Despite his seeming obsession with angels (just look at the list of titles of Earth’s albums and songs), Dylan Carlson’s current obsession with fairies and the occult history of England came as a bit of a surprise. Images of him playing fey faux folk music in tights came to mind but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. I am glad I did as his drcarlsonalbion project is turning out to be just as intriguing as his work with Earth.
 
A few weeks ago, Carlson played a show here in Dublin devoted to this new direction and, unfortunately, it seemed like a mess. Using pre-recorded beats and too many effects on his guitar, I felt it was self-indulgent and a major misstep for an artist who has been so consistently brilliant over the last 20 years. Above all, I was regretting having pre-ordered this release (and the Kickstarter for the forthcoming drcarlsonalbion album). However, when these 7" singles finally arrived, I was completely taken aback by how good they were.
The first of the two discs feature poetry written and recited by Rosie Knight (the Hackney Lass). Combining epic Greek imagery with a story of a broken home and foster care, "Hackney Iliad" is a powerful and moving work by Knight. Carlson’s guitar, instead of competing with Knight’s voice, pushes further into the foreground. On the other side, "Tyler’s Hand of Glory" is the story of a man who stumbles across hidden knowledge which starts him upon a path of occult learning and chasing successful suicides on a police scanner. The obsessive nature of the protagonist is frightening in itself and, crucially, it is never clear whether this magic is something real or his own madness. There are echoes of William Blake’s hallucinatory visions, unsurprising given that Carlson has touched previously on Blake with his work with Earth (particularly on 2005’s Hex ).
The second disc features two instrumental versions of these two poems set to music. Carlson’s guitar is still bathed in effects (a lot of tremolo, even compared to what he was using with Earth at the height of their dark country phase) but here the tone is more appealing than whatever he was using at the Dublin show. Intricate but slow, his style has moved on from his work on recent Earth albums though it is still recognizably him. The ringing drones and hazy melodies flow into each other like tributaries into a large, ponderous river (perhaps the Thames given Carlson’s current interests).
Based on this, Carlson’s excellent cassette of field recordings released on The Tapeworm earlier in the year and the new Latitudes session EP that has just come out (review coming soon), my fears about how Carlson has literally gone away with the fairies seem to be completely unjustified. With any luck, he will synthesize the three different approaches utilized on these three releases and create something utterly supernatural.
 
 
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