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September 08, 2005

kicking names and taking ass

Wooden Spoon - Untitled 3

Wooden Spoon specializes in music that is positively incandescent, and don't think I'm just saying that because there's a picture of a candle on the album's cover. No no. Owen Hills' songs are lambent, flowing, unexpected, and downright sneaky. There are precedents of course, as the publicity prose kindly points out: Basho, Fahey- but I think a better comparison (and more contemporary too) is Kevin Barker's Currituck Co., which shows the same versatility of expression (if within a different range) as Wooden Spoon.

"Untitled 3" (all the songs are unnamed) begins with the slow, tenuous fingering of a piano note, pierced soon after by a few tight packets of chords. Then, incongruously, brilliantly, a flurry of acoustic guitar rises up and weaves itself in through the stark air of the piano, like a group of kids playing tag, running suddenly and unwittingly through a house in the midst of a dour wake. Underneath it too, there's a slight harmonium drone, tugging gently at the rest of the song.

Wooden Spoon's debut CD-R is available from either Digitalis Recordings or from Time-Lag Records. There are only 100 copies though, so if you like what you hear, order it quick.

Posted by Kevin at September 8, 2005 01:17 AM

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