{"id":16686,"date":"2019-06-09T05:30:53","date_gmt":"2019-06-09T09:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=16686"},"modified":"2019-04-23T11:23:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T15:23:30","slug":"ep-review-reddenhollow-haunt-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/09\/ep-review-reddenhollow-haunt-me\/","title":{"rendered":"EP review: reddenhollow – Haunt Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The opening strains of \u201cJulian,\u201d the first track on reddenhollow\u2019s Haunt Me<\/i> EP suggest a musical perspective not far removed from that of Fleet Foxes: breathy, gentle vocals and earnestly strummed acoustic guitar set against a soft-focus arrangement that\u2019s the aural equivalent of a rainy day viewed through a steamy window. But Taylor Moses \u2013 the solo act who uses the reddenhollow name for his musical project \u2013 has more to offer than that single approach, alluring as it may be.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulian\u201d takes its time to develop, and that approach seems to be a hallmark of Moses\u2019 songwriting. The words come fast and furious \u2013 gently<\/i>, though, you understand \u2013 and then the chorus hits. It\u2019s a gentle, crystalline thing, with precise and minimalist single-note stabs on the piano.<\/p>\n

And then the second verse begins. A chiming electric guitar with a rather \u201880s-flavored texture joins in, along with bass and drums. The drums have that cavernous, Phil Collins-gated-reverb feel, but somehow it works; the band (or \u201cband\u201d since it\u2019s just Moses) surges forward in a way that might remind some listeners of the Alarm. As \u201cJulian\u201d winds toward its conclusion, those two contrasting approaches \u2013 gentle and soaring, both contemplative \u2013 spar with one another. A roaring, hypnotically insistent guitar figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan in Tree\u201d is exactly the same length as the song that precedes it. And though Moses plays a repetitive pattern on his acoustic guitar, the song follows some of the same paths as \u201cJulian\u201d took. Moses\u2019 vocal approach is different, though: more certain of itself, it seems. A single-note piano line helps make the point that in music, it\u2019s often not what you play, but how you play it. The drum part putters along with a strong reliance on the toms, and only the subtlest use of cymbals. Oddly enough, the instrumentation of \u201cMan in Tree\u201d seems to blur together into an aural haze, but it\u2019s not muddy. The phrase \u201cthey won\u2019t do\u201d is repeated over and over near the song\u2019s end, mantra-like.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat Escape\u201d shows that even with the same sonic elements \u2013 and a similar employment of them \u2013 one can make songs that stand on themselves yet fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Here, sheets or reverb and echo are applied to Moses\u2019 voice, and the cymbals largely absent from the previous tune show up, albeit faraway and deep in the mix. Like \u201cMan in Tree\u201d \u2013 but unlike the other songs on the EP \u2013 it\u2019s a Moses co-write with one or two other songwriters. \u201cGreat Escape\u201d was released as a single ahead of the EP.<\/p>\n

The title track has a vaguely country-and-western feel, and Moses surprises the listener by showing the depth of his vocal range; though the first three songs on Haunt Me <\/i>suggested that his range leans toward the upper register, here he sings in a near-baritone. (His wordless backing vocals provide continuity with the other songs by way of their high-pitch. A model of subtlety wedded to a memorable melody, \u201cHaunt Me\u201d seems expressly design to haunt the memory of those who would hear it.<\/p>\n

The final six minutes of the half hour long EP are filled by \u201cHigh Tide Freak Out.\u201d Spare electric guitar introduces the tune with a sophisticated jazz feel. Were it not for Moses\u2019 vocals providing a kind of sonic glue, the song would feel out of place on the EP. The rapid-fire fire and neo-soul backing crooning might remind some listeners of Steely Dan or some of Steve Winwood\u2019s 1980s solo work. It\u2019s also more than a little reminiscent of Paddy McAloon\u2019s band, Prefab Sprout, though Moses is distinctly American. The song easily features what is easily most energetic arrangement on Haunt Me<\/i>, but it still remains mostly restrained. As the song passes the four-minute mark, Moses lets loose in a kind of shoegazey way; just when the tension seems to approach the breaking point, Moses pulls back, and \u201cHigh Tide Freak Out\u201d drifts along the soundscape to its conclusion.<\/p>\n

Moses has recently completed an Australian tour in support of the EP, co-billed with American-born (but Australia-based) folk artist Mimi Gilbert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The opening strains of \u201cJulian,\u201d the first track on reddenhollow\u2019s Haunt Me EP suggest a musical perspective not far removed from that of Fleet Foxes: breathy, gentle vocals and earnestly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,62,65,67],"tags":[237,3838],"class_list":["post-16686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","category-shoegaze","tag-asheville","tag-reddenhollow","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-67-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16688,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16686\/revisions\/16688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}