Labels: Alien8
Review by: Chris Bress
The sticker on the front says: “alien8 recordings presents Jesse Poe’s Tanakh. With guest appearances by Mick Turner, Jessica Biley, David Lowery, Ned Oldham and Nirmal Bajekal.” So you know your in for a treat.
This record kind of brought back the feeling when I first heard Godspeed You Black Emperor and I suppose there are some similarities. Dark post rock with a real “end of the world” feeling a la Neurosis or Godspeed which includes all different kinds of instruments and soundscapes. The record has a real Eastern feel to it, from the artwork to the music. It has some really great guitar parts as well that really remind me of Talk Talk (mainly the way they are recorded) and strangely enough the music from Once Upon A Time In The West. There are some really great droning parts as well that really sound like the outtakes from Current 93’s “all the pretty little horses”.
The highlight for me though has to be the first track on side 2. They do “Gently Johnny” from the Wicker Man Soundtrack. This song is so amazing, its on one of the cut versions of the fantastic film, the version that gets shown on film 4 sometimes. It’s a really laid back guitar track, but it has a great feeling of tension to it. The lyrics are pretty ridiculous but you’ve got to remember it’s a pretty old track and I don’t think a lot of folk music has the best lyrics anyway to be honest! I had been trying to get a copy of this track for ages (its not on the Cd of the soundtrack you see) and thanks to this wonderful record I have it. Woop Woop!
This record comes with a free cd as well! With 6 tracks that aren’t on the lp. Im not going to talk about the cd though, otherwise Ill be here for years. Its great though.
This is a brilliant record. Track it down and give your money to the nice record shop worker, go home, smoke lots of weed, listen and die!