Here's a unique situation. Nick aka Queen Victoria e-mailed me saying he had a 7" ready to go but that he hadn't found anyone to release it yet, so as of right now this little thing is actually unreleased despite its being fully ripe from a musical angle. Only three tracks, Queen Victoria is actually just Nick doing a bedroom psych set that is wholly together.
The longest track on here (at nearly seven minutes--quite a length for a 7" side, no?) is the title track. "Auld Lang Syne" reads like a Jandek meets Amon Duul situation, switching gears between the hazy light and lilting vocals of the verses and a more orchestrated psychedelic songwriter bent that by the end fully expands into an acoustic kraut rock jamboree with a heavy dose of Skip Spence delirium. The following track, "The Ornaments," opens the second side with a more interior take. Nick can write a song for sure, and he knows how to adorn his craft work, adding trumpet sputterings behind his guitar that awkwardly play along to the vocal line, barely hanging in there. It's just this kind of minor surprise that helps to keep these songs alive and aloft, solidly afield of any kind of "freak-folk" genrefication or something.
"To See Him as Human" closes the 7" with a more upbeat psychedelic folk track that opens outward from finger-picked guitar beginnings sun drenched spaces that ooze warm loneliness. Nick's voice is wonderfully emotive and carries the weight of the track before it devolves into a scraping and creaky little realm that soon reemerges as the song begins to wrap up. It's a nice little release that deserves some attention for sure. Beautifully recorded and a great early morning head scratching vibe. I'll keep you posted if it ever gets out there because otherwise this post is more or less for naught.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment