The Child Readers
Music Heard Far Off
Soft Abuse
Jewelled Antler members Loren Chase and Jason Honea might not garner as much press as their near-ubiquitous brethren Steven Smith and Glenn Donaldson, but the art-damaged folk carved out via The Child Readers rings just as strongly (and weirdly) as anything the collective has released these past few years. Despite the title, there’s surprisingly more focus to these songs than can be found permeating an average Thuja amble through ambience.
Although I wouldn’t claim that the frenetic clangor build-up and spreading drone of a track like “A Loved One/Gull’s Blood” or the franken-raga “Fortune” offer much in the way of cohesion, there is a certain sense of progression, of a forward momentum. It’s pastoral folk eroded by distortion – junkyard squalls charred and warped by time and maybe a little bit of dementia. This isn’t quite a pretty picture they’re painting here, but it certainly is an affecting one – and one to hold off exposing the kids to until their age hits the double digits.
Soft Abuse: http://www.softabuse.com
