▄██████▄ ▄██████▄ ▄▄█▌ ▄██████▄ ████▀ ▀███ ███▀ ▀███ ▄████▄███▀ ▀██ ███ ██▌ ███ ▄██▌ ▐█████▀ ███▌ ▐███▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▐███▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▐████ ███▌ █████████████▄█████████████▄███▌ ▄███▀ ▀▀▀▀ █████ ▀▀▀▀ ████████ ▄████▀ ▄▄▄ ▐██▄▄▄ ▐██▌█████████▄ ▐████▄ ███████▄ ███▌███▌ ▀████▄ ▀████▄ ▄████▀████▄ ▄███▀▐████ █████▄ ▀█████████ ▀█████████ ▄███████ ▄████████▄ ssr presents, black forest/black sea - self-titled ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── artist black forest/black sea release self-titled genre folk label last Visible Dog website ripper team ssr release date 11.15.2003 retail date 00.00.0000 quality 192kbps/44.1kHz ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 01. sevastopol 02. blackbird on gray sky 03. middle song 04. banjo song 05. beautiful here 06. sunday market 07. lump in throat ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── It seems the Last Visible Dog label can do no wrong of late, now bringing us this wonderful album of mellow, melancholy music full of folkish, creaky ambience from Black Forest/Black Sea. It's tailor-made for the Terrastock Nation, if you know what we mean. If you read Broken Face 'zine, or scarf up Jewelled Antler cdrs, or dig what the Wire calls "The New Weird America", or liked their track on the "Invisible Pyramid" compilation, well then this disc of psych-folk action ought to suit you like that shaggy beard suits Kawabata Makoto. Black Forest/Black Sea are the Providence, RI duo of Jeffery Alexander and Miriam Goldberg (is one the forest and one the sea? dunno). Jeffery plays guitar and Miriam plays cello, primarily, but there's more than just guitar and cello in the mix. We know a couple of their friends help out at times with some shortwave, sax, and general knob-twiddling. But these songs mostly start with melodic guitar picking, oftimes unaccompanied, that may then be joined by doleful cello drone, wavering electronic organ, or perhaps some slow, steady percussion rhythm -- even, on one track, primitive electronic beats from a Casio or something -- always stirring echoes of old world folk and underground '70s kraut jamming. Much of this is instrumental, with what vocals there are -- it must be Miriam singing -- being quite haunting, sometimes simply lurking in the background, wordlessly, melding with the glitchy reel-to-reel tape noises and other non-instrumental, extra-musical textural effects this band employs that add depth and mystery to their simple but effective songs. From spacious droning, possibly improvised passages to downright tuneful 'folky' hooks, this works and works well. We can't see how any of AQ's psych/folk fan customers would want to pass this up. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── team ssr is an mp3 group devised of few dedicated members. our aim is simply to deliver the music we like, promote artists and encourage general happiness. we are always happy to talk to dedicated rippers who are serious about joining our community. security and quality releases are main concerns. ssr rippers will, certainly be provided with an array of benefits for their efforts. our base is mainly in the united kingdom, so we are especially seeking offshore talent to join our community. we also seek 100mbit sites to create affiliation with, depending on their policy and security and offerings to our group. if you suit either of these criteria, or believe you can benefit ssr in another manner, send contact information to ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── team ssr