Review: In A Wild Deep, "A Small Collection of Folk Tales"
The mysterious In A Wild Deep sent me a Facebook message a few days ago, offering their debut EP of folk tales to rustle me from a (rather wild and deep) musical rut.
At just under 25 minutes, A Small Collection of Folk Tales is a fantastically quiet, nuanced trip through the forest on some cold night.
The band has a strange mythology surrounding their six songs, which “are based from a book of folk tales passed down from four generations of family. Some of the tales were original and some were borrowed but all of them left me with a sense of wonder.”
The “me” in question is singer/bassist/banjo-ist Black Reed, who I’d venture to say could be the next Justin Vernon — minus the whole staggering heartbreak//isolated cabin-in-the-woods thing.
The journey begins with a lightly strummed electric guitar and cello on “Before the Desert Night Was Cold.” Then the trumpet, banjo and acoustic guitar kick in, and Reed’s husky vocals sprout up faster than you can say Bon Iver or Grizzly Bear. This song alone had me floored before even listening to the other five, which slowly lift out of the darkness until the (relatively) upbeat “Light As A Feather.”
Forget the coming of autumn — the atmosphere that Reed creates is the harbinger of winter.
Check out “Before the Desert Night Was Cold,” and find the rest on Bandcamp.
[audio:/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/01-Before-the-Desert-Night-Was-Cold.mp3]In A Wild Deep, “Before the Desert Night Was Cold”
