Viva La Vinyl
The first thing I think of when I hear Emma Ruth Rundle’s name is a Southern mom yelling that name out a closed screen door: “Emma Ruth! Emma Ruth Rundle, you stop pokin’ that dead possum with Old Man Jasper’s fishin’ pole right now, an’ come inside an’ put on some clean britches!”
I was checking the bins at Sundance Books And Music on Record Store Day and found this on sale for $15! Someone probably special ordered it, and never picked it up. I had already found the RSD releases I was hunting for, but I figured it was worth the try. I pretty much only know ERR from her work with the band Thou, so I didn’t know if this was going to be as metal as those collaborations, or not.
And it’s not at all. In comparison, this is similarily a very dark, moody album, but mostly just voice and piano or acoustic guitar. I don’t know if it’s the white vinyl (since I always see music snobs complain that certain colors of vinyl are more noisy than others), or just the fact that the production is very intimate and sparse — you can hear everything, including the heavy silence between notes and breaths — but there is a little bit more noise on this record than I normally hear from my turntable setup. Or maybe I just need to clean it a little better next time...
I sometime forget that stripped-down music can convey just as much power as a full band turned up loud. I really need to just start messing around on guitar more and record stuff just for the hell of it.
I think this would probably sound best in the dark with some candles flickering while you slow dance with the shadows.
-bcp