Tall Firs- Out Of It and Into It | Album Feature

Veteran Brooklyn psych-rockers Tall Firs, not known as one of NYC's quietest bands, may have just made the most achingly beautiful folk record of the Spring with their latest release Out of it and Into It. After parting ways with longtime drummer Ryan Sawyer and returning to their original incarnation as a duo, the group has radically pushed their sound towards more pastoral realms.

While not ditching their electric guitars wholesale, this time they're used in a far more textural, delicate fashion; where there was once overdriven grit there is now clean canyon echo. Opener “Suffer So Long” is a languid, melancholy ode to the tougher parts of life we all must naturally go through. Single "Crooked Smiles" preserves a bit of the band's bite though, with driving percussion and a wonderfully overdriven guitar break, complete with hedonistic lyrics about how we should just "get high," just "get evil."

Listen, I would be lying if I said it wasn't a relatively somber affair. Not somber in a negative way, in fact there is much, much beauty in its melancholy, just don't expect to put this one on at your first BBQ this Spring; it's not that type of record. This is a record to listen to in the wee hours, laying in bed and reflecting upon the past. Not a very bad thing at all.

Tall Firs album Out of It and Into It is out now via All Tomorrow's Parties.

It seems Peter Nolan's solo material as Spectre Folk is consistently understood as a side project in the public eye. After all it's hard to compete when your other band is thee Magik Markers. But maybe things will start to change a little in the near future as Nolan and company prepare for the release of the newest Spectre Folk 12" EP out on Woodsist March 29.

The Blackest Medicine, Vol II as it's called seems to take inspiration from the same pool of acidic stoned folk rock as the previous few Spectre Folk albums. This album sees Nolan joined by Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) Peter Meehan (The Grey Lady) , & Aaron Mullen (Tall Firs).

Any doubts of the music coming second to such a star studded line up are put to rest by the end the title track The Blackest Medicine. Resembling moments of like minded musicians such as MV & EE, as well as the label's figure heads Woods. But then again Peter has been doing this for some time, before his time with Magik Markers, as Elisa Ambrogio points out in her insightful take on the release.

Peter Nolan is currently touring with Sic Alps, playing in Magik Markers. You can find the dates here.

And if you can check out the previous Spectre Folk release Compass Blanket Lantern Mojo on Nolan's own Arbitrary Signs label.