Tilth – Country Music
It took me awhile to jump into the Royal Rumble that is the global podcast explosion. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until Decoder’s own David Perron started the FFFoxy Podcast back in 2012 (at which point we were both still writing for Foxy Digitalis) that I began to take notice of – and regularly listen to – any podcasts at all. David even convinced me to contribute to one of his early sessions with a rumination on Warner Jepson’s “Totentanz” composition (this is hopefully the only instance of my voice on the Internet). These days, the FFFoxy podcast is one of two such ventures to which I subscribe, the other being the chuckle-instigating goof-fest that is the Tabs Out podcast (which I adore almost as much). Perron is no slouch: having been interviewing, writing about, and exercising his vocal cords over so many talented musicians for so many years, it’s no wonder that he has been contemplating starting a music-releasing entity of his own for some time. Enter Round Bale Recordings, a label devoted to small-run, mostly hand-made artifacts that has just recently been brought to fruition.
For his inaugural release, Perron chose to select a project that is dear to his heart. Last year, he spilled a ton of ink about the “A Line in the Sand” project, a four-way collaboration between the ultra-talented Joe Houpert, Josh Mason, Cody Yantis and Nathan McLaughlin. McLaughlin and Yantis (and now Houpert as well) also record as Tilth; the project’s debut arrived on the always lovely Soft Abuse Records in early 2013. Perron felt that Round Bale Recordings would make a perfect home for their next LP, and Country Music was born. Tilth’s music is like a slow-release medication, evolving and unfurling at its own pace, never rushed or agitated. Intense contemplation and an almost overwhelming emotional depth permeate every second of their powerful music. On this particular album, there’s a tension at play as well: breathy saxophone notes, slow-burning guitar lines courtesy of Yantis, mournful violin passages and a rut-filled landscape covered by Houpert’s free percussion are played off of McLaughlin’s deft tape-based experimentation. A complex tapestry is woven, deconstructed, and then pieced back together into something even more beautiful than before. Theirs is a genre-defying, slow-burning free improv that manages to evade stasis without straying from its unhurried demeanor.
Country Music is limited to 150 copies, the first 50 of which include a bonus CD-R of new material, so I highly recommend you head over to the label’s website to secure your copy pronto!
