Black Prairie | Feast Of The Hunter’s Moon

Sugar Hill (2010)
By MIKAEL WOOD  |  April 7, 2010
2.0 2.0 Stars

OTR040910_BlPairie_main 

Admire the Decemberists’ meticulous sea-shanty soundscapes but can’t stand Colin Meloy’s word-nerd volubility? Black Prairie are for you: this new Portland outfit has three of the five Decemberists — bassist Nate Query, accordionist Jenny Conlee, and guitarist Chris Funk — doing mostly instrumental bluegrass-based stuff that puts just as much emphasis on atmosphere but far less on, well, whatever it was that The Hazards of Love was about. In opener “Across the Black Prairie,” they spike an eerie goth-blues drone with unexpectedly jumpy zydeco licks, and “Ostinato del Caminito” presents a kind of acoustic speed metal (word to Rodrigo y Gabriela). Violinist Annalisa Tornfelt supplies vocals on a handful of tunes, including the sensual “Crooked Little Heart” and “Red Rocking Chair,” the latter of which suggests a low-rent version of Robert Plant & Alison Krauss’s Raising Sand. For the most part, though, Feast of the Hunter’s Moon (title by Meloy, methinks?) luxuriates in its lack of lyrics.

Related: The Decemberists, Lit rock and roll, On the racks: October 3, 2006, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY MIKAEL WOOD
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS | FURTHER  |  July 07, 2010
    Astralwerks (2010)
  •   DEVO | SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY  |  July 01, 2010
    Given the theory of de-evolution these Ohio brainiacs began expounding more than 30 years ago, it makes a sad kind of sense that Devo's first album since 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps offers such a charmless, base-level version of the band's synth-addled new wave.
  •   TAIO CRUZ | ROKSTARR  |  June 24, 2010
    When Taio Cruz sings, "I can't live without you," in "Take Me Back," pop-song conventions tell us he's referring to a lover.
  •   THE FUTUREHEADS | THE CHAOS  |  June 16, 2010
    "I wish that I could stop the noise," sings Barry Hyde not long into The Chaos . It sure doesn't seem that way.
  •   BETTYE LAVETTE | INTERPRETATIONS: THE BRITISH ROCK SONGBOOK  |  June 01, 2010
    Bettye LaVette’s previous two albums had titles that required a little digging to unpack.

 See all articles by: MIKAEL WOOD