the of mirror eye

* MV & EE with The Bummer Road: Canned Heat Blues (12.0 mb) | C.C. Pills (10.0 mb)
From Mother Of Thousands : Time-Lag Records : Time-Lag 033

Well, what we have here is another psychedelic folk missive from Matt Valentine (MV) and Erika Elder (EE), showcasing their new group The Bummer Road. And whoo boy, is it a doozy. I first wrote about this band all the way back in 2004 (look here), when they had released the Lunar Blues series of CDRs on their Child Of Microtones label, in an insanely limited edition of 99 copies. While their music hasn’t changed too much (which is a great thing), Mother Of Thousands has a proper release on Time-Lag records that will hopefully be much easier for folks to get a hold of.

after piles of privately released cdrs & long gone vinyl only releases, here’s the mv/ee album for the masses, who are no doubt quivering for it… don’t be fooled though, this is neither the medicine show zone of recent years, nor a mere echo of the tower recordings flame, but a new beast stirring awake in the beaming sun of now. aided by the bummer road and the omni present erika elder, mv has here pushed his cosmic sounds beyond the apex of high. no doubt there’s plenty of lifted rural raga vibrations, and big woozy doses of haunted folk-blues as well, but the mix of flat-out killer ’songs’ and extended electric psych-outs is something of a revelation. (Time-Lag Records)

This two CD release shows off a couple of different sides of their musical coin. With the first disc being shorter, usually more acoustic numbers, while the second disc has them stretching out more, ending with an incredible version of Death Don’t Have No Mercy, by the Rev. Gary Davis. As I wrote before, this band somehow manages to take their musical base of folk/blues into the stratosphere, adding minimalism and psychedlia into a truly intoxicating blend of sounds.

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Well, another year gone, and it’s now 2007. I thought about doing a year’s best list, but got too lazy and hungover to compose one. I just wanted to thank everyone for listening and make sure you try and support the artists. They’re the ones making this world a liveable place.