Nickie’s Niches #26: February 2024

Start Artist Song Time Album Year OXN 0:02:20 OXN Cruel Mother 9:25 Cyrm 2023 Zac Bauman 0:12:20 Zac Bauman Bell Jar 4:39 Bell Jar 2017 Olivia Chaney 0:17:21 Olivia Chaney To the Lighthouse 4:33 Circus of Desire 2024 Voice of the Seven Woods 0:22:20 Voice Of The Seven Woods Silver Morning Branches 3:50 Voice Of The Seven Woods 2016 Elmer Reidy & Natalia Beylis 0:27:05 Eimear Reidy & Natalia Beylis The Sloes Made Sweet 12:26 Whose Woods These Are 2022 Luz de Riada 0:39:59 Luz de Riada Ñuñoa 6:05 Rizoma 2023 Scott Flaherty 0:46:19 Scott Flaherty Shawna Ray 3:58 Single 2008 Heron Oblivion 0:50:59 Heron Oblivion Beneath Fields 7:22 Heron Oblivion 2016 ØXN “CYRM” (sy-rum) Lead singer of Irish sensation Lankum and members of Percolator combine their talents to enchant darkly with their heavy doom/drone folk on this EP. These are mostly traditional tunes, and included is an epic cover of Scott Walker’s Farmer in the City. A plethora of instrumentation is utilized: various keyboards and percussion, guitar, harp, and the Japanese taishōgoto. There’s good reason for their popularity in the dark folk scene, because this is done splendidly. Favourite Track: Cruel Mother (9:29 Zac Bauman “Bell Jar” Northern Californian Zac Bauman is an adept guitarist, sometimes utilizing elaborate fingerpicking, ala Kottke and Fahey, aptly describing his music as “baroque pop bedroom recordings.” The release is quirky, and, like the cover art with a heart floating in a bell jar, the lyrics are intimate musings, and although the strings are complex, overall, there is a naiveté to the songs. It includes a bit of recorded reading by the poet, e e cummings, of “somewhere I have never traveled,” on one of the tracks. Favourite Track: Bell Jar (4:50) To the Lighthouse by Olivia Chaney Single Olivia Chaney is no stranger to my collection,, her releases are always top-notch and unforgettable. So far, there have been two advance singles for her new release, which promises to be just as excellent as her previous solo works. Here, she sings of her sister’s family, who have moved to a remote island lighthouse. Simply beautiful. Voice Of The Seven Woods by Voice Of The Seven Woods favorite track Silver Morning Branches This is a very prog/psych/folk outing from Rick Tomlinson, a superbly agile shapeshifting guitarist, who is joined by drummer Chris Walmsley, and Paul Blakely on upright bass. They dabble with Middle Eastern themes, jazz, folk and psych, conjuring up sitting around a fire with talented friends who are impr...