ESPERS

ESPERS are shackled by a desire to foster a hypnotic state, because most of the tracks never escape the confines of the dirge. They are fairly competent at mood setting, but when that mood is exasperation, the goals may be left unmet. At regular intervals I really want them to break out and evolve, and the album is largely devoid of anything resembling a rich melody. Limited ideas are rewarded with excessive stage time, and some of the drawn out outros really make this album seem like a product of another time, in all the worst ways.

The best they can do with this largely acoustic sleepfest is found in "Riding", with impressive guitar leads, the electronic distortion of "Byss and Abyss", and especially the almost upbeat "Daughter". OK that's a stretch. Like a sports team with too many players cut from a similar cloth, this collection's components would thrive if plucked out and dropped into a compilation of tunes not of their ilk. But together they sport all the appeal of an unbroken horizontal line.

An esper is an individual with telepathic ability, but I suppose even espers can fail to get their message across. Either that or they don't have a lot to say.

1. "Dead Queen" (8:13) eerie space notes drop like water droplets before a "Stairway to Heaven"-like guitar enters at the end of the first minute. Multiple voices singing in amazing harmony weave enter at 1:35. The verses are very slow and methodic like one of MEDIÆVAL BÆBES' slower, more delicate songs. Violin and fuzzy electric guitar duet in the instrumental section, left and right channels, respectively, before recorder-like stringed instrument instrument joins in the left (and continues playing harmonics beneath the next vocal verse and successive instrumental section). A whole mess of odd instruments (see "Instrumentation" list) join in to create quite an unusual sonic landscape through to the ending fadeout. (13.5/15)

2. "Widow's Weed" (6:51) raw electric guitar dominating the acoustic instruments at work in the wings, this is dark music rises and falls over three minutes before "settling" down to a slower, more spacious soundscape in which Meg sings in a dreamy-downer voice. (13/15)

3. "Cruel Storm (5:17) a bluesy base with acoustic instruments, electric bass and electric guitar, precedes the entrance of the amazing voice of Meg Baird. This sounds like a song from 1970-71--from the likes of GAY WOODS or Maddy Prior from The Woods Band, BARBARA GASKIN (Spirogyra), or even Judy Dyble, Jacqui McShee, or Sandy Denny. A simple song but astonishingly beautiful. (9.5/10)

4. "Children Of Stone" (8:54) opens with a more traditional folk rock instrument palette, including drums and bass, before male-and female chorus of voices enter in a gorgeous wave of woven harmonies. Flute and picked guitars create a bit of "I Talk to the Wind" sound/feel in the third minute and carry it forward beneath the next verse of vocal weave. AT 3:05, after the end of the second verse, an eerie old synth screams single notes portamento-style until 4:10 when the next vocal verse begins. In the sixth minute a couple voices take the lead while a very low synth portamento note counterposes, singing in a foreign language. Other instruments--including beautiful solo vocalise threads--join in and build a fairly thick soundscape--though all and every instrument and voice somehow remain distinct and distinguished. Very cool, beautiful, and memorable song. (18.5/20)

5. "Mansfield And Cyclops" (5:57) another gorgeous song that sounds like it came from 1971 with another incredible vocal from Meg. The difference between this and "Cruel Storm" is that the instruments' contributions are significantly more enriching and noteworthy: drums, multiple guitars, and other stringed instruments. This feels like it could come from a TIRILL MOHN album. (10/10)

6. "Dead King" (8:02) guitars, hand percussives, strings, and flute open this one before Meg enters and sings an English-style folk ballad. There is an odd "organ" and "synthesizer" as well as some background vocal help. This one drags a bit and is more interesting from the instrumental perspective than the vocal or lyrical presentation--especially as it moves into the middle when creepy, eerie, even scary sound embellishments take over. (13/15)

7. "Moon Occults The Sun" (6:47) opens simply, weaving several traditional folk instruments together, before cello and drums enter and move the music into a more forward direction. Around the one-minute mark a male vocal enters in the lead department (with some far background support from Meg). The active drums and cello make for some interesting bridges between the verses until the three-minute mark when another strange fuzz-embellishment to an electric guitar teams up with a different sustain-prone guitar to give us a very interesting, beautiful weave. This goes on for a full two minutes (of prog bliss) while the band jams beneath. Cool! Things calm back down for the final minute and the final vocal verses. (13.75/15)

Total time 50:01

A-/five stars; a veritable modern masterpiece of refreshing Prog Folk; definitely an essential addition to any prog lover's music collection.

The acoustic guitar work is the first thing that jumped out at me. Not only is the skill impressive, but the overall production gives it a very 'dark' tone that could give you chills. The singing of Meg Baird is celtic and haunting, yet lovely and melodious. The songs have a very studio-heavy, layered sound, yet that shouldn't be an issue for you. Yes, it isn't the type of 'folk' music that can be 100% reproduced live without some heavy electronics at work, but the result is fantastic, regardless of what genre you may think Espers 'actually' are a part of. Many instrument tracks overlap each other to create a deep pool of musical intricacy for the more observant listener to uncover over the course of repeated listens. It's a treasure-trove of ideas that give the album considerable replay value. You'll be coming back to this one a few times more if you liked it even a little bit.

All of the song structures seem to be calm and well-thought out. Never do the players feel as if they have to rush or throw in over- complicated flourishes in order for the music to be enjoyable. It's this self-confident approach to their songwriting that impresses me most, I think. They seem to know exactly what this style of music calls for, and they are clearly more concerned with mood, atmosphere and melody than they are complexity or flourish.

The eclectic mixture of instruments and the uses for each of them over the course if the record help give each song its own identity in a situation where lesser songwriters may have ended up recreating the same track seven times. Yes, it's not the most diverse album you'll come across, but it is an album you'll likely come back to if you want no-nonsense, beautiful modern acoustic- electric music. It's simultaneously relaxing and disturbing, comforting and haunting. It's progressive and forward-thinking, without a doubt, and yet many conventional Prog Rock lovers may not like it if no other no reason than for its apparent simplicity. Minimalism and simplicity are two very different things in music, and I would certainly categorize this band as displaying the former.

A very nice surprise for me, since I hadn't heard a single note from this band before ordering the album. I decided to trust my fellow collaborators in this case, and I'm very happy that I did. I think I may have found a new favorite. No, it's not 'epic' or anything like that, but nor is it boring or bland. It's just Espers. It's slow-moving, melodic mood music, I suppose. But with a progressive twist. The compositions are clever and layered, and the delivery is just dynamite. I implore you to at least give this band a chance the next time you feel like buying yet another album from a more well-known artist. Take a chance. Like me, you may end up very pleased with you decision.

Espers is one of a small group of newish bands playing various (mostly) acoustic instruments to create an independent music that has gone by all sorts of names, but my favorite is Freak Folk. The use of autoharp, flute, acoustic guitar, spritely voices and plenty of hippy trappings certainly have been gathered under a "folk" name before, but of course new and folk are a bit of an anachronism. Instead, this music is more of a soundtrack to a wiccan / pagan cultural movement that certainly tracks back through hippy times to centuries ago, but the sound is actually pretty fresh. This ain't no Peter, Paul, and Mary. Heck this ain't even Pentangle (a band that clearly was crossing true folk ideas with the sound of the British flower child sound of the time).

Whatever the name, this band certainly has their share of new ingredients to throw into their witchy stew. The most obvious is the use of dissonant harmony across the entire sound. The result is eerie and dark, and on this debut album, by the time we get to the big fuzz bass on the last song, "Travel Mountains," it actually feels like we're tunneling under the mountain, waiting for Gollum to grab us by the throat. And yet, Meg Baird's light vocals are almost angelic, creating a tension between light and dark that is extremely compelling. Greg Weeks relatively straightforward vocal tonality leaves us the impression of an innocent young man wandering into the enchanted woods, about to be beset and devoured by some ancient curvy spirits of the earth.

The instrumentation is quite interesting as well. Using both drones and slow rhythmic elements (strumming or arpeggios usually) the band is able to produce an airy, ethereal feel despite having the voices compressed so hard that it feels like the singers are whispering directly into your ear. Cellos, flutes, ebow guitar, 12-string, dulcimer are all credited along with "acid leads" (I assume the fuzz bass) and "tone generator" (which is some form of synthesizer). Though there are occasional noisy, free-form solo spots, never do the instruments truly draw attention to themselves in any way other than tonality.

Many of the emotional ideas aimed at by post-rockers are done, much better, here. The slow builds and dreamy soundscapes are similar. But the sense of variety is so much better on this disc. But like post-rock, the biggest downside is too much of the same emotion. While the world that Espers takes me to is rich in dark color, I'm not really allowed to explore different varieties of terrain. We remain deep in the forest at night. It's too dark, too long. A little ray of sun peeking through the trees, a little ebb and flow of the tension, or, frankly, a few up beat sections, all would have moved this from a 3-4 star album to a possible prog folk masterpiece.

As it is, this is really good and it's not as if there were a load of bands doing this before Espers got started. The other Wyrd, or Pagan, or Freak Folk bands sound decidedly different from Espers. To my knowledge, there still isn't another band that sounds quite like this. 4/5.

A long wait for their third album, but the group members were busy at their own solo albums, Greg Weeks have 5 or 6 to his credit, where Meg Baird released early this year her first (or second, I can't be sure), while Helena Espvall release a second collaboration album with Masaki Batoh. Sooo anyway, three years is a long time. Unchanged line-up, still a great artwork (very pagan folk and Amerindian native art on the cover, but musically, there is a slight shift towards more standard folk rock, slowly reaching Fairport Convention-type of folk rock. The music on III is definitely more "modern" and less "medieval" than on II, but it is also more varied and maybe monotonous, in the literal sense of the word, not to be confused with boring.

If the group manages a good start with Can't See Clear and Golden Dust, the album soon drowns in a semi-coma with Caroline (not the Wyatt track) and The Pearl, which sounds like even the band don't believe in those tracks - especially the latter, which had everything to boost a turbo and reach another dimension. So for the first four tracks, the mood seems upbeat for Espers, which is a bit of a change from their usual melancholy. Well the group doesn't abandon their previous spookiness altogether either since That Which Darkly Thrives and Sightings, both slower and more brooding pieces that evoke a bit their first two albums. But the darkness doesn't last and while the mellotron-laden Meridian is melancholic enough and Colony is the album's centrepiece. Indeed the album returns to a more upbeat mood with Trollslanda, a good closer with an excellent bravura middle section. Most likely this album will need a bit more time and listens than their predecessors, which were more immediately pleasing.

If you can find the gatefold mini-Lp version of this album, by all means jump for it, because it looks much better than the digipak version that I ordered through their label site (which arrived with a crushed tray). So while less spooky and more varied, Espers sort of demystify themselves and go blander, most likely in an attempt to widen their appeal and reach a new audience. But in the meantime, this proghead thinks this album doesn't reach the heights of their previous albums, but III remains a very decent album. Whether it will be worth keeping in a few years (when time for a good shelf trimming cut) is not yet clear, though.

Beyond those two minor nuisances, this is a great piece of music. The opening treatment of Bert Jansch’s “Rosemary Lane” sets the tone for this being a nostalgic and charming highlights tour by Meg Baird and Greg Weeks to show off some of their musical influences. This is followed by Tomorrow from Durutti Column, which is a song I’d never heard in its original format but am left feeling like I’ve revisited an old musical friend after hearing Espers’ version of it anyway.

Meg Baird comes off nearly as young yet world-wise as Jill Johnson did on the Famous Jug Band’s original version of “Black is the Color”, and the achingly mournful violin/cello/whatever it is Baird is bowing is intoxicating.

Nico’s “Afraid” is another song I don’t have much knowledge of, but Baird’s version here has a timeless feel to it that reminds me of lavender potpourri bowls at Grandma’s house and dew-glistened grass on a lazy spring Saturday. All those comfort memories that hit you every once and a while when you slow down long enough to let them.

The band’s rendition of Michael Hurley’s “Blue Mountain” showcases a bit more of Weeks’ digital experimentation than most of the other tracks here, as well as he and Baird’s fits-like-a-glove harmonizing vocals. This is more like what the band’s debut sounded like before they expanded to a sextet and added more emphasis on the acoustic and percussion side of their sound. I have mixed feelings on which sound is better, but that’s kind of like trying to decide which of two sweet candies is the sweeter. You can’t lose either way.

The most surprising cover here is Blue Öyster Cult’s “Flaming Telepaths”. On the one hand this one makes a little bit of sense since if you were going to cover a BÖC tune on a folk album this would be one of the less-metal ones that you could probably pull that off with. But whatever possessed Weeks (and I gotta’ believe this was his idea) that this was something Espers needed to do is beyond me. The psychedelic cacophony Weeks launches toward the end is a bit of a departure for Espers but not for him, so maybe he just wanted to put his own signature sound on the album to muss up Baird’s calico folkiness a bit. Whichever, this is an interesting and bold attempt and although I personally thought it drug on a bit longer than necessary I also applaud their bold effort.

Finally the closing “Dead King” is an original track but this is an abbreviated version. The full-length one would show up on the band’s next studio release, but this is a nice preview and a decent way to close the EP.

If you know of Espers and are a fan then I would say this is probably essential; otherwise I would recommend it if you are looking to discover the band but only if you can purchase it as a download or find a reasonably-priced copy. If you can only locate one of those $25USD range copies, buy either of their full-length studio albums instead. Three stars.

peace

The second half picks up with more progressive songs, most notably the cover of Flaming Telepaths by Blue Oyster Cult. They remain true to the original with their own unique sound until the end, where it meanders into a psychedelic frenzy of electric guitars. Dead King is a taste of what we will see on the group's second essential album, II, though the version on II is longer and better produced.

Overall, the album sounds great but not entirely progressive. Essential for fans of Espers and certainly worth checking out otherwise. However for those new to Espers and this interesting neo-folk subgenre, their two studio albums are the essential releases, especially their second one.

Espers II, according to Weeks, is actually a reincarnation of what was once Espers. Okay, whatever – seems a bit contrived to me. But there is some truth to the whole rebirth concept. What was officially a trio with several guest musicians in 2002 has become – well, a trio with several guest musicians in 2006. But it appears the separation between the two halves is gone. The sextet that performs on this album comes across as a single, contiguous unit. And the net result is another breathy and adventurous and intoxicating musical experience, only one that has an even richer breadth of sounds than the first album.

Even though the liner notes only identify the players by their last names and pictures, it doesn’t take much effort to discover the cellist here is Helena Espvall, who has also appeared on duet releases with Meg Baird, and has performed live with Espers and with Weeks’ solo side project. This album includes drums (unlike the debut where the tempo was kept thanks mostly to finger cymbals and dulcimer) and although their presence is barely felt, Devendra Banhart drummer Otto Hauser adds to a growing sense of a new musical twist from Espers that blends early folk-inspired psych with the complexity and patience of post-rock. A Silver Mt. Zion came close to this but with a harder, often angry edge; and Ozric Tentacles dabbled here as well although steeped deeply in the psych side of the equation. With Espers there is a sense of balance that yields a net result of getting the listener inside of themselves, while in the end leaving you feeling pretty good about life and the world around you in a realistic but not fatalistic way. A true talent.

“Children Of Stone” is the trippiest and longest track here, an unhurried wander through mild fuzz guitar and a variety of eclectic and mostly uncredited instruments like the doumbek, dholak, chimes, and dulcimer; and the more mundane but still folksy 6-string acoustic guitars and soft snare drums.

On the more psych end of the spectrum, “Mansfield and Cyclops” features both drums and fuzz prominently, as well as a very striking and eerie picked sound that I believe is an autoharp. With an instrument like that you have two ways to go: folksy, or pretentious. These guys manage to avoid sounding pretentious, so they must be the real deal.

I really can’t say enough about this album. The compositions are all remarkably unhurried, rich in acoustic sounds, percussion and loose, meandering tempos. Meg Baird has a voice that seems to both channel Sandy Denny and extend the capabilities of more mainstream vocalists like Shawn Colvin.

Best track? Hard to say, but the drawn-out and spacey “Dead King” is a top pick with lots of hard-to-identify percussion, Baird’s lazy vocals, and a tempo that doesn’t put you to sleep but sure gets you feeling laid back in a hurry. “Widow's Weed” is another top offering with some exquisite acoustic guitar and a very Mt Zion-like dissonant cello/violin combination.

An outstanding follow-up to the band’s 2002 debut, Espers II shows growth and progression in both the range of sounds and complexity of the arrangements. What hasn’t changed are the things that work: Baird and Weeks’ complementary folk vs. psych styles, Baird’s luscious vocals, and the liberal sprinkling of exotic and inspiring instrumentation. A seriously excellent album, and very highly recommended.

peace

I will say that Espers rank right up there with a slew - well, a small slew; a trickle really. These guys rank up there with a small handful (much better.) of newer bands that seem to be having a blast reviving a spirit of adventurous exploration in their music with very few rules to bind them. Fairport Convention did that by creating a completely new blend of acoustic hippie pop with more traditional folk sounds on 'Liege & Lief' in 1969; Marillion merged metal and traditional art rock into a pompous sound and along with IQ pretty much created neo-progressive rock a generation later. And Graham Sutton came out of nowhere in the early nineties with Bark Psychosis to help give rise to an experimental sound that would become known as post rock. And Espers may go down in history as one of the innovating forces of a new brand of prog folk, one that blends drone music and sometimes wildly experimental sounds with very traditional-sounding folk trappings: acoustic guitar, finger cymbals, flute, autoharp, dulcimer, strings, and above all those angelic feminine voices. This album is a real treat for folk, experimental, and even psych fans alike.

Describing Espers' music is about as pointless as trying to explain Sleepytime Gorilla Museum or Idiot Flesh. I've you've ever tried to write a review for one of those albums you know what I mean.

But let's give it a shot.

I picked this up after seeing the band listed as a prog folk band, and both the look of the album artwork and the instrumentation listed on it gave me the impression this would be a newer version of late sixties-style languid folk. And the first track "Flowery Noontide" reinforces that impression. Mellow acoustic guitar, autoharp, hypnotic cello, Dennyisque vocals courtesy of Meg Baird. Yup, pretty much as advertised. And more of the same on "Meadow", although there's some suspicious tone generation going on at the end that seems to signal a shift in mood.

Turns out that's only the beginning. With "Riding" the Vox is out in full force, and despite Baird's acoustic guitar and Weeks' spacey vocals this is a considerably more psychedelic and hypnotic composition than the previous tracks. "Voices" is more of the same, with the drone of electronic fuzz tone toward the end building up to the crescendo that will come on the next track

By the time "Hearts & Daggers" rolls around Weeks' drone fetish is completely out of the bag. Despite the acoustic guitar and autoharp, this comes off sounding much more like a post-rock composition than anything resembling folk. The electronic fuzz drones on for more than eight minutes, and it is quite easy to get lost in the mood and forget you're listening to what is supposed to be a folk record. Good thing Dylan already broke the whole leap to electric mold a long time ago or this would be a lot more surprising than it is.

"Byss & Abyss" backs off a bit, but even here there is quite a bit of experimental tone generation toward the end just to keep the listener off-guard. And the band reinforces their modus operandi with the one-two combination of the acoustic and laid- back "Daughter" followed by a climactic drone and full-on psych affair with the "Travel Mountains" to end the album.

Not exactly what I expected for what was supposed to be a folk album, but Espers have delivered an excellent debut album and set themselves up to become a definitive prog band if they continue to develop their innovative sound in the future. Four stars for sure, and the capacity to deliver a masterpiece some day. Highly recommended.

peace