psych-folk & acid-folk review page : Salamander

Camera Obscura Rec.

Salamander : Birds of appetite (US,rec.1998-2000,re.2003)****

I knew Salamander from another radioshow on radio Centraal, "Magic Mushroom". One of the albums I heard then seemed a bit more psych folk to me, but I never came round to buying it. But now, their third release, published as a double LP before, has been reissued. And it seems to be the most consistent, still very varied, of all three. The style varies from a pseudo-raga psych folk improvisation to a minimal psychedelic style with maximum effect. The general feel is like more electrified acoustic. Unlike the Finnish Circle who uses rough improvisations of the minimal to create multilayered psychedelica, Salamander keeps the expression itself tempered and minimal. In the more electric tracks, the mood is closer to the late 90's band Mushroom, but then in a more "eternal flow" effect (especially in the longer tracks like "Saddhu", "French of Fire",.. but also "Yomin part 2", with a pure psychedelica effect no matter how direct the music is improvised. With "French of Fire", a piece with nice psychedelic guitar effects, the 4 piece group improvised on top of an earlier improvisation, and mixed it successfully afterwards in the studio. The following "Mummpsimus Lame", seems to be like the one layered improvisation. "Minutia Divine" is a nice song with a similar pseudo-raga acid/psych folk accompaniment. Both short "Yomin" parts have some samples of reading (Ray Bradbury). Listening to this CD is a pleasant experience if you like your mind to flow away on a psychedelic minimally evolving maximum effect music. Last track is a soundtrack like psychedelic soundscape based upon a transmission of a communication from a control tower with a runaway train.

Audio : "Vessel_Is_Vacant"

Info : http://www.cameraobscura.com.au/cam037cd.htm

Salamander has other side-projects :

Barlow/Petersen/Wivinus have a CD out on Dark Holler called "The Transparent World" at http://www.somedarkholler.com with review of it at

http://www.visi.com/pins/bpwtrans-reviews.htm

and Skye Klad (with 2 CDs out on Mutant Music, upcoming folk/acoustic CD coming out soon on Dark Holler) : http://www.skyeklad.com

Camera ObscuraSalamander : Bent Hemlock (US,2005)*°°'

Salamander has refocused their ideas of their band, still with a recognisable dissection. Separate talents now bring forward their own ideas with their own aspects, also changing the original compositional focus.

More of these tracks are singer-songwriter based. The still recognisable Salamander sound gives them some kind of droning psychedelic effect, (succesful and driven on tracks like "Hail") only two times perhaps a bit more than I would prefer because this could also mean moments of “distortion” in the atmosphere, which is a bit blurry on "Portal" (with lots of guitar strumming) or “Ascension”, or tiring on “Call of the hills”, but I guess it was often a compromise to have a consistence effect in the recording, otherwise all these different ideas might have fallen apart a bit.

A personal favourite moment is the 11 year old Madeline Westby’s voice on “Galleon”, creating a sweet psych-folk atmosphere. “The River Song” has a Prydwyn / or even more an In Gowan Ring like melancholy I like very much too. A couple songs are more 60’s American folk s/sw styled (“Diagram” for instance, like a young Derrol Adams or so). “The Visionary Kind for me” has something of the Nick Cave area / mood of s/sw. I’m glad there still are a few explorations of acoustic guitar from Erik Wivinus, like on “Clearing” (with beautiful acoustic drone), the great "The Somnabulist" (with some distorted drone string effects), on "Nocturne", and on “Diagram”.

Because Salamander stylistically went for a psych-folk territory, the mix of songs here doesn’t always fit too well with that direction and compositionally does not always best serve that focus. The new directions it opens up are here, and there still a bit young and does not always succeed in convincing me. There are simply too many differences which haven’t got enough independent strength to do so. I enjoyed most especially the first half of the album, and am still curious how the other directions will evolve in the future.

Audio : http://www.theunbrokencircle.co.uk/New_Folk_Gallery/Salamander_2.m3u

Info : http://www.cameraobscura.com.au/cam070.htm

Other review : http://thebrokenface.blogspot.com/

& http://terrascope.co.uk/Reviews/Reviews_April05.htm#Salamander

Article : http://citypages.com/databank/26/1280/article13420.asp