wished bone are an act we’ve mentioned in passing in the past, with their EP pseudio recordings representing one of the best experimental folk releases on Bandcamp. For the most part, they have remained something of a cryptic presence, keeping a low profile within a culture that seems to reward (or even demand) those willing to release as much music as possible in the shortest time possible.
However, after a two-song demo release last year, wished bone are back with their debut full-length, cellar belly. The album is also a debut of sorts for Human Noise Records, it being the first full-length release from the new project of Tom Johnson of GoldFlakePaint. The partnership seems a perfect one—an eternal champion of independent music working with a band operating outside of the industry’s demand for constant attention—and for all the ills and complications, such a thing highlights the positive ties that can develop from the internet’s hold on music. A kind of cross-pollination between two passionate camps, their ideas blown by the winds of the internet to meet by happy chance, and thereafter growing into something bigger and stronger.
The botanical theme is apt in more ways than one, as wished bone’s Ashley studied plant biology, and indeed something about the atmosphere and style of cellar belly has a natural, almost ecological feel. Which is to say, this is a record crafted out of a thousand separate elements that pull together in harmony—an ecosystem of drum track beats and lo-fi lilts and a diversity of guitar sounds ranging from laid-back to melancholic. This dreamy environment is populated by snatches of vocals, the forthright, intimate delivery belying the often strange and poetic lyrics. As such, the vocals feel less like a direct communication and more some interior musing, the condensed language of true sentiments that might evaporate when constructed into full sentences. Take opener ‘reasons’ as an example:
love untouched is the sun at dusk
on my windowsill
and light on the snow has an ominous glow
her hair is tangled still
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The result is a record where all emotions can be explored, and the mood and tone can change without warning. However, rather than feeling jarring or volatile, this inconsistency only adds to the organic aesthetic. The lazy tropical shuffle of ‘reasons’ leads into the electrically-charged ‘yellowstoned’, before the rich depth of ‘hubbub’ emerges like a new morning, a newfound brightness unfurling itself across the scene. Likewise, the off-kilter brood of ‘yellow bird’ paves the way for the upbeat rhythm of ‘pollinate me’, a track no less strange but altogether more positive. The song is a great example of the wished bone lyrical style, the language odd yet more precise for it, conjuring lives both inside and out in all their idiosyncrasy.
little spiders build entire worlds
would you like to meet the love of mine?
he stands about a storey high
his eyes are blue like little butterflieswhen you came to town you made me shake
made me think about mistakes I’ve made
could you tell me why you’ve got no shoes?
is there something i can do for you?i’m a flower and you are a bee
why won’t you pollinate me?
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The acoustic strum of ‘seed’ pushes as far toward traditional folk as anything on the record, though breaks down into something closer to Daniel Johnston around the midpoint, an analogue roughness trumped by the vivid ‘spring time lover’. This is followed by ‘pat’, a rhythmic and playful song that crests and crashes along with Ashley’s clear-eyed pledge (“someday soon, i’ll find you”), before the empty-house stillness of ‘two floors’ bubbles into life and shows off an ethereal sort of eccentricity. All that is left then is closer ‘ohio’, as vibrant and clear as anything cellar belly has to offer, where even the imperfections seem to further the sense of clarity and cohesion.
Which seems pertinent for the record as a whole. Whatever quirky oddities are on show, no matter how often the pace or tone switches onto another track, the album never loses a sense of natural progression, as though a functioning world of it’s own. Think of cellar belly as a habitat moulded by external pressures, its shape and colour and form reacting to conditions around it, though adapting and changing to persevere. To be alive.
cellar belly is out now via Human Noise Records and you can get it via Bandcamp, including on cassette.
Photo by Joshua Cobos