The Gray Field Recordings — The Weaver's Daughter
This album originally appeared back in 2009 on the Anticlock Records label- the original pressing came in a edition of just 100 copies. Here we have a late 2016 reissue on the always worthy Reverb Worship label, who of course over the years has released many lost sonic & distinct sonic gems from the underground. This expanded CDR reissue of the album comes in an edition of 50 copies.
The reissue takes in the eight original tracks from the first issue, and adds in another eight- to give a new total release runtime of sixty six minutes. And really as mentioned in my opening the album twists & turns all over the place, going from harmonic-to-none harmonic, and shifting though & merging genres at ease. The album opens with the five minute title track, which nicely blends sour & sweet- bringing together a mix of slurred & discordant stringed instrumentation, sad & harmonic string sweeps, and richly sad yet angelic lead female vocals. Later on “From Sheneland” moves from it’s opening blend of soaring solo female blues singing, vinyl crackle, and church organ. Onto a blend of moody semi- sang/ semi -spoken word female vocals, backwards vocal picks, & lonesome yet harmonic guitar strums. And towards it's end we move into morbid eastern European like folk, bringing together slowed & fading sweeps of discordant strings.
One of the later (and bonus tracks here) is “Every Earthly Pendulum”- this eight minute affair is an see-sawing & unsettling blend of sour feedback whines, minimal psychedelic organ pumps, & deeper texture drags- it sounds like a slurred & unsettled version of Wolf Eyes, if they’d been dumped in the woods for a few days. Or there’s the building & subtle dread filled simmer of last track “A Collie Bird Calling”- which finds the female voice acting out a creep( and at times bizarre) story about a house in woods. Over a skeletal backing of slow creaking, stretched vocal simmers, and building judder-bound & out-of-focuses ambience.
Kudos really must go to Reverb Worship for uncovering another original, weird, & mostly wonderfully album here. If you want to hook a copy of this I suggest fairly fast action, as it’s only ltd to 50 copies, and my copies 34/50. As of writing this review there are still some left, but I can't imagine they’ll hang around long.