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Stephanie Hladowski, "The High, High Nest"
The story is that these four songs are all that's left of Scatter's scrapped final album. As that free folk assembly went on their separate ways, thankfully vocalist Stephanie Hladowski has collated the tracks into this 10" EP. It feels like these songs have been pulled through the liquid mirror of a now-closed world, with this world being better off for having them. These brief glimpses of the past reveal themselves as further puzzle pieces in the reconfiguration of British traditional songs as part of a living present.
Alex Neilson's extensive liners make it difficult to say anything that doesn't sound like paraphrasing of his perfectly on-point thoughts. Hladowski has a strong vocal that is ferociously fragile: a voice sometimes lost in character; broken but determined to finish her narrative. The accapella "In the Month of January" is no less musical for its simplicity. Instrumentally, it is an understated set of performances from The Family Elan's Chris Hladowski and Isobel Campbell. T
he contribution of the thin smooth flesh of Campbell's cello bleeds all the emotion of the worst moments of warmth over a pair of tracks. The steady tempo and beauty of Chris Hladowski's bouzouki on "Willy O'Winsbury" moves like the leisurely springs on a honeymooner's bed. It is his backing on "Andrew Lambie" that provides Stephanie's weary vocal bones a place to rest, his warm electric/organic hum filling the song. The final moments of this vinyl are the most startling with the end of the record leaving the sensation that something has been stolen from the room (life, air, words, resolution, perhaps a presence?). Even by returning to those last few seconds countless times, it is still unclear what it was.
WZBC's 30th Anniversary Bash
It's no wonder that one of the world's most internationally renowned college radio stations is based in one of the world's most internationally renowned area for its colleges. Based in Boston, WZBC celebrated 30 years of groundbreaking radio last year (beat that, Resonance!). This week is the irregular pledge week and to support them, a video document of the 30th Anniversary Bash has been assembled from footage taken by students and DJs, edited by Jon Whitney and current WZBC Operations Director Amar Ashar. Performers at the bash included Keith Fullerton Whitman, Quasi, Lightning Bolt, Out Hud, Due Process, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Tunnel of Love, Landing, Bardo Pond, Christopher Willits, No Neck Blues Band, Hella, and Nautical Almanac (many appear in this mini-documentary). Watch the video, then tune in afterwards at www.wzbc.org (or tune in if you're local) and hear for yourself! Support innovative non-commercial radio. Thanks!13 Minutes, Quicktime Streaming Video
