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Headdress is a nomadic folk duo that has been camping out in Austin for the latter half of 2007, after spending the last two years traversing through the southwest. The group’s mystical travels and restless spirit is well-represented on their breezy full-length debut, Turquoise (Totem Songs), which was supposedly recorded underground in Arizona and is sewn at its seams and individually numbered through 250. At times recalling the pastoral roaming and freak folk of contemporaries like Brightblack Morning Light, MV + EE, and Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice, the album more closely resembles the dark side of Neil Young’s Harvest, a somber and stripped-down meditation on the roots of Americana and blues. Call it hill country psych, born under a bad sign.
Opener “Skydye” establishes the themes and grooves early: Ethan Hook lays down sparse and plodding percussion, filled out by Caleb Coy’s drifting guitar lines and haunting vocals so heavily drenched in reverb that they become almost unintelligible, only another of drone accenting the meandering, meditative mood. Trading spare guitar for even sparser banjo lines, “The Painted Desert” sounds like the Great Lake Swimmers on downers and underwater, while “Blanket of Golden Fields” and “Great Horned Owl” adds light flourishes of piano.
The peyote kicks in suddenly during “Moon of Shedding Ponies,” Coy howling into the starry into the night over an eerie desert soundscape that includes a few spins with a rain stick. “Among the Swinging Stars” is the only sleeper here of the bunch, a minute-long acoustic interlude that dozes into the eight-minute “Arizona,” which appropriately ends with sound of crickets chirping. Here’s to hoping Headdress stays around long enough to produce a follow-up.
Websites:
http://totemsongs.org
Myspace
