ANDREW WEATHERS - NORTH FORK OF THE JUMP
self released 2016, edition of 10
ANDREW WEATHERS - ROCK & ROLL CAN & WILL HEAL US
ftam 2016, edition of 100
"No matter which project you pick, to follow Weathers is to follow a surgical examination of his major influences: American roots music, drone, and ambient music to be specific." - ANDREW WEATHERS bandcamp
WEATHERS has put out some stellar stuff over the past few years, solo works and also with/as COMMON EIDER KING EIDER and his ENSEMBLE as well as head honcho over at FULL SPECTRUM / LITTLEFIELD, with an escalation circa mid 2014 ignited by his split release with WES TIREY via SCISSOR TAIL and a steady stream of WEATHERS works and FS/L titles ever since
NORTH FORK OF THE JUMP offers two ten minute slices of raw electrified appalachian folk - gritty, rustic, stark - blown out banjo with a hushed organ drone backdrop - side one "valley of the dry bones" kinda makes me think DOCK BOGGS plugged in meets FRED MCDOWELL all low and slow, working some space, hypnotic repetition and minimal melodic hooks into his moody droning bottleneck style - side two "rainbow portal" is more transportive, loosened up a bit, maybe like BOGGS and MCDOWELL after a bottle of nyquil, honing in on a sweet sound somewhere between MARISA ANDERSON and WILLIE LANE
HEAL US is the complete expression of WEATHERS polyaxial sound, a masterpiece of warm ambient new age synth with soft shimmering melodies embellished with alluring acoustic guitar elements, all at once channeling the serene dronescapes of CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE and STARS OF THE LID and the heady minimalism of FRIPP & ENO and TERRY RILEY while still resonating in the upper echelons of this american primitive renaissance of sorts - elevated contemporary comparisons, MATTHEW BARLOW's NOW AGE (REC #22), KYLE LANDSTRA's JEWELED MOON CODEX (REC #119), and DYLAN AYCOCK's output as TALK WEST but with an existential (spiritual?) foundation akin to RANDALL MCCLELLAN and INSPIRED SCHOOL OF ASTRAL MUSIC - intra-catalog, HEAL US neatly distills preceding works LIGHT IN THE VALLEY (REC #38), I AM HAPPY WHEN I AM MOVING and REAL LIFE ROCK & ROLL (both unfortunate casualties of too many tapes, too little time to blog), the latter of which is a most fitting prequel to this next level leap - dig em all, but there's somethin here now that wasn't there before - this is WEATHERS at his best, i'd say it is his best without hesitation except his best might be yet to come
LIMITED EDITION CASSETTES
