Old Saw: Dissection Maps (digital, Worried Songs, June 2024)

This is kind of a fascinating mash-up of genres. As a starting point, let’s take that kind of folk–drone crossover thing where you get hypnotically repeating banjo and pedal steel lines and a bit of fiddle over what sounds like a hurdy-gurdy but may in this instance be bagpipes. Then let’s layer in some stuff that sounds like maybe field recordings or maybe just studio-based clattering, and then something more like doom metal guitar. And that’s just the first track. Later on we get everything from American-infused post rock to abstract chiming bell numbers to more growling drone and even a hint of psychedelia. While I don’t remotely claim to be an expert in this kind of stuff, the only real reference point I have here Scott Tuma’s Dandelion from back in 2010, which popped into my mind as I was listening to the growling electric bass layering with western-ish harmonica on the track Measured Mile End, and it’s far from an exact comparison anyway. Despite all that, there is a kind of unifying aesthetic. They also have a deft way of including just the right amount of melody to keep you (well, me) hooked. However you choose to classify this, what’s important is that the elements all add up to a very very satisfying whole, and one which keeps fascinating me more on each listen.

I bought this from Boomkat. They call it Folk / Roots and Modern Classical / Ambient.