Jack Rose - Red Horse White Mule - VINYL LP

Limited vinyl LP pressing of this 2003 album. Part of a collaboration with Jack Rose's estate and Three Lobed Records to restore all of his LPs to print, VHF presents a new vinyl edition of the celebrated guitarist's solo album, newly cut by John Golden Mastering from the original source material. This charts an eclectic, more experimental approach left behind as his technique and compositions became more refined and deliberate on later works. Recorded and originally released in 2003, Opium Musick is an eclectic collection with pieces for 12-string (the percussive and dark InchBlack PearlsInch), 6-string, and lap guitar. The lovely raga-ish InchYaman BluesInch features Mike Gangloff (Pelt, Black Twig Pickers) on tanpura, and echoes the extended modal work on Pelt's contemporaneous Pearls From The River. The near-ragtime of InchLinden Ave StompInch showcases Glenn Jones on his vintage Gibson in a jumping duet with Rose's lap steel. InchLinden AveInch charted a path that Rose would determinedly pursue-short ragtime and old-time influenced pieces (originals and classics), with all phrasing worked out to a perfectionist standard. The lovely InchMountaintop LamentoInch was memorably used in Catherine Pancake's film about coal mining in Appalachia, Black Diamonds Mountaintop Removal and the Fight for Coalfield Justice.

Jack Rose - Jack Rose [VINYL LP] date 09/16/2016

The more hopeful 'sunrise' to 2018's critically acclaimed Slow Sundown, Horse finds Tallinn, Estonia's Holy Motors acknowledging the Americana and rockabilly strands of their musical DNA without sacrificing any of the otherworldly mystique that keeps them from neatly conforming to the shoegaze and dreampop labels often applied to their music.From the album's opening moments, songs like InchCountry Church,Inch with it's major key and classic rhythm and blues guitarline, and InchMidnight Cowboy,Inch which sounds like a lost Buddy Holly 45 played at 33 rpm, make it clear that Horse - even if it may not accomplish the impossible task of demystifying this band of ex-Soviet cowboys - will at least show you that there's more to them than the near-impenetrable darkness of their work to date may suggest. While tracks like InchTroubleInch and InchEndless NightInch gravitate towards the ethereal production and existential subject matter of prior releases, repeat listens will reveal the same complex compositions and humanity that are much more a hallmark of Horse's eight songs.As a whole, Horse stands as a warmer, more human counterpoint to 2018's celestial Slow Sundown. As to which of the two entries better approximates Holy Motors' natural set point, only time will tell.