenched sound of Thuja, Tom Carter's signature fretwork,
Pete Swanson's noisy abandonment and Rob Fisk's haphazard
attention to detail. Rather than sounding like the mess of
ideas it so easily could have been the record is challenging
and involving, redefining a movement rather than being seduced
by its trappings. Calm and delicate at all times, we catch
these musicians at that point where late night turns into
early morning, as the day birds make their first calls and
small nocturnal animals scurry into their wooden homes. This
is somehow what the Jewelled Antler Collective were hinting at
for so long - they got close with Thuja, but here I think the
collaborative elements make the record a kind of logical
progression, a step forward if you will. At the same time
desperately experimental and hugely enjoyable to listen to
Badgerlore's second full-length is exactly what I want to be
hearing right now, and proof that supergroups can be just as
good as the names might suggest. An incredible record - buy
it!
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01-Furbearer [08:24]
02-Goodnight, Sweet Rabbits [01:58]
03-The Crops that You Tend [07:11]
04-Whichever [01:42]
05-We Are All Hopeful Farmers [08:28]
06-Mountain Wine [03:15]
07-Snowballs for Reuven [01:57]
08-Grow Your Hair [08:49]
09-Duet [04:37]
10-When I Look at Your Face, I See Timothy [05:53]
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52:14 min