The Body and BIG|BRAVEare bands possessed of an unequaled ability to convey overwhelming weight with simplicity, repetition, and detailed sonic atmospheres; artists who continue to alter the definition of what it means to be a heavy band. The Body are consistently prolific while increasingly ambitious as untethered producers and collaborators. BIG|BRAVE shape sound with dense waves of guitar and feedback, minimalist and hypnotic crashes, and emotionally exacting vocal melodies. In collaboration, The Body and BIG|BRAVE shift the gravity of their compositions to woven layers of percussion and unspooling guitars that sprawl through stark frameworks of earthy folk. Their debut collaborative albumLeaving None But Small Birdsdistills the two ensembles’ pioneering approach to heavy music into psalms for the forgotten, threnodies of lost love, and odes to vengeance.
Typical to The Body’s creative process,Leaving None But Small Birdswas composed almost entirely in the studio atMachine With Magnetswith engineer/producerSeth Manchester. The Body and BIG|BRAVE aimed to challenge themselves to craft a fully realized and cohesive work that strayed outside the boundaries of the music they make individually. The Body’sLee Bufordset up the initial challenge: collaborating to make an album that evoked the country and folk roots of The Band. BIG|BRAVE’sRobin Wattiecompiled lyrics and melodic lines from across Appalachian, Canadian, and English hymns and folk songs. Select phrases were then reworked and precisely arranged to center the experiences of marginalized characters, victims of hardship, and those yearning for love within each story. The despair and empowerment of these traditional tunes draw remarkable parallels with each group’s focus on championing people often cast aside in history.Leaving None But Small Birdstakes its name from the “Polly Gosford” lyric “He covered her grave / and hastened home / Leaving none but small birds / her fate to bemoan,” an image in traditional songs evoking the alienation and isolation of the persecuted. The Body and BIG|BRAVE, following a folk tradition, make each song their own through shifts in perspective and a synthesis of passages from kindred tales.
Leaving None But Small Birdstransfigures The Body and BIG|BRAVE’s heft into a daring diversity of sounds unbridled and austere. The loping opener “Blackest Crow” implements gusts of violin and harmony against the bedrock of a droning riff and shruti box that subtly shifts timbre. “Hard Times” threads stories of indentured and child factory laborers through cascading trellises of rubato guitar as Wattie’s petitions are swallowed by the swell. The Body and BIG|BRAVE’s maximalist rumble looms at the fringes of each song as guitaristChip King’s(The Body) staggering drones seep into their fabric with resolute percussion from Buford and BIG|BRAVE drummerTasy Hudsonpunctuating with their steady current. Wattie and fellow BIG|BRAVE guitaristMathieu Balltwirl repeating phrases around one another into restrained meditations that bend and shift incrementally. Hudson joins Wattie in harmonized duets and hockets across the album, enhancing the loneliness of “Once I Had A Sweetheart” and laying bare the raw brilliance of “Black is the Colour.” “Polly Gosford” froths with persistently rising walls of violin, guitar, piano and trudging toms that only capitulate after Wattie spins the tragic song of femicide into ghostly revenge with “She broke him, she tore him / she ripped him in three / because he murdered / her baby and she.”
BIG|BRAVE’s roots as a minimalist folk band and The Body’s love of old-time, country blues, and folk music enable the quintet to strike a formidable balance between sorrowful lamentation and uplifting resolve to weighty effect.Leaving None But Small Birdsthatches together two monumental innovative forces that render the emotionally profound with lucid, devastating vitality.
Tracklist: 01. Blackest Crow 02. Oh Sinner 03. Hard Time 04. Once I Had A Sweetheart 05. Black Is The Colour 06. Polly Gosford 07. Babes In The Woods
Pressing Information: 300x Trans. Green (Evil Greed Exclusive)
Please note that we do our best to protect vinyl records ideally for shipping, using our custom made mailers and additional cardboard squares. However, we can not guarantee that no damage on the way occurs. Ordering is at one's own risk. Vinyl might be delivered unsealed as we have to open copies to check vinyl colours, if not sufficiently labeled by the distributor / label.
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