Nature and Organisation for Prog Folk

EDIT: And Universal Death Stream gives me post-2000 Klaus Schulze vibes

Thank you. Fingers crossed!

I at times have difficulty settling on which subgenre to assign an artist if they're particularly eclectic and evolve constantly through their career (a decision based on their best known work/era versus the current-day sound at which they ended up), but I argue that N&O warrant inclusion in PF on a primarily folk basis like their sister band Current 93. Like them, N&O began with industrial experiments before shifting to folk, and even then their 1990s direction was precipitated alongside the noise of their early days with the compilation tracks "Heat" and "Sex Recall" (both date from sometime in the mid to late 80s) which were basically folk songs with Cashmore's acoustic guitar and, uh, interesting vocals. The project would become better known in 1993 with a contribution to Current 93's Emblems compilation, "Hooves," displaying a more refined and gorgeous folk approach (and mercifully handing the vocals to David Tibet).

For years their best known and celebrated work has been 1994's Beauty Reaps the Blood of Solitude, which is universally established as (neo-)folk whenever you read about it (bolded on the aforementioned RYM). N&O's top representative tags on last.fm are "neofolk, neoclassical, apocalyptic folk, dark folk, dark ambient." It's interesting you only hear folkish "moments;" at this point Cashmore's compositions are an inversion of his career so far with folk as the foundation (complete with a cover of "Willow's Song" from The Wicker Man soundtrack) punctuated by occasional industrial outbursts (namely "Beauty Destroyed" and portions of "A Dozen Winters of Loneliness"). I understand where you hear neoclassical but I would only fully ascribe that to Death in a Snow Leopard Winter, which is less dense and complex than Beauty, and by Cashmore's admission it's more of a series of unrealised sketches/demos that needed vocals than a fully-fleshed out album. Like Ken mentioned, it's on Beauty's basis that N&O were being considered for PF (and that basis is expanded with those three aforementioned folk-aligned compilation tracks which predate the album, two of which can be heard here - https://penga.bandcamp.com/track/heat-prayers-sex-recall).

I didn't even know the project had been revived until I did my research (the lack of fanfare is probably because his new direction isn't very good, to be honest). Snow Leopard Winter reminded me of the last three Hammock records, and that band's electronic post-rock side runs alongside real latter day Klaus Schulze vibes in N&O's video soundtrack and their EP of re-recorded tracks, but A Dozen Winters Against the World is at least rooted in folk while Universal Death Stream is purely electronic. So while the band's career is bookended by an electronic approach, their most recent art has one foot enough in their past to still warrant being called "folk." As with Current 93 - who you rightly noted are hard to pigeonhole yet ultimately ended up in Prog Folk - N&O are remembered more for their folk work than their industrial past, and whatever strange trajectory Cashmore is taking won't make a dent in the legacy of his 90s material.

If the Prog Folk team doesn't want to take it, I say maybe I should submit it to Eclectic first and see where it goes from there.  What does everyone else think?

Sounds good to me, and thanks to Nick and Mike for their input. I'm curious though, which subgenre do you mean by "Experimental?"

So just to make clear: the order now is Avant -> Eclectic or Exp/Post-Metal -> back to Prog Folk?

I completely agree, but I guess there's still a ways left to go. Just saw that the ZART team voted to move them, so I'll update the thread title and send out my signal flare to Eclectic.