The Fields of Hay - Songs For Nine Ladies
Songs For Nine
Ladies is the debut release from Stuart Carter a former
member of UK guitar-noise outfit Splintered currently treading
the boards as part of the experimental electronic outfit Theme.
Songs For Nine Ladies is a particularly loose recording
merging organic sounds sources with electronic instrumentation in
a hazy reverie. The opener 'Morning In The Early' is a real
pastoral effort, setting chirping bird song to guitar noodling
and short bursts of keyboard drone. It segues into 'Welcome To
Mantra' where skittering rhythms coexist with an electronic pulse
derived from archaic keyboards, amidst shuddering dropped and
cascading tones. Like the opening track the vintage synths here
are played by Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom) who adds a primitive
warmth to the music. 'Welcome To Mantra' is akin to listening to
TG in the open English countryside. It's by far the best track
here. Bass guitar notes meander in an improvised manner on
'Miracles and Saints' wrapped in a shimmering drone drenched with
spacey effects. Despite its psychedelic glow it's thoroughly
disappointing, especially when compared to 'Solaar Afternoons'
where florid acoustic guitar playing, which picks at the heels of
the current folk vogue, is surrounded by washes of floating
electronic patterns creating some of the most calm and relaxing
sounds here. The final track, the beautifully titled 'Gabriels
Golden Wing (Naked in the Clouds)' is a nice piece of twilight
space-ambient music that swells from some nice stringed intro but
the entire track is letdown due to the distracting bass
soloing.
Sure it picks up some electronic sounds, some found sounds,
environmental sounds, a bit of folk, drone and ambient and comes
across as a bit psychedelic, a bit pastoral and a bit medatitive
but it's all quite innocuous. Actually it's the sort of release
you'd expect from the Ochre label, and while I don't hate it it
doesn't leave that much of an impression that I would return to
it in a hurry. For more information go to
wwww.adverse-effect.co.uk