Tuesday, January 29, 2008

[The Franciscan Hobbies|Walls Are Stuck]迷墻


Artist:The Franciscan Hobbies
Album:Walls Are Stuck
Release Date:2005
Label:Music Fellowship
Country:US
Genre: Rock
Style: Folk Rock, Acoustic, Experimental

Tracklisting:

1
The Modern Revival (0:49)
2
Elijah The Stone (2:30)
3
Satan Crystals (4:58)
4
Empty Hands (1:00)
5
Goat With The Dolphin Face (3:09)
6
The Happy Burial (2:51)
7
Placing Of The Flowers (2:28)
8
Asmodeus (9:14)
9
Lake Of Holy Fishes (4:22)
10
Death Music (4:47)
11
The Etheric Double (5:11)

簡介。。。。。。
This album from Jewelled Antler offshoot The Franciscan Hobbies (who include Thuja folks Loren Chasse and Glen Donaldson among their ranks, along with Ov and Softwar stalwart Christine Boepple and countless others) is one of my favourites to come both from the Music Fellowship label and from the JA world itself. A movement such as this can seem somewhat impenetrable with so many side projects and offshoots, but 'Walls Are Stuck' would be a fantastic place to start, showing the kind of submerged other-worldly avant-folk the collective would become branded with. It doesn't really fit into any 'proper' genre either; using tape recordings, field recordings, electronic and acoustic instruments and all sorts of peculiar percussion the Franciscan Hobbies create music that sounds out of time entirely. Take 'Satan Crystals' for example; this beautiful zither-led piece could be the soundtrack to a documentary about forest life, but then there's something slightly too dark, something slightly too lo-fi for public consumption, and that's what makes it so special to me. This is music made for the few, and we can take it close to our hearts and enjoy it in the comfort of our own rooms, it is music to be listened to in total seclusion and total loneliness, in a place where you can allow yourself the room to conjure up images of moonlit lakes and blustering leaves, shadowy cliffs and long-forgotten treasures. 'Walls Are Stuck' is the sort of music that magic is made of, both fantastical and deeply grounded at the same time, giving us fact and fiction within the strings of so many unusual instruments. If Narnia existed then The Franciscan Hobbies would no doubt be found there - that's how beautifully mysterious this music is. One for fans of Fonal desperate to find further wooded explorations into haunting freeform folk music... essential purchase!(from boomkat)

"The Hobbies have been known to put this into practice by taking their junk folk-instruments, boomboxes & mini-discs outside, gathering in canyons, creek beds, backyards, and on porches & beaches. The Franciscan Hobbies are part of the expansive Jewelled Antler forest of bands & projects."

"The second album from this satellite of San Franciscos Jewelled Antler Collective is packed full of earth mystery, permeated by the smell bone fires and vegetative rites. The sound of rust-caked acoustic guitar and banjo dominates, while the ripple of earthworked gongs, tremulous sitar and percussion makes this the perfect soundtrack to a version of The Wicker Man performed by a group of California heads." - The Wire."

我的碎碎唸。。。。。。推薦指數:8.5/10
作爲Fonal的粉絲應該也聼一聼這張專輯,其中有Thuja的Loren Chasse、Glen Donaldson等人。他們Lo-fi的手法以及豐富奇異的配器使用使專輯充滿著神秘的古代氣息和北歐民謠的清冷氣質,好像身処刻滿滄桑的古老城堡又像走在杳無人煙的幽深森林,從第一曲The Modern Revival古老神秘的原始氣息就撲面而來,真的好酷、韻味好迷人。很難得的一張專輯,強烈推薦,但建議一定要在一個人的時候聼。呵呵。這是一張孤獨的專輯,我想一定要是耐得住寂寞的人才懂得欣賞。
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