The Modern Folk

Eiderdown have a whole fresh batch of stuff that you need to dig into as soon as possible and among releases by Elkhorn’s Drew Gardner and fellow picker Josh Medina lies this excellent and expansive album from The Modern Folk. Picking up some queues from labelmate Gardner’s acoustic / electric dynamic in Elkhorn, the tape is split into two halves that carve out a different fascit of J. Moss’ soul. The first half, dubbed Primitive Future takes a swipe at the American Primitive legacy, picking a ramble through woodlands that seem to be a bit more grey-skied and parched than flourishing, scarred songs that get tangled in the brambles and stuck in the mire of a desolate rust pocked landscape. Capturing a stranded view of the wilderness, like an unassigned soundtrack to restless teens prowling unchaperoned among the American rural woodlands — lumped among car carcasses with nature crawling at the corners, they seek to take back an industrial outcrop that’s failed generations far back from their own. It’s a new songbook for a generation unburdened by hope.

The flip side puts some voltage on the angst of Moss’ pieces. The primitive ripple that presided over the first side is burned out with the fire forged electric poker of Lyran Group. If anything, this side is more desolate than the last, having clear cut any overgrowth that provided shade and shelter on the first side. The growl is guarded, feral and set to bite if provoked. Moss still picks with a wounded precision, but there’s danger in the strings where before there was despair. Its a nice one-two tag from the guitarist and should find fans among the Eiderdown aware and for those already snagged into greats from Rob Noyes and Eli Winter this year.



Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

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