Phil Elverum – Queen City Sounds and Art

Fletcher Tucker’s Organic Ritual Drone Track “To Light a Fire” is a Mystical Rite of Birth and Renewal

Fletcher Tucker, photo courtesy the artist

The enigmatic, slowly evolving harmonics of the drone that introduces Fletcher Tucker’s “To Light a Fire” from his new album Kin (out August 15, 2025 via Gnome Life Records) complements well the video footage of a fire burning in a pile of grass and other dried vegetation. The way a fire is in variation of form as influenced by the flow of oxygen around it but of uniform character. Then the voice comes in talking about building a bonfire in the snow far from the nearest road to commune with ancient human existence in a ritual surrounded by nature. The words speak to connecting with one’s ancestors and the generations to come. At the halfway point flute-like Mellotron figures and resound across the field of sound with minimal percussion (provided by Phil Elverum) accenting and brushing about like it is embodying the crackle of branches breaking down in the fire and the gentle sound of flames consuming wood. In the end of the song it becomes obvious that the song has been a kind of birth rite welcoming new life into the world in a way that would have been familiar to humans millennia ago and imbuing it with a mystic power often missing from human experiences in the present. Watch the video for “To Light a Fire” on YouTube and follow Fletcher Tucker at the links below.

fletchertucker.com

Fletcher Tucker on Instagram

Gnome Life Bandcamp

Half Shadow’s Psych Folk Single “Horizon” is a Pastoral Contemplation of the Therapeutic Influence of the Ocean

Half Shadow released its latest EP 5 New Songs of Half Shadow on December 8, 2023 via Bud Tapes (available for digital download, streaming and as a limited edition cassette). Jesse Carsten, whose songwriting project is Half Shadow, was able to take a course given through Los Angeles’ School of Song under the tutelage of Phil Elverum of Microphones and Mount Eerie fame and that resulted in a series of songs written in response to a writing prompt. The opening track, “Horizon,” and the only single from the EP, is a folk ode to healing power of the ocean. Field recordings of the shore with birds serves as the backdrop to Carsten’s near whispered vocals and impressionistic guitar work in the beginning as the songwriter contemplates the subtle interconnectedness of all things and how our current form and vessel of experiencing the world is transitory like a mirror of the ocean which is always changing and always constituted of similar stuff. The opening lyric “Blending into the horizon, driving on the grass, the ocean is blowing through the open window”is cast in a kind of free verse with the meter following an unconventional rhythm and structure the way the the world as we experience it has both uniformity and seemingly endless specific variery. When the reverse delay hits and sounding like a rewind of the contemplative moments we’ve heard and the sound of a car warning that the door is open while the electrical system is actively engaged can be heard at the end it truly feels like we’ve both been on a journey and starting where we began. There’s something therapeutic in the knowing deeply about how the impermanence of universe has built into it a consistency and inherent unity as well. It’s as literary an effect as one more musical. Listen to “Horizon” on Spotify and follow Half Shadow at the links provided and perhaps consider buying download or a cassette which will come with the latter through Bandcamp.

halfshadow.world

Half Shadow on Facebook

Half Shadow on Instagram

Sell Farm’s Pressure is a Genre Swapping Masterpiece of Industrial Darkwave Dub

Forget the images the name Sell Farm might bring to mind. Pressure might be described as an industrial darkwave dub album but it also has as much in common with ambient music and the avant-garde pop music Phil Elverum has been making for over 20 years including his time with Old Time Relijun, Microphones and Mount Eerie. There is no attempt to stick to genre convention or instrumentation. Imagine an album made by later 90s era Swans through the lens of indie pop. “Fools” introduces us with lush and lo-fi soundscapes produced by distorted white noise and repeating motifs of stringed instruments and processed drones giving a sense of grittiness like an old and decaying film print of a stranger’s 8 millimeter reel of a family holiday celebration. Though there is a mysterious accessibility here the whole album sounds like a long lost cassette culture industrial product out of the 80s underground. The vocals even when they’re at their most melancholic reveal some roots in the influence of R&B via Prince and D’Angelo. But you could also hear this on the soundtrack of a future David Lynch film, especially the brooding and foggy “Ideas and Missiles.” The album ends with the propulsive title track that hits like a dub-infused EBM song akin to an older Nitzer Ebb track circa That Total Age. Live all of these songs have such a startling power, particularly “Pressure,” but even on these recordings you have to wonder when these songs were written and recorded which is a testament to Sell Farm’s ability to free associate styles across decades. Listen to Pressure on Bandcamp and pick up one of the limited edition cassettes if you’re so inclined.