Artist : Michael Yonkers
Title : Lovely Gold (1977)
Genre : Acid Folk
Year : 2010
Date : 06/2010
Bitrate : VBR kbps
Tracks : 11
Label : Drag City
Source : Vinyl
Encoder : Lame 3.97
Length : 33:05 min
Size : 43,2 MB
Tracklist:
----------
01.my love 01:40
02.i knew you'd remember 02:18
03.don't wait until tomorrow 02:32
04.will it be 03:53
05.drifting off 03:07
06.ya da doe 02:28
07.oh no, my my 02:47
08.lovely gold 04:36
09.the flute thing 01:22
10.gone down old sun 04:09
11.nevermore (bonus track) 04:13
-------
33:05 min
A sepia-tinted kaleidoscope of garage
rock, surf guitar, psilocybinÆd folk and
one of the oddest pop sensibilities this
side of Beefheart and his Magic Band,
cult artist and obscurantist favorite
Michael YonkersÆ unreleased 1977 solo
gem, Lovely Gold, shines with a 2010
dust-off and release from indie label
Drag City. During the social tumult of
the late 1960s, Yonkers had retreated,
sequestering himself in his parentsÆ
basement to experiment with tape loops
and homemade synthesizers. A broken
back, suffered in an industrial
accident, would cause him to retreat
once again. Recorded six years after
that incident, Lovely Gold is the sound
of an artist moving inward, into his own
fractured and fascinating inner
landscapes.
Indeed, this is freak folk before there
was a name for such a thing. Rumbling
percussion, effects-warped guitars and
YonkersÆ warbly voice all intertwine and
dovetail into an avant-everything
wonderland of psychedelic minimalism.
Songs like the rumbled croons and strums
of ôI Knew YouÆd Rememberö give the
first side of Trout Mask Replica a run
for its money; ôDrifting Offö forms a
mid-album vortex of burbling noise
effects beneath a slinky chorus melody;
and ôWill It Beö predates -- and
outweirds -- the best of the Brian
Jonestown MassacreÆs moody down-tempo
material with a wash of haunting wails
and shadowy sonics.
Yet however strong the Lovely GoldÆs
remainder is (and it is), the album
would be crippled without its blistering
title track. A four-minute paean to
adrenalized freak-rock, ôLovely Goldö
starts off as an ominous and nervy sway
of circular surf-pop before steadily
building, building, building into a
guitar implosion gone nova as Yonkers
pushes his instrument -- and himself, by
the sound -- to its outer limits. Drag
City was kind enough to pack in a bonus
track (the unsettling moans of
ôNevermoreö) with this long-overdue
release, but the sound of Lovely Gold
meeting the light of day is bonus
enough.