Barren Harvest — Subtle Cruelties
Barren Harvest is a two piece neofolk group comprised of Jessica Way and Lenny Smith, both veterans of the scene. They've released a pair of albums to christen the project during 2014, one of which is this album, "Subtle Cruelties".
The band has clearly listened to generous helpings of Dead Can Dance, Coil, Death in June and other late 80's/early 90's esoteric ethereal classics. As a duo with roles fixed to synth/voice and guitar/voice, Barren Harvest's music is more straightforward and traditional than the artists I've named. While I can confidently say these influences are present in this music, it certainly indicates my background that I'm making industrial and pagan ambient comparisons rather than pure folk ones.
The production is beautiful, a skillfully created acoustic environment. It is a glimmering and luminous forest sound, drenched in reverberation and perfectly timed delays. One might fault, perhaps, Lenny Smith's decision to limit his synth playing to vintage sounding string imitation patches, though it certainly lends their sound certain a minimalist purity, drawing focus to the notes.
The tone of the band's music is somber, almost funereal, as if mourning the distortion of the natural order at the hands of modern man. From reading the lyrics and looking at the album's packaging, I would've expected a tedious, one-dimensional melancholy, but actually, the album comes off something like a well-paced fantasy film, cheesy but satisfyingly dramatic, each movement cleverly playing off the others to create a sense of narrative and tension. I enjoy touches such as the shorter interlude tracks of whispering. I feel the album fails to develop or diverify in sound by the second half, but in the beginning at least, there is some tension.
The smooth, operatic vocal tones employed by both singers do a lot to mask the often cliched 'gothic' vocabulary and almost comically hopeless sentiments of the lyrical content (an example line from the album "I have failed sorrow's cruel fellowship / I have failed my own blood"). Synth player Lenny Smith intones in a tenor not unlike Dead Can Dance's Brendan Perry, while guitarist Jessica Way sings in a style that reminds me of Swans' Jarboe. A couple of words are audible here and there amongst the long, droning, chant-like notes, but the lyrics are never the focus.
In the end, nothing bothered me about this album, which I expected to be a tiresome downer, but neither was I amazed. The album stays within its chosen niche of simple, minor key chord progressions and repeated, drone-like vocal tones. Though texturally beautiful, I find the musicians' stated sadness ultimately unconvincing. Despite hints of dramatic momentum created with clever production and interludes, generally the energy level is too low, and the style too consistent, too predictable. The sound of this album is pleasant, but when I'm in the mood for this sort of style, I'm more likely to put on some Lisa Gerrard or Louisa John-Krol. I feel this band needs more distinctive, personal qualities, some kind of innovation within the classic neofolk sound and atmosphere, which they've recreated here with reasonable