Graham Reid | | <1 min read
Punches: Tools of the Trade
Singer/bassist Kelly Sherrod and
guitarist/singer James Duncan – both formerly in Dimmer among
other previous band experiences, she now based in Nashville –
follow the dreamy folk-psychedelia of their self-titled 2006 EP with
this beguiling, hypnotic album recorded long distance and lowkey in
distant home studios, which makes remarkable . . . although also a
product of our hi-tech times.
The scoured vocals and rusty-guitar
aggression of Hold Your Head (“scrub your skin to the bone”)
and the increasingly menacing and oppressive gloom of Blue Moon
in the centre leap out from the whispery dreamscapes like a nightmare
and prove all is not benign in this ethereal world. But mostly these
seductive surfaces pull you into a slightly chilly place awash with
guitars, layered vocals (to choral effect on the claustrophobically
beautiful Give It Up), strange percussive elements and dynamic
shifts (the jump through the fractured looking glass of Cold
Night).
Pop is not ignored (the angular urgency
of Downtown, the alt.folk
angle of Tools of the Trade) but the whispery and
unnerving Ill Devotee invites you that uncomfortably neon-lit
place where David Lynch is your host. The nine minute The Notes
You Don't Hear is shapeshifting astral prog-folk which – with
flugelhorn, weird synths, strange string effects -- is never
predictable.
Etheria is engrossing, often
otherworldly and a fascinatingly uncomfortable state to be taken to.
Scarifyingly good.
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