Genre - Neofolk/ Gothic Country
1. Intro
2. Holy
Land
3. Barbara
Anne
4. I'm
Cold
5. Vision
In Black
6. Jesus
In The Courtyard
7. I
Know You're Mine
8. My
Mother Was The Moon
9. Lorraine
10. You
Can Break My Heart
11. Lord,
I'm Coming Home
I’ve always felt a certain unashamed bias towards Seattle’s
newest occult folk export in the shape of King Dude ever since the day I
discovered I share a name with that fascinatingly haunting voice behind the project,
TJ Cowgill. Being a huge fan of neo-folk music myself this was also a bonus as
much of King Dude’s sound is shaped by the pioneers of that scene such as Death
in June, Current 93 and the ilk, or well it was anyway, as after listening to Burning Daylight it’s hard not to notice
the remarkable progression musically our man in black has made since My Beloved Ghost. They’ve basically broadened
the spectrum from a no frills acoustic neo-folk act into something altogether
more inspired and distinct with Burning
Daylight. Infact the neo-folk influence has been hugely toned down in
favour of something much more dark and apocalyptic, with a veneer of dark and sarcastic
humour to it all. Gone are the catchy acoustic folk ditties such as “Spiders in
her Hair” and “Big Blue Eyes” in favour of gloomy, occult and whiskey soaked gothic
Americana with significantly more in common with Johnny Cash, SWANS and Nick
Cave than it does Death in June or Sol Invictus.
Drawing his influences from ‘The Great Disappointment’, a
period in the nineteenth century when a bunch of lunatics awaited the return of
Jesus, and surprisingly ended up distinctly disappointed when the asshole didn’t
honour his appointment, the album is expectedly involved with Christianity. “Holy Death” begins proceedings with a heavily
martial drumbeat and is awash with the same obscure dissonance you’d hear from
SWANS, indeed I can even a slight Michael Gira influence in Cowgill’s vocals as
he delivers his earth shaking baritone through a dense film of reverb. He’s
always loved his reverb, and Burning
Daylight is again, drowned in it. It adds huge waves of atmosphere to the
esoteric subject matter Burning Daylight is
based upon. The huge SWANS influence again rears its head again in “I’m Cold”
and also the magnificently morbid “Jesus in the Courtyard” which is essentially
what Johnny Cash would have sounded like if he decided to take on a booming
Gira-influenced form of no-wave. To say this track is stunning is somewhat of
an understatement, it projects visions of an altogether disturbing, underground
black and white 50’s America all through a thick veil of cigarette smoke. “He
got the devil around his finger, Jesus around his neck, none wants him in this
world or the fucking next” he bellows with a genuine sonority.
The likes of “Barbara Anne” and “Lorraine” lighten the
mood a bit with their more romantic theme, for there’s only so many doom laden dirges
the mind can take in one sitting, and although “Lorraine” for me is arguably
filler material. “Barbara Anne” is another fantastic tune delivered with devastating
simplicity with its one-two boot heel kick and whiskey soaked croak. Variation
is key for albums such as these and it’s one attribute Cowgill nails right
square between the eyes. No two songs are sound the same and in this genre of
music that’s a fucking miracle. “Vision in Black” harks back to Love and with its exceedingly infectious
drumbeat resonating beneath a simple yet catchy guitar line with those heavily
reverbed vocals just amounts to another song which you’ll find hard to get out
of your head, and again the same could be said for the black humour of “I Know
You’re Mine”. Hell there’s even room for a few shoegaze influences to seep
through in “My mother was the Moon” in the delicate, glistening spangle of its guitar work and bliss laden
vocals which unless the Dude suddenly lost his ballsack, I guess done by an
external unnamed female party.
The highlight of the album though must lie within the gloriously
melancholic and over the top adieu to all of life’s ills in “Lord, I’m Coming
Home”, a death laden serenade into the afterlife delivered with superb conviction
in his deep, gravelly husk and almost Andrew Eldritch-esque howl on top of a
blanket of angelic synths and bluesy
acoustic guitar. At face value its depressing as fuck, but in reality its
effect is one of those tracks where it’s drink in and sorrows out, glasses up and
curtains down, a more than fitting end for a journey which began swathed in the
darkness of Satan and eventually emerges into the light. When I say I could
imagine this track coming off a Nick Cave album I’m speaking the truth, it has
all the swagger and guile one would expect from our friend down under, and if
that’s not a compliment then I guess nothing is. Steeped in dry humor and a sinister
smirk, shrouded in stale cigarette smoke and swirling bourbon all delivered
with a portentous drone, Burning Daylight
is a breath of fresh air into the neo-folk genre, but to be fair it’s far
above and beyond most of what’s labeled as neo-folk these days. Plus, what the
fuck is not awesome about an artist with a name like King Dude anyway?
9/10
Sounds like - Johnny Cash, SWANS, Nick Cave
Originally written for Dead Void Dreams
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