Boduf Songs "Lion Devours the Sun" CD

artist:  Boduf Songs
title:   Lion Devours The Sun
catalog #:  krank099
formats available:  CD
Release Date:  October 30, 2006

Content:
Mathew Sweet is an alchemist, having developed the powers to mysteriously transform a minimal palette of common musical elements into something extraordinary. While his work contains references to psychedelia and folk musics, it fits comfortably in neither category. His understated vocals are delivered not as declamation, but rather a muted invitation to listen to his tales of the failing human condition; a terrain of fallow fields, poisoned wells and doomed existence. All hail the messenger of truths.

Context:
Lion Devours The Sun is the first full length release from U.K. resident Mathew Sweet following his self-titled kranky debut EP released in the fall of 2005. It was recorded at home with a 4 track and a single microphone, using acoustic guitar and voice along with well placed touches of a cymbal-playing monkey, some bricks, an e-bowed autoharp, a homemade gramophone, and daggers. The title derives from alchemical imagery, the sun representing consciousness and the lion symbolizing emotion. Some of these songs contain actual invocations of demonic forces. Not really. Mathew states that "this is not folk music", and that someone told him that they think the first record "sounds humble and withdrawn and the new one sounds righteous and bitter". He agrees. The debut Boduf Songs release garnered high praise from all reviewers. He has performed limited live shows in the U.K. and Europe, and recently recorded a live session for the legendary VPRO in Amsterdam.

Quotes:
"Sweet is at once engaged and detached from the outside world, his evocative observations surreal, literate, and fatalistic..." Grooves

"Quiet revelations from an acoustic guitar, gentle male voice very nearly whispering, and the harmonic convergence of cymbals, violin bow, toy piano and manipulated field recordings." Dream Magazine

"Stark and dark psychedelia exquisitely woven by one M. Sweet. What spirits are invoked I don't know, but I imagine they are as riveted as I am to these haunted musings." Foxy Digitalis

"Picturesque and pastoral, using little more than his voice and guitar to create a vivid picture of the world around him. Only Sweet sees a world populated by very dark happenings and very dreadful ideas, all swirling, massing and waiting to descend on the world." Brainwashed

Track Listing:
1. Lord of the Flies  2. Two Across the Mouth  3. That Angel was Pretty Lame  4. Great Wolf of No Tracks  5. Green Lion Devours the Sun, Blood Descends to Earth  6. 27th Raven's Head (Darkness Showing Through the Head of the Raven)  7. Please Ache for Redemptive  8. Fall of Cherry Blossom in Long Shadows of Twilight  9. Bell for Harness


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