Anna von Hausswolf’s 2016 Touch 12″ Källan (Betatype) was an awesome bit of drone-rock’n’pipe-organ. It turns out that Hausswolf is quite handy as a vocalist and songwriter, too. I guess this album is a bunch more mainstream, but it’s none the worse for that. Hausswolf sings — I’m not good on vocal styles, but if you think somewhere in the general ballpark of PJ Harvey and Patti Smith I don’t think you’ll be a million miles away — and plays the pipe organ and mellotron. Her band and guests play synths, guitars, percussion, on one track some strings, and producer Randall Dunn (who has also worked with Sunn O))) and the like) does some clever stuff with the sound design. It’s all big melodramatic doom-laden stuff with track titles like The Mysterious Vanishing Of Electra (video) — but it manages to avoid the trap of straying into the camp, and it has plenty of proper hooks, in what almost seems like a kind of a dream pop type way. It’s got an epic power and also some great tunes and all-in-all it’s a cracking good listen.
I bought this from Boomkat. They call it Indie / Alternative.
dogrando writes about some records 