Entirely instrumental, the album plies a lo-fi brand of layered, looped guitar music, existing at the weird, internet-only intersection of ambient, bedroom pop and vaporwave. The resulting soundscapes are odd and hypnotic, the kind of music perfect for early morning walks or late evening train journeys, everything cast different and important in the weak light.

This is perhaps unsurprising considering the first track is called ‘Dawn; on the train, waiting to see Francie’. Here the guitars are mellow and separated, the space between each chord as important as the chords themselves. You get the sense the album is stirring, not fully awake, as if the residents of the titular Lemon Town are just about rising for a new day. ‘Sunrise; would you like to grab some bagels? I know a great place!’ is sprightlier, the sonic embodiment of the town’s bustle as cafes and shops see a rush of early morning commuters. This brighter theme continues on ‘Afternoon; the sun shines through the bars of the bridge and I’m happy (in your hands)’, the sound languid in the way of a tropical vacation, like the small sway of a benign blue sea. ‘Dusk; falling asleep, know that you are loved’ winds down relaxed in the aftermath of a perfect day, while ‘Midnight; goodbye Francie, I’m going to miss you!’ sees the first real suggestion of melancholy, the realisation that the day is over descending like a black sheet. ‘???; night life in the lemon town of Büshka’ feels like a drunken walk home through dark streets, or perhaps a dark walk home through drunken streets.

Now we get onto Side B of the tape and it is here where things get weird(er), as if entering a dream or else disconnecting from time in a more novel way. The wonderfully named ‘Büshka’s netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of every bruise on your body; the soft ringing that can be heard all throughout the town but can only be seen in shades of green’ sees a marked stylistic shift, teetering on the edge of that new wave alt-R&B sound without ever quite succumbing. Imagine if How To Dress Well was teleported back to the 90s and locked in a Squaresoft studio and forced to use whatever was at hand. The oddness continues with the restrained and almost eerie ‘Foreign smells, shop signs, and Büshkan sea creatures at the bazaar’, and ‘Spitting flames at the bus stop; the woman who spits flames at the bus stop’ which is more in-your-face and urgent. ‘Late afternoon; the trees in animal crossing are much smaller than the ones in real life; couldn’t we just stay here for a little while?’ sees a brief return to the Side A style while ‘Too Much Mackerel’ is subdued and almost forlorn, like the closing credits of a wistful story.

For reasons I can’t quite pin down, the 90s Japanese RPG feeling hangs over the whole release, and I find myself imagining Lemon Town like a dot on a map from a strange Final Fantasy-Dragon Quest-Animal Crossing hybrid. The opening tracks conjure that town-going-about-its-business sensation you get when entering new locales in the regular portion of the game, while the songs not marked as a specific period in the title (i.e. ‘Büshka’s netherworld…’ onwards) have that distinct end-of-game freakiness common to the titles, where the main antagonist is revealed a puppet to an even more deranged supernatural controller before your party are thrust into some dreamworld to stop him/her/it. This probably isn’t quite what Sabbatical Wilderness intended, and I’m sure reading the story would provide a lot more context, but for now imagining an eccentric town within a peculiar video game will do just fine.

Night Life in the Lemon Town of Büshka is out today (11th August) and you can buy it from Fox Food Records.

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We have followed Max Holmquist’s career with some admiration, first as South of Lincoln and then Great American Desert (which we wrote about here). Holmquist is now in a band called Oquoa and they have made their album available for free. Their sound is somewhere between Water Liars and Hip Hatchet, a restrained folky rock which has darkness and grief lurking just beneath the surface. Check out ‘Cigarettes’ below.

You can download the album for free here.

A Singer of Songs – From Hello to Goodbye

Barcelona-based folkster A Singer of Songs is back with From Hello to Goodbye, another album chock full of lovely lo-fi tunes recorded in his home studio. Some tracks are delicate (‘Sand in my Shoes’), some are a little more rambunctious (such as opener ‘Another Way of Saying Hello’), and all seem to have the curious sensation of being between times, as small moments of the past are opening up in the present. Maybe it’s the use of violins, trumpets and pianos or the slightly European street music vibe on tracks like ‘I’ll Follow You’. Maybe it’s just the cartographic artwork.

A Singer of Songs is attached to the Son Canciones label, and you can buy the album now from the A Singer of Songs’ Bandcamp page.

Steve Palmer – Unblinking Sun

Steve Palmer is a “Fahey nut and guitar obsessive” who has taken lessons from American Primitivism legend Peter Lang. It is perhaps unsurprising then that Palmer makes guitar driven instrumental music that combines the finger-picking of traditional US folk with more modern sounds of drone and krautrock. The result is a collection of long, complex acoustic songs peppered with ambient and psychedelic flourishes that lend a whole jazzy improvisation feel to things.

Unblinking Sun is being released by Dying for Bad Music.

Ezkiel – A New Mask

Ezkiel is Louis Monroe from New Orleans. A New Mask is his debut release and presents four dark and cinematic folk songs which explore the themes of change and rebirth. The EP was developed almost by accident, as part of a music production class that Monroe was taking at university. Monroe himself was required to production on a singer-songwriter record, but the recording artist pulled out last minute. This forced Monroe himself to record something and A New Mask was the end result. The tracks were recorded at home and have that intimate bedroom pop vibe which I really like. Grab it now via the Ezkiel Bandcamp page.

Charlie Rayne – Wider Waters

Last but not least is Wider Waters, a brilliant album by Beirut-based Charlie Rayne. Rayne makes glorious Dylan-style folk songs which twist and turn with a remarkable lyrical flow. The focus is very much on Rayne’s passionate deliver and the stories held within, the bare bones guitars providing the perfect counterbalance. If Sweden were to stake a claim on Bob Dylan reincarnate with Kristian Mattson, then I think we have to say that Beirut now have themselves a real rival. Get it via Bandcamp.

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Nicholas Krgovich – Who Cares?

Nicholas Krgovich, the man behind projects like Gigi, No Kids and P:ano, is back with a solo album under his own name. With little more than a guitar/ukulele and his voice, the LP is a minimal acoustic folk record. This, however, does not do justice to the multitude of styles he manages to reference/borrow from. Who Cares? is out now on Jaz Records.

M. Lockwood Porter – Chris Bell / Secrets

M. Lockwood Porter is an Oklahoma-born, San Francisco-based folk/country artist. Last year he released an album, Judah’s Gone and opened for acts such as John Moreland and Samantha Crain. Porter recently released a new double A-side 7″; one a country-tinged tribute to Big Star’s Chris Bell, the other a “Malkmus-esque” ballad. You can buy both songs on a pay-what-you-want basis over at Bandcamp.

Family and Friends – Love You Mean It

Family and Friends are a folk rock band from Atlanta, Georgia. They describe their sound as, “Equal parts indie, rock, and sincerity, sliced, diced, smothered, covered, and rooted in folk.” This is a pretty accurate description, and if you like bands such as The Head and The Heart, then I’d highly suggest checking out Family and Friends. The band recorded their debut EP, Love You Mean It, after a successful Kickstarter campaign, and you can get it right now for just $5 over at Bandcamp.

Nicole Dollanganger – Observatory Mansions

Toronto’s Nicole Dollanganger makes a haunting brand of bedroom pop that juxtaposes gently crooned vocals with weird, often extraordinarily violent lyrics. It’s a strange listen that delves into some really interesting areas, challenging the presumptions of the listener. Observatory Mansions is taken from the book of the same name by Edward Carey, a story about love set in a sad, strange setting inhabited by odd people. I can see the link.

Fronts – Kind Rays

Next up is Fronts, a singer-songwriter from the German city of Jena. ‘Kind Rays’ is a beautiful little indie folk song, perfect for the dawn of Spring. Fans of bands like Blind Pilot will love this. There is currently very little information available, but what I do know is that ‘Kind Rays’ is the first track from a forthcoming EP. I’m certainly excited to hear more.

Joe Nolan – Tornado

What is it about Edmonton and folk singers? Joe Nolan is a singer-songwriter from the Albertan capital who makes everything from Americana tinged folk-rock to delicate, melancholic slow burners. His latest album Tornado, was released back in January on Six Shooter Records. Check out ‘Pawnshop’ in the player below and then order the album here.

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‘A Selfish Man’ is the the project’s brand new single, a slick and refined guitar pop track which could be seen as a clinical refinement of the WU LYF sound.

B-side ‘Tsunami Blues (Cause of Me)’ is equally impressive, a hushed and sleepy lullaby which blooms into something altogether more dreamy in the final section.

‘A Selfish Man’ was released on the 16th of January and you can order it right now via Atelier Ciseaux.

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Aisha Burns

Violinist, singer-songwriter and member of instrumental outfit Balmorhea, Aisha Burns is multi-talented. She has recently released her debut full length album, Life In The Midwater, on Western Vinyl. It is a dark and brooding album, capped off with Burns’s superb vocals. Listen to my current favourite track, ‘Requiem’, burn with restrained intensity in the player below.

Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk was a folk artist who died back in 2002. A leading figure in the Greenich Village music scene, he gave help and advice to many upcoming folk acts, including a young Bob Dylan. Van Ronk is about to re-enter the limelight as the Coen brothers have made a film (the upcoming, Inside Llewyn Davis) based on his autobiography. To coincide with this, the ever brilliant Smithsonian Folkways are releasing Down In Washington Square: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, a 3CD collection of recordings, from early live performances in 1958, to his final studio sessions in 2001, shortly before his death. The film contains Van Ronk’s version of the track ‘Fare Thee Well (Dink’s Song)’, which is included on the set and available now as a digital download from the Smithsonian Folkways website.

Inlet Sound

Canadian band Inlet Sound recently performed a lovely rendition of ‘Fake Empire’ for Southern Souls. The band have also graced the site before, with this session last year. If you like what you hear the band’s debut album, The Romantics, was released last year.

If you don’t regularly check up on what the good folks at Southern Souls are doing you really are missing out.

The River Has Many Voices

The River Has Many Voices (aka Matthew Payne) released his latest album, Division, back in June. It is an introspective album, six romantic country songs full of sorrow and yearning. It’s really pretty and really, really good and amazingly, available as a free download over at the band’s Bandcamp page. I highly recommend you give it a try.

Sam Moss

Sam Moss is back with a new single ahead of the release of his new record, No Kingdom, later in October.  ‘Hammer’ is a taste of what the Vermont based songwriter has to offer, and you can also get ‘Ocean’ from October’s edition of Textura. The album is shaping up to be a special one and we will write a full review in the next few weeks.

Nathaniel Rateliff

Nathaniel Rateliff is back with a new album, Falling Faster Than You Can Run, which is available to buy now. Those familiar with Rateliff’s previous album will be delighted to hear this follows the same recipe, stirring folk songs that seem to grant the same importance to the silence between words and notes as they do to the words and notes themselves. We aren’t quite there yet but this is sounding like the perfect winter album, contemplative with moments of fury, elemental outpourings of emotion.

Noah Gundersen

We’ll leave you with a promo for a new Noah Gundersen album that is due out early next year.

See you next month!

P.S. As ever, a stellar collection of Soundcloud picks were posted last week. Check out Head In The Clouds here.

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A lot of what I want to say about Asheville’s Wes Tirey and his latest EP, I Stand Among Trees, has already been said this year about Small Houses and John Moreland, and I find myself trying to avoid painting them as slight variations of the same thing, some identikit brand of man with guitar. This would be extraordinarily unfair, sort of like criticising Flannery O’Connor and Cormac McCarthy because they both use a pen and paper to share their stories.

The literary comparison is no coincidence – I Stand Among Trees is a literate EP, a collection of atmospheric and evocative songs that owe as much to the American masters of writing as they do to Dylan and Van Zandt.

This fantastic interview with Hearth Music gives an insight into the writing process for a few of the songs. It not only confirms my original thoughts but also giving a new point of view, especially on ‘Wild Beasts’ where Tirey’s citation of McCarthy’s Blood Meridian (one of my favourite books, like, ever) takes the track on to a whole new level of bare desolation, conjuring a hostile and empty landscape of insects and dust.

I Stood Among Trees by Wes Tirey

Indeed the whole EP can be viewed through this bloodly lens. Consider ‘Final Resting Place’:

“The concrete is a-crumbling
The blind man is a-mumbling
Everyone is running for their life”

…and:

“The drummer’s are a-drumming
Even Lucifer’s a-running
I saw him from the corner of my eye

Maybe Jesus is a-coming
Wouldn’t that be something
But who could live by such a lie”

You can almost hear the hooves of Glanton’s men, the terrible breathing of Judge Holden. This really is stirring stuff.

Obviously the EP isn’t about cowboys, but hopefully those who have read the book know what I mean (I told you I was struggling to sound original). Anyway, With I Stood Among Trees, Tirey claims his rightful place among my favourite folk artists this year, and I will certainly be keeping an eye on what he does next.

You can get the EP on Bandcamp for whatever price you think is appropriate. or you can get a lovely physical copy for $5 (also check out Tirey’s Home Demos while you are there). If you are a fan, there is also a very interesting Indiegogo called ‘Wesley in Italy‘ where you can get nice things in return for your coin that will hopefully send Tirey on tour next January around various Italian towns and cities.

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I listen to (and write about) quite a lot of what I would describe as folk music and I got to thinking that maybe I could put together a second volume of ‘Lost And Found’ which covered artists that could fit into the category of folk and roots music. Here’s where I enter a disclaimer: I am not an expert in this area, more an interested amateur. This collection of songs does not reflect a definitive collection of any one genre or historical period of music. Instead I have chosen a collection of old songs that I feel have huge influences on the folk music that followed, from Dylan and Cohen to the host of new artists we have covered here at Wake The Deaf.

It features country and bluegrass, gospel and Appalachian mountain music. There’s something here for everyone, from Roscoe Holcomb’s easygoing rambling song ‘Roll On Buddy’ to ‘Down In The Willow Garden’, a murder ballad by Texas Hadden and her brother Hobart Smith. ‘Shine On Me’ is an impassioned and foot-stomping chorus by Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers, while ‘I Wish My Baby Was Born’ by Dillard Chandler is as sorrowful an a cappella recording as you’re ever likely to hear. ‘I Am A Poor Pilgrim Of Sorrow’ by The Old Regular Baptists is perhaps my favourite track of all. It’s an incredibly intense congregational hymnody from deep within Appalachian coal mining country. The song has an insistent, almost ominous, drive and continues to build in burning fervour. Mumford and Sons this ain’t.

I urge you to give this mix a listen. I’ve really enjoyed putting it together and constantly found myself amazed at the quality of the songs, some of which were written well over a hundred years ago (although some were recorded much later). If you’re a fan of modern folk music, of the legends of the sixties revival, of the Coen’s “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, or even works of Southern Gothic literature by authors such as Faulkner and O’Connor, I’m willing to bet you’ll like this mixtape.

TRACKLIST:

1. Roll On Buddy – Roscoe Holcomb
2. Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting – Rev. J.M. Gates
3. I’ll Be Washed – The Carolina Tar Heels
4. East Virgina – Buell Kazee
5. I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground – Bascom Lamar Lunsford
6. Big Rock Candy Mountain – Harry McClintock
7.  In The Shadow Of Clinch Mountain – The Carter Family
8. Big Eyed Rabbit – Matokie Slaughter
9. Drunkard’s Special – Coley Jones
10. Shine On Me – Ernest Phipps & His Holiness Singers
11. Down In The Willow Garden – Texas Gladden & Hobart Smith
12. I Wish My Baby Was Born – Dillard Chandler
13. Jonah In The Wilderness – Henry Thomas
14. Amazing Grace – Horton Barker
15. I Am A Poor Pilgrim Of Sorrow – Old Regular Baptists

The links embedded in the artist names do not link to webpages or Facebook accounts like in our regular mixes, instead I have linked to a picture of the artist in question, just to give you a better idea of who you are listening to as you play the mix.

If this collection of songs piques your interest, then Smithsonian Folkways is a great resource, a nonprofit record label that strives to ensure the conservation of musical history and cultural diversity. Several of the songs featured above can be found on compilations put out by the label, so I would encourage you to purchase if you like what you hear.

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