Murder Ballads (Incest Songs) [2LP]

Mick Harris/Martyn Bates - Murder Ballads (Incest Songs) [2LP]

Following Murder Ballads [Drift] (2021, SR 506LP) and Murder Ballads [Passages], (2022, SR 510LP) here is the last chapter of the trilogy: Murder Ballads [Incest Songs]. First time on LP vinyl. Textured sleeve with marbled vinyl. Incest Songs is the final chapter of the Murder Ballads trilogy, and its most fully realized expression. Where Drift and Passages explored the post-isolationist frame through voice and single instrument, this third volume dispenses with that approach entirely, opening instead onto a more labyrinthine sonic architecture -- one built from overlapping, saturating, blurring voices, all of them Martyn Bates'. The decision feels both inevitable and quietly inspired. Bates' vocalizations unfold as layered calls and responses, muted and distant echoes, sung whispers and counter-melodies, ultimately resolving into a mesmeric conversation of musical inferences and correspondences. There is a mellifluous, dream-like quality to the whole -- infused with that characteristic stillness that slow, hypnotic unfolding of gossamer subtlety -- yet never quite losing a certain drugged, disquieting beauty beneath its surface. Incest Songs pushes the post-isolationist form further out than either of its predecessors, innovating and extemporizing with a dazzling assurance. And (more...)

A1. The Bonny Hind (12:29)
B1. Sheaf and Knife (12:07)
C1. The Two Brothers (17:08)
D1. Edward (17:38)