Rarest Pelt album? Long-unavailable early Patrick, Jack, me gnarr, recorded live in NYC and Richmond. This was Klang Industries' fastest-selling release, going out of print in a couple/few weeks. It was my favorite Pelt release for quite awhile.
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This album was the first Klang Industries release; a dive into the mystery underground of Richmond, Va., recorded live as it happened, New Year's Eve 1994.
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MIE 040, double album
"Our first Cara & Mike album, journeying deep into the gloriously well-worn songs of Gershwin, Mercer, et al to seek an essence that maybe got lost a long time ago; Beautifully sung by Cara and interpreted in scattershot waves by an improvising drone orchestra led by Mike."
"The songs on this record are recognizable. They’re classics. And yet here they play out in ways the songwriters could never have predicted. Cara and Mike Gangloff have married the colloquial with the eternal."
-- Matt Krefting
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MIE 029
Our first Mike & Cara album, recorded in the winter of 2013-14 mostly at Joe Dejarnette's farmhouse studio.
A1 O Death
A2 Rocking in a Weary Land
A3 Black Ribbon I
A4 Righten That Wrong
A5 Mulberry Raider
A6 David's Lamentation
A7 Black Ribbon II
B1 Cherry River LIne
B2 West India
B3 Black Ribbon III
B4 Husband's Shoulder
B5 Someone to Watch Over Me
"Splitting the difference between their acoustic drone outfit Pelt and the more traditional Appalachian string music of their combo The Black Twig Pickers, Mike and Cara Gangloff’s Black Ribbon of Death, Silver Thread of Life does the hard work of redemption in the darkest of modes. ... This is gospel music in the theological sense, an attempt to not only pluck bodies from the soil but harmony from dissonance, familiar melody from random noise."
-- Aquarium Drunkard
"But the thing about ghosts, see, is they never quite go away. They creep in under the door and through the open window. They reappear in dreams. They pace the unconscious. And sometimes a group of outsiders are just brave or crazed enough to mould these old traces into new forms, creating something simultaneously fresh and ancient, out of time, sun-bright but with shadows on the horizon, young as the greenwood and as old as the stars that look down upon it."
-- Pops Margree, We Need No Words
credits
Mike Gangloff: Fiddle, banjo, hurdy gurdy, sruti box, singing
Cara Gangloff: Hurdy gurdy, sruti box, bouzouki, singing
with
Joe Dejarnette: bass
Charlie Andersen: fiddle, feet, sruti box and singing
Sharon Stacy: singing
and on David's Lamentation, the Hallway Spiritualizers
"Following a series of records with Thrill Jockey (including the sensational Seasonal Hire with Steve Gunn), the Black Twigs return to the VHF mothership to continue their charming and original take on Old Time and Appalachian-inspired string band sounds. Together since 2001, and a continuous presence in the music’s true home of Southwest Virginia, the Twigs represent the actively working evolution of the traditions – learning songs from other locals, playing dances at the Floyd Country Store, etc – without retro-artifice or nostalgia. The ragged-but-right performances and recording (and Sally Ann Morgan’s perfect cover design) sit at the ideal intersection of DIY/'underground' and local string sound values. On Friend’s Peace, the band travels a range of styles, from the lovely harmony on the trad-classic “Moonshiner” to the racing fiddle/guitar/banjo on the 'Money Musk' medley. Mixed in with the traditional songs are several perfectly-placed original tunes, including Mike Gangloff’s keening 'Cara’s Waltz' and Isak Howell’s solo guitar spotlight on 'Barnswallow.'"
A split 12" put together for Record Store Day 2011 -- on one side is Glenn's "Even to Win is to Fail" collection of unaccompanied guitar instrumentals; Charlie and Twigs share the other side with "Eastmont Syrup," a gathering of solo, duo and full-band workouts that includes Sally's first Black Twig recordings as well as Charlie's epic no-ropes summiting of Dock Bogg's "Death of Jerry Damron." Perhaps of interest -- everyone here plays banjo on at least one song except Sally, who instead offers some flatfooting.
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TLR 137
"Reticence / Resistance showcases two tracks that each explore the band’s variety of influences from a different angle: one ecstatic and one inquisitive. It sits in the sounds and styles Pelt has carefully mastered over time, patiently finding moments of joyful reflection. Pelt recorded the album over two nights at London’s Café Oto in 2017, and it provides a snapshot of how the band effortlessly melds a flurry of musical ideas into one."
-- Vanessa Ague, Pitchfork
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VHF 76-V2
"All acoustic epics from the "classic" Pelt trio lineup of Jack Rose, Mike Gangloff, and Patrick Best. Recorded in a single (edit: night and following day) March 2003 session in VA by Mikel Dimmick, this was a superb distillation of their interests at the time (both alone and together - Jack's first solo records, the emergence of the Black Twigs as a busy working band, etc). "Up the North Fork" is a trio for banjo, baritone banjo, and cello - after the snakey bowed introduction, the fast thwacking of the banjos and forcefully strummed cello take over and whip up a storm. The other two tracks are lengthy ragas (one in C, one in D) with the virtuoso modal guitar of Jack Rose front and center. "Pearls From The River" features Jack on 12 string, dueling with Mike Gangloff on Esraj. Pat Best's thick, sonorous double bass bowing anchors the duet between the lightning thrumming/plucking of Jack's guitar and mike's arcing, sharply bowed half-time melody. "Road To Catawba" has Jack on 6 string, with Mike moving to tamboura. Best's bass is again the foundation, with whistling overtones rising from his bow over the low drone."
Only vinyl release from the Blacksburg incarnation of the band collects strange atmospheres that include field recordings of part of of the lineup playing gongs in the North Carolina surf and separately, another part of the lineup improvising on wind chimes in a gift shop hundreds of miles to the west but also in North Carolina. Plus more, much more. Tests are befittingly weird themselves -- some of these have the release labels and may be extra lps (??), others are clearly tests. There are also some incomplete sets including a one-sided test (other side is blank grooves). There must have been reasons for all this but damn if I can remember them. I'll list the incomplete, one-sided stuff separately. What's here is the complete album, both records.
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VHF 157
"First solo LP in a decade from long-time Pelt/Black Twigs/Eight Point Star leader, presenting a remarkable program of solo Hardanger and octave fiddle music. Evening Measures is a bold and unique statement, a direct and disarming individual expression of a musician's inner thoughts and inspirations."
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Black Twig Pickers: Whompyjawed
Record/Vinyl
Thrill Jockey 12.50
"The Black Twig Pickers take it to the dance floor on Whompyjawed, offering long-form, highly rhythmic and deeply layered takes on traditional fiddle and banjo music. Joined by some of the musicians who frequent the Southwest Virginia square dance and flatfooting scene -- fiddler Sally Morgan, and bassist/guitarists Sam Linkous and Joe Dejarnette -- and by a troupe of accomplished feet-percussionists, the Twigs work up propulsive and mesmerizing versions of two side-long songs. "Merry Mountain Hoedown" is an old-time rocker with Mike Gangloff and Sally Morgan's duo fiddles sawing atop a careening bed of pounding feet and furiously locked-in banjo, guitars and bass, while "Brushy Fork of John's Creek," with Sally fiddling and Mike banjo-ing, wanders more spectral -- but no less ferocious -- territory, with Nathan Bowles' washboard and Isak Howell's guitar and mouth harp guiding a long and shifting mix of clattering drone. The Skillet Lickers meet Faust IV?"
"This album is drawn from a pre-dawn session in a stone silo at Mount Saint Francis, a Franciscan friary just north of the Kentucky-Indiana State Line.
Four of the musicians, Keenan Lawler and Pelt members Patrick Best, Mike Gangloff and Jack Rose, had played earlier that night at Rudyard Kipling's Cafe in Louisville. They were joined at the friary by Eric Clark, a multi-instrumentalist and metal worker who makes musical instruments, such as singing bowls and bronze didgeridus. Mikal Dimmick used a stereo microphone to capture events as they unfolded in the early morning hours of 12 July 2000. Only acoustic instruments were played and no electronic effects or processing was used. Play at 45 or 33 RPM."
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Pelt/Lawler/Clark: Keyhole II
Record/Vinyl
ECL-017, double LP
Dream float live show in Louisville, Kentucky, 2001, with bowed, plucked and struck guitars, cello, tanpura, massed singing bowls, cymbal, more, all bathed in a huge natural reverb
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Black Twig Pickers: Ironto Special
Record/Vinyl
Thrill Jockey 249
Our Thrill Jockey debut........"the band is in a constant state of evolution as they gleefully tackle this music that fascinates and enraptures them. Mike Gangloff's fiddle playing is driven by often-frenzied bow rhythms and a steadily improving technique, which combine with his near-religious fervor of gathering tune variations, giving him a large range of expression on the instrument. Isak's guitar is as chugging and powerful as ever, but this record is really his standout harmonica showcase. Perhaps the biggest change from Hobo Handshake to Ironto Special is Nathan's move to the clawhammer banjo. The washboard attack of Hobo Handshake is still present on a few tracks (and bones and fiddlesticks make welcome appearances), but the majority of the cuts are a snapshot of Nathan's growth on clawhammer banjo, further allowing Mike (previously the band's primary banjoist) to soar above it all with his idiosyncratic fiddle style.
Recorded throughout 2009 in the Shred Shed in Ironto, Virginia, Ironto Special is entirely recorded in single takes. There are no overdubs on the record in any form. Although Ironto Special is their Thrill Jockey debut, the Black Twig Pickers have recorded several releases for VHF, The Great Pop Supplement, and Klang. Mike continues to play in Pelt and the Spiral Joy Band with Nathan. Isak has also recorded and played with both bands. At some point, these three musicians realized that old-time music is a living, breathing art form, not just music that was recorded in the 1920s or 30s, and it managed to bring them all together. Old-time music is not something that needs to be re-enacted or revived – it's doing just fine and all they did was to step in and take part. They are not pretending to have grown up in the music or in the part of Virginia they now call home, but like the many who have come before them and passed on their knowledge, they consider themselves to be a part of the music as much as anyone else, and Ironto Special is their contribution to the continuously flowing tradition that will eventually be passed on to the next generation of players."
Pelt/Rake: United Supreme Council Oastem! Vibe Orchestra
Record/Vinyl
ECL-009
Rake + Pelt + Beth Jones + Mick Simmons in freeform hoot
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Steve Gunn & Black Twig Pickers: Seasonal Hire
Record/Vinyl
Thrill Jockey 386
"Seasonal Hire is a collaborative album between Steve Gunn and The Black Twig Pickers that combines Gunn’s circular, meditative guitar playing with the Twigs’ energetic mastery of old time instrumentation."
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Pelt: Effigy
Record/Vinyl
MIE 015 double LP
"THE GREAT EARTHEN mounds are silent now, remnants of a past, forgotten glory. Seemingly rooted to the earth like the acts of supernatural beings, immovable on the North American landscape, they are covered over with grass and scattered here and there with trees, weeds, and shrubs. Many have suffered from the vagaries of time, cut into by ploughs, looted by shovels and picks, scarred by centuries of livestock grazing and obliterated by modern development. Major highways and interstates cut through many of them and passing motorists rarely look up from the road to ponder the mounds' ancient significance.” - Thomas S. Garlinghouse
"Recorded live in June 2011 in an old yoga studio in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin and a decommissioned synagogue called the Gates of Heaven in nearby Madison, the band have laid down their most accomplished and fully realised work to date. Epic in every sense of the word, Effigy is a sprawling journey through their singular plan on the musical map. Layer upon layer of droning strings melt over never-ending harmoniums which threaten to engulf you whilst peals of gongs ring out to mesmerising effect. Effigy sees Pelt reaching their blissful sonic enlightenment."
Note that this test is slightly dinged and priced accordingly -- I spotted two points that don't skip on my turntable, but produce a relatively pronounced pop for a moment.
"Kind of the peak of Pelt Mk II, the purest distillation of their electrified drone phase. Includes a 12 min collab with the rhBand, their complete 35 min Terrastock II set (claimed by many people as the highlight of the entire festival and earning them the nickname "The Hillbilly Theater Of Eternal Music"), a magically resonating 17 min slice from a typical east-coast warehouse hippie party, and finally, a brand new home 18 min recording heavy on the Tibetan Bowls (and by "bowls" I mean instruments, of course). The live recordings are all of the digital variety and finally capture the sheer density and multi-layered force of their live sound."
Note: Of the 2 records in this set, the first (sides A & B) hasn't been opened.
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Jack Rose & Black Twig Pickers
Record/Vinyl
Klang Industries 008
Sealed
"Raw and rocking collaboration between Jack Rose and the Black Twigs with some of the most swinging, hard-hitting string music waxed in many a decade."
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Charlie Parr & Black Twig Pickers: Glory in the Meeting House
Record/Vinyl
Klang Industries 009
Sealed
"At the end of May in 2010, Charlie Parr and the Black Twig Pickers holed themselves up in a shed in rural Ironto, Virginia and recorded the album that would become "Glory in the Meeting House." Part country, part gospel and completely old-time, this session sounds ancient and new simultaneously. Parr's haunting and gritty vocals combines with the fiddling, strumming and plucking of the Black Twig Pickers to bring the listener right into the shed with them. "Glory in the Meeting House" pulls together popular country gospel numbers like "Jesus on the Mainline" and "What a Friend We Have" to rarer numbers like "They Whupped Him Up the Hill" and Parr's new composition "Where You Gonna Be (When the Good Lord Calls You Home)?" Charlie Parr plays original and traditional folk and Piedmont-style blues, accompanying himself on National resonator guitars, 12-string guitar and sometimes a banjo. Based in Duluth, Minnesota, Charlie has played all over the USA and Europe and Australia and released six acclaimed albums. The Black Twig Pickers got their start in a dark alley between the campers at the 1999 Galax Old Fiddlers Convention, choosing their name from an archaic apple variety in founding fiddler Ralph Berrier Jr.'s family orchard. Since then, the Black Twig Pickers' fiddle/banjo / guitar /washboard sound has been heard in dives, barns, streets and dances from Amsterdam to Atlanta, yet remains solidly rooted in a corner of Southwest Virginia where four other states are closer than the Virginia capital."
Reclaiming shelf space (and hoping to raise a little cash) with 30 or so years of test pressings, minimally played or unplayed, some for records now out of print -- Pelt, Black Twig Pickers, Gospel Midgets, Mike & Cara, et al.
Many of these I have just one or two copies of. Where I have multiple copies, I've usually only taken a pic of one.
Note that prices include media mail postage in the USA.
Regardless of what it says here, these do not include downloads. I haven't been able to turn off that part of the description.
Next to be listed will be a few sets of the complete run of Klang Industries and Radioactive Rat Records vinyl, unplayed and archived lo these many years. These will be the actual releases, not tests, but will be sold as complete sets. There are only a few copies of these, as well.
At first glance, the landscape on the cover of Martin John Henry’s The Other Half of Everything is a scene of complete isolation. This is Scotland. An archetypal rugged landscape of hills and lochs, as far as the eye can see. On closer inspection, there are some signs of habitation: buildings, roads, farms… but they … Continue reading Album of the Week: The Other Half of Everything → Bandcamp Album of the Day Nov 21, 2011
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