Folklore does create some confusion. Keyboard player and guitarist Steven Taylor has left the band and the remaining three 16 Horsepower members have promptly banned loud guitars from their new album. Only a few weeks after David Eugene Edwards' solo project Woven Hand the fourth album of the 16hp's is released. For Folklore 16 Horsepower has picked four original compositions and six pieces of work by unfamiliar authors of music.
This second Glitterhouse album almost works like an interlude, an MTV-Unplugged album, a compilation of favorite songs. Folklore presents itself as a step in a new direction. But where does this journey lead? That question is answered by the two Frenchmen and Denver's unyielding son with a lot of acoustics, country and sound experiments.
"In the dream my gray horse spoke to me. Find me neath the killing cliff. Hang my skull on the old larch tree. Carve from its wood a two string fiddle. Cover over with the skin of my face. String my hair down the neck in place" (#7 "horse head fiddle"). The songs that the American band exiles to the album are mysterious. "Horse Head Fiddle" has a very archaic effect because of the super low and dampish background noise (an accordion?) and the stanza. The traditional appeals to primitive instincts and unfolds like a message from times long forgotten. The trio asks questions, even when, like in #8 "Sinnerman" the traditional seems to give an answer. The "Run to the Lord" is drowned by the restless rambling of the sinners.
4 tocks
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2003Reviewed by Brian A. SmithFolklore, by its title, would imply that this album is comprised of traditional songs, perhaps with new arrangements, somewhat in the vein of O Brother Where Art Thou? This is partially true - four of the songs contained here are traditional songs, while Hank Williams and the Carter Family are also represented. 16HP also has composed four new tunes with the same sensibilities of their…Opus 2002Reviewed by Chris Brown16 Horsepower is a band branded by the singular vision of David Eugene Edwards. His is a dark, apocalyptic world where the flesh and spirit are locked in constant struggle, where Edwards howls out his fractured visions couched in droning banjos, fiddles, and pounding rhythms. What people often miss when they focus on Edwards, however, is that 16 Horsepower is a band that constantly revises their…The Phantom Tollbooth 2002Reviewed by Ken MuellerDavid Eugene Edwards continues to amaze me, and over the years has put together one of the most impressive music catalogs of any artist. The latest release from 16 Horsepower, Folklore, just furthers that idea in my mind. Picking up where he left off with his Woven Hand side-project, Edwards and the gang seem to be headed in a decidedly more acoustic direction. The loud guitars and throbbing bass…Similar sounding releases
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