a r t i s t : VA
t i t l e : Tsuki No Seika Volume Three
d a t e : 2010
l a b e l : Root Strata
c a t : RS55
s o u r c e : Vinyl
g e n r e : A capella/Neo-Folk
r l s. d a t e : Aug/2010
t r a c k s : 02
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 8,4 MB
_______________________________________________________________________
The third iteration of the Tsuki No Seika series finds
experimental folk musicians Islaja and Christina Carter
working their magic within the constraints of vocal-only
music. The artist-provided cover art for Islaja's side is the
weirdest and most striking yet for the series, what looks like
a bow-tie or perhaps some sort of abstracted winged animal.
Carter's side sports an explanation of her song's lyrics.
I'm not entirely sure what the name of Islaja's track is, but
the corner of the cover reads "Unessa at..." so I'm going with
that until I'm proven incorrect. Islaja is a psych-folk
songstress from Finland, and her deep, honeyed voice brings a
sadness and mystery to her song that is by now a staple of the
series. Over the course of the song Islaja adds some treatment
to a few of her multi-tracked voice, resulting in muted
churning and spiky snatches of feedback. The end of the song
sees some harsh processing reminiscent of a recording of
screams copied until the sound is degraded into jagged, rough
squeaks. Weird and compelling stuff.
For her side of the record, Christina Carter revisits the
vaguely unsettling hippie folk of the 60's and 70's, with the
anti-war song "Will of the People" mining the grand tradition
of Buffy Sainte-Marie. It's the first song of the series that
I've heard that actually makes some sort of logical sense, but
its style is very reminiscent of Vol. 2's b-side by Richard
Youngs.
All in all, a challenging-yet-digestible pair of neo-folk
songs. As of this writing you can still get the vinyl from
Boomkat, and trust me when I say the artwork is really
impressive on this one. Get it while you can.
_______________________________________________________________________
01-Islaja - Unessa et... [03:24]
02-Christina Carter - Will of the People [03:06]
-------
06:30 min