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Lewis & Clarke

Live on WPRB

(La Societe Expeditionnaire; US: 1 Oct 2006; UK: Available as import)

There’s a new digital turntable console out there that will read your vinyl records with perfect exactitude, as well as set you back about 15 grand.  Now, as much as you and I both salivate at the prospect, I don’t recommend you push your audio equipment budget quite so far. But you will need at least a perfunctory set-up to enjoy the limited edition 12” “Live on WPRB”, by Pennsylvania’s Lewis & Clarke. The four-song platter, recorded back in February, links 2005’s Bare Bones and Branches with an upcoming disc, Blasts of Holy Birth.  I don’t know the former, but this teaser is enough to snap me to attention and look forward to the latter.  Though frontman Lou Rogai often tours solo, this live set of expansive, intricate folk is fleshed out by a variety of textures.  The 10-plus-minute “Before It Breaks You” floats along on a cloud of drone lined with late-night vocals, plinking keys, and brushed cymbals. “Blasts of Holy Birth” starts out hushed and sparse, but every note is wound up with import, like the quiet minutes of the day when your mind has the chance to cut through the mundane and focus on sometimes difficult realities.

Rating:

Michael Metivier has lived and worked everywhere from New Orleans to Chicago to New York to Boston. He currently lives in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, with his bride-to-be and two hilarious guinea pigs. He records and performs original songs under the name "Oweihops".


Tagged as: lewis & clarke
Related Articles
16 Jun 2009
Even if Lewis & Clarke can’t write albums full of “Petrified Forest”s, this one’ll become a precious gift to those who hear it.
10 Jun 2009
On 12-inch vinyl EP, Lewis & Clarke transcends chamber folk genre, crafting a timeless, cathartic song cycle that demands to be heard -- and heeded.
31 May 2007
The compositions are thoughtfully and carefully arranged folk mini-symphonies.
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