Folk music has a certain reputation. One expects banjos and perhaps a fiddle, tales of mountains and hard winters and long lost loves. But how does folk music survive and evolve in the Twenty-first Century? Well, in two ways apparently. Artists can either continue in the classical style, songs which hark back to an older, more pastoral time, or they can take the key components of the genre and update them, make them more relevant for our times. Field Medic (aka Kevin Patrick) takes the second route. If you break down his songs into their component parts then its difficult to argue against their folk credentials, but this isn’t folk as we know it. It’s recorded on cassette for a start, and also uses beats from a KORG volca, and this recording process and Patrick’s personal style come together to create something that sounds fresh and novel. As I put it in my review of Field Medic’s previous EP:
“Patrick’s brand of folk is a long way from the earthy and pastoral nature traditionally associated with the genre. This folk music is not inspired by dusty prairies and snow-capped peaks, but rather reclusive twilit bedrooms and the grey and rain-streaked view of a grey and rain-streaked city.”
Light is Gone opens with the title track, which captures what I’ve been trying to say rather nicely. It’s based on minimal acoustic guitar that wouldn’t sound out of place on a J. Tillman record, and has lyrics at once strange and oddly meaningful (“i don’t suppose you know the roses, the sand dollars, hurricanes daughters, leave me sad afternoons”). It’s also chock full of literary references which, as you might know by now, we like an awful lot.
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‘NEON FLOWERZ’ sounds like an older Casiotone For the Painfully Alone track, with it’s lo-fi drum machine, ‘selfish’ is a gloomily heartfelt track set to acoustic guitar and piano, and ‘Tombstone Poetry’ is restrained and sincere, with delicate tumbling acoustics. ‘xplodineyes’ is another track with digital percussion and weirdly comforting lyrics (“Calm those exploding eyes, you’ve got to forgive yourself sometimes”), while ‘GLITTER’ takes the lyrical game to a whole new level – “I looked straight into your eyes and destroyed the folk song of our life. We became we became so close by the end of the war. But its just too spooky living with your ghosts. I want glitter and big cigars, cocaine with strippers, fuck movie stars”. On ‘Graffiti Paint’ Patrick longs for life in a gang (“the streets are dangerous for sure / but the hood shows love while all these well to do people i know are cold as fuck”) and then ‘Colorado’ brings back the heartbreakingly intimate folk:
“you said:
‘i’m gonna work so hard,
so that nothing can break my heart.
i’m gonna be happy like a dog splashing
swimming with a stick.
i’ve been having a hard time
for a long time'”
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The album ends on ‘it’s still you.’, an autobiographical track which tells the story of an extraordinary few months in Patrick’s life in which he accidentally cashed a stolen cheque for someone and ended up in the grip of paranoia. It turned out alright in the end, as the lyrics attest: “that whole thing about the LAPD, well- it’s not as bad as it sounds, i just cashed a check for somebody that turned out to be stolen, i think i did it cuz i was lonely, i got the call today that the bank’s gonna pay restitution, but there was a while there where i thought i was gonna get thrown in a cell or be on the line for $5000”. But this isn’t the only story on show in the song. There is also something even more serious, a sense of sadness (“to answer your letter-
most days i’m doing fine but sometimes i still get deep down dark & feeling low “) and longing and a wistful remembrance of good times long gone:
“i tried to play that song
that we used to sing together bout sailing
couldn’t make it thru the first verse
without breaking down & crying
what the hell is wrong with me…
hey i just wish we could sing it.”
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You can download Light is Gone now via the Field Medic bandcamp page, and it is also due to be released on cassette by SUNROOM RECORDZ next month. We’ll keep you updated on that one.
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