Only the Youngest Grave (2016)

Seems driven by the desire to uncover a human past in the landscape but rather than rekindling a relationship with the elemental (as in the Scandinavian tradition), finds a kind of abandoned occult sadness (as in the British tradition), which is to say that it's all bones and no spirit. A few things strike me every time (one good, one subjectively not good_)- I have no idea what makes good music much less good mixing but the sparseness of Only the Youngest Grave allows me to hear around the noise in a way that I'm not accustomed to (good!), and also I am all attention whenever the music wanders, but it every now and then builds instead (repeated motif, click distortion pedal) which is a thing I am most allergic to thanks to post-rock but which is quite moving if you are into that, and which I consciously overlook as the noise actually overrides the loud-quiet dynamic and maybe inadvertently distracts from it. So there's something for everyone there

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In Gowan Ring - Hazel Steps Through a Weathered Home (2002)

As knowingly pretentious as Rome, B'eirth looks to and acts in the same medieval simulacrum as Donovan where Jérôme sought to capture the atmosphere of the actual 'world on the brink of war.' He goes delicate rather than pompous, hence comparisons to Nick Drake rather than Nick Cave. Musically he attempts the same purity as Cashmore's best moments on Beauty Reaps The Blood of Solitude and actually manages- Hazel Steps Through a Weathered Home is a beautifully composed album. Lyrically he's Romantic where his influences might go psychedelic (Donovan), and a troubadour rather than a prophet or a mystic (Tibet). Regardless of how expertly done this all is (and it is expertly done!), appreciation of Hazel Steps Through a Weathered Home comes down to how much (expertly done) Romantic/troubadour folk the listener can manage in one sitting. The first few tracks really moved me, but I couldn't listen for the whole 50 minutes. Highly recommended for those who can do it

B

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Rome - Flowers From Exile (2009)

Damn you tl;dr/hyperbolic-gush/adjective/thesaurus reviews! It’s when I try to find reviews for ‘serious’/’beautiful’ albums like this that I’m convinced that rock critics are as bad as film critics!

Blending ‘martial’ folk- folk inspired by shit like dark ambient, war marches, neoclassical music- and awesome melodramatic pop, Flowers in Exile is apocalyptic folk replacing aggression with introspection, dorky/disgusting fetishization of aforementioned influences with sentiment, and subversive shocks with indulgent artistry. Obtrusive museum-core occasionally breaks the flow of things or goes against what I just praised the album for, but often these sections are followed by an appealing mixture of U2, Nature and Organisation, Nick Cave, and something exotic, all situated firmly in wartime atmospherics- check ‘A Culture of Fragments’ getting saved by the wonderful ‘We Who Fell In Love With the Sea’ for example

B+

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Nature and Organisation - Beauty Reaps the Blood of Solitude

1. Introduction 2:54

2. Wicker Man Song 4:33

3. Blood of Solitude I 1:17

4. Bloodstreamruns 4:38

5. My Black Diary 5:26

6. Tears for an Eastern Girl 5:41

7. Beauty Destroyed 1:34

8. Skeletontonguedworld 3:01

9. Obsession Flowers as Torture 1:51

10. Blood of Solitude II 1:52

11. Bonewhiteglory 9:46

The best Current 93 album in my opinion- dark arrangements courtesy of Michael Cashmore going from blissful and moving (Blood of Solitude I) to unfortunately banal industrial fragments (Obsession Flowers as Torture)

I don't care for the Douglas P. song (My Black Diary) or any of the short industrial ones, but Beauty Reaps the Blood of Solitude features some of Tibet's most moving vocal efforts over some of the lushest folk you're likely to hear

B+

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