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 Phosphorescent
Musicians often head to New York,
it's a familiar story. But something magical happened
when Matthew Houck picked up stakes halfway through
making his new Phosphorescent record, Pride, and moved
to Brooklyn from Athens, Georgia. Raised in Alabama,
Houck has always made music steeped in the Southern-gothic
tradition, a sweet American folk soaked in atmosphere
like a pound cake in rum. On 2005's Aw Come Aw Wry,
our weary-voiced bandleader cemented his reputation
for making masterpiece albums filled with hallelujahs
for both grace and tragedy with songs that swung from
ramshackle and joyous to broken and pleading in the
space of a prayer. The live show swung along this arc
ñ with Houck sometimes backed by up to 14 or
15 members ñ creating a full-blown, shambling,
marching-brass-band-revival-tent celebration. Pride
is something different. While it's not without the moments
of sheer abandon that have made Phosphorescent's work
unmistakable--"At Death, A Proclamation" thunders
into familiar territory--mostly gone are the messy marching
bands and evangelical fervor. Here, Houck instead channels
something more mystical and haunting, offering up a
dark, meditative set of songs that is all the more spiritual-sounding
for its restrained tone. On previous albums, he's recruited
guest musicians to fill the gaps, but on Pride, Houck
has only enlisted the services of a makeshift choir,
otherwise recording every instrument himself. His achingly
cerebral delivery recalls Arthur Russell, but honestly,
Pride sounds like nothing else we've ever heard. These
are poems uttered in an empty field, punctuated by shouts
and hollers, as if from a singer either abandoned or
possessed. The lyrics are Houck's strongest ever, wrapped
in washed out choral etudes that could be channeled
from a rural French chapel or a solemn African tribe
in prayer. Pride sounds like it was made by a man set
free. In fact, Pride sounds broken free of time and
place altogether. Yet still it is warm, familiar, and
welcoming--a record to call home.
Links
www.myspace.com/phosphorescent
www.deadoceans.com
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