TIP OF THE TONGUE 21 MAY 2006
MV & EE with The Bummer Road
Mother Of Thousands
Time-Lag 033
2xLP
OUT OF STOCK!
The motherlode: long-time coming massive 2xLP or 2xCD set from MV, EE and The Bummer Road that feels every bit as universe-defining as Tower Recordings' epochal Folk Scene side. Mother Of Thousands effectively transmutes the multiple energies that have been coursing through the MV back catalogue for a while now, reconciling the Astral Weeks/Gaslight Tapes/early Trux songforms of Space Chantey's with the dislocated globes of blues foo, harp overtones and celestial east side fire that defines the Bummer Road ecstasies and the communal/cultic narcosis of the more Harvester/Düül/Siloah-reverent Tower jams. Also includes direct mainline interpretations of material like Mississippi John Hurt's “Payday” and Charley Patton's “Banty Rooster Blues”. But the highlight of the entire set is the ultimately extended 23:33 minute reading of “Death Don't Have No Mercy” long the fulcrum of their most devastating live shows. The way the group slowly tear subliminal vectors of time/space damage from echoes of revenant form feels like the fullest investigation of post-“Dark Star”/“A Sailor's Life” improvised folk tongue to come out of the whole free folk bucket. Players are MV, EE, Mo' Jiggs, Nemo Bidstrup, Sparrow Wildchild, Tim Barnes and Samara Lubelski. Whole deal comes wrapped in a jaw-droppingly beautiful heavy duty old school full-colour gatefold sleeve with audiophile 180g virgin vinyl in an edition of 1000 copies or shrunken glossy digipak set in the case of the 2xCD in another run of 1000. A modern masterpiece and pretty much the apex of the MV/EE catalogue to date. Highest possible recommendation.
