The psyche-folk revival has unearthed a whole Who's Who worth of
lost 1960s and 1970s artists, yet it has left older music largely untouched.
Death Vessel, a Rhode Island-based folk collective with Joel Thibodeau at its
core, reach back further, drawing inspiration from forgotten Appalachian hollows
and
rickety
wooden-staged
minstrel shows.
Unlike forebears like Palace Music and 16 Horsepower, Death Vessel draw
from the brighter, more fluid end of the musical spectrum, weaving buoyant,
major-key melodies around surreal and abstract lyrics. Thibodeau's high,
melodic voice soars above picked banjos and upright-bass thumps. He sings
with sweetness, surety and simplicity, reminding you more of a prepubescent
choir boy than of any contemporary high tenor singers. (He is, for
example, nothing like Jeff Hanson or Antony, or even Devendra Banhart.) His
singing is occasionally embellished by tight harmonies, but always lands
easily on the upper-register notes.
When Death Vessel is on the marquee, show-goers can expect anything from
just Thibodeau and his guitar to a full-fledged, multi-member string
band. Here, Thibodeau's main songwriting partner, multi-instrumentalist
Erik Carlson, appears on all but two tracks, while Pete Donnelly and
Freddie Berman switch off on drums (Donnelly also plays bass and
sings). Meg and Laura Baird add lovely female harmonies to "Later in Life
Lift" and "Tidy Nervous Breakdown." Micah Blue Smalldone, whose solo
albums are rooted in the same pre-industrial guitar and banjo traditions as
Death Vessel, adds his retro resonator guitar to the disc's most
backwards-looking track, the bluegrassy "Mandan Dink," as well as the
darker, more folk-centered "White Mole."
Most of the songs transcend their old-timeyness, more inspired by tradition
than impelled to copy it. "Snow Don't Fall," with its thudding bass and
circling guitar riff, is as much rock ballad as folk reproduction, and the
lovely "Break the Empress Crown," feels almost divorced from time with its
pure melody and minimal organ tones. When the country fiddle breaks in,
after a lengthy introduction, it melds with rock drums and harmonized
voices in a motif that is old and new at once.
On two tracks, Death Vessel manage to meld darker rock energy with a
folky lilt, leaning almost into 16 Horsepower's intense, gothic
territory. The first of these, "Blowing Cave," presents driving,
minor-key guitar strums, shot through with reverberating electric
tones. The drama of the electric, colliding with the nervous energy of the
acoustic, carries this tune into a new dimension where it simply seems to matter
more. "Deep in the Horchata," the second track, is an
off-kilter jig of Appalachian guitar notes, punctuated with syncopated
drums, and layered over with Thibodeau's eccentric voice. These two songs have a
tension and purpose quite distinct from the rest of the
album's laid-back vibe, and perhaps they suggest a direction worth pursuing.
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