Discorporate Rec.
Dead Western : Suckle at the supple teats of time (US,2010)****'
After Antony and then Joanna Newsom who were finally regarded as special voices/talents, and they got all the support they needed (musicians, production wise, chance to add orchestral greatness), at least this label seems to deliver a same effect on a promising, even newer and still rather unnoticed artist and talent (after one more LP). Like with Antony, Dead Western is even more like a unique approach of singing/voice/music that once you hear it you will remember it, and you will not have heard anything like this before. It is beautiful that now his voice has all the arrangements, production and backing musicians he needed. The singing (with beautiful overdub harmonies) has something of witnessing stories from a rarity cabinet, a bit surreal in its format, and still underneath are dramatic visions of people, or on certain values (like a soldier song). Impressive are the vocal arrangements of The Terribly Beautiful Singers on the second track. “A song to calm the minds” goes deep, very deep, also end with a dark field recording tension of a working/building place mixed with accordion. Highly recommended !
Troy Mighty sings and plays acoustic guitar and acoustic bass guitar, chord organ, kazoo, Joel Goulet plays a singing saw. Violin was played by Extra Life’s Caley Monahon-Ward, bass by Jesse Phillips, percussion by Kevin Corcoran. The Terribly Beautiful Singers were Genaro Ulloa, A E Carroll, Jocelyn Noir, Mason Lindhal, Siobhan Sung, and Becky Lotspeich.
They have described Troy's voice as "In shadow, he appears neanderthal; in light, he waxes angelic. Who is Dead Western? He is a man of a gaping mouth, out of which pours — as readily as water from a faucet — a haunting, bewildering, beautiful voice, reminiscent of Scott Walker (circa Climate of Hunter). This bellowing voice, like an ancient reptile, slithers and wraps itself around the most tender acoustic melodies. Dead Western sounds like a forest growing (the throatless groaning of age-old trees); feels like a Victorian passage through limbo (grey, ominous); looks like a Grecian statue (as drawn by Robert Crumb). This is the sort of music one feels profoundly acquainted with — but not something generally found in record format. It is the shifting of rock, the scuttling of insects, the hissing of the wind: frightful, eternal.” [Alexa, Weird Forest] (I like that description).
