Customer Reviews

Feathers

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Feathers (The second release on Devendra Banhart's gnomonsong label) have a long history of several cdr and vinyl only releases, and two members are also in the stoner band witch with j mascis. Feathers is a completely different beast than Witch though. Where witch focuses on the almighty riff and acid haze days of Pentagram and Black Sabbath. Feathers follows the more subdued psychedelic daze of incredible string band. Now comparisons aside this album is defenitely worth owning. With its own mystery and atmosphere that could have been recorded forty years ago rather than yesterday. Beautiful hushed vocals and light picking mixed with subtle variants on the wyrd folk theme.

I saw Feathers at a show in California and was blown away. I hadnt known them when i saw them but was immedietly drawn into their sound. Rich, dreamy, intricate music and harmonies blended together nearly perfectly. Loved the sitar and other unique instruments. Recommended if you like Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, and the new psych-folk scene.

i am glad they finally were able to release this album on cd. the vinyl has been a constant visitor to my turntable since it was released last year. at times, the music sounds very familiar. at other times, you forget you are listening to music at all, until the record ends and you are sitting in your underwear, feeling that weird chill coming from the window, you left open when there was still some light left in the sky and the warmth that comes along with it. then i get dressed and have to replay the album to hear what i missed. it is one of those albums that seems to play differently each time it is listened to, but always makes you want to hear more. i truly love this gem. it is quite the experience.

I have to admit that I'm biased, because my daughter is in this band, and I'm now friends with all the members ... but that being said, I love the way Feathers sounds, and it's even better when you watch how their music evolves out of their interactions. There are eight members in the band, and five of them write songs, but all of them bring something extra to whatever the others write. Someone brings in an idea for a song, and they each add to it, in a kind of potlatch. It's collaborative music making at its best. The sound is unique and lovely.

I'm also showing my age here, but it's amazing how the wheel turns. This band takes me right back to 1967!

I enjoy this CD quite a bit, but then again, I love the music that influences this sound. Music like Devendra Banhart's last two albums, 1966 Donovan, Germany's sitar folk music from the early 1970s (bands like SAAT, or Krokodil, Dyzan, etc.) If you enjoy music with surreal, poetical lyrics, crystaline plucked acoustic guitars, sitar leads, wordless backing vocals flowing thru the mix, recorders (those wooden flutes), and fluid bass lines, then this is for you. The some songs on the album, don't have the richness of texture, that other songs have. However, by the time the song IBEX HORN starts to play, with its long trippy jam, you are flowing out on some astral plane waving to Donovan, Brian Jones, George Harrison, Sandy Bull, and other 60s modal/raga-folk innovators. So, does that mean that this music is merely retro, or worse, just derivitive drool? No, unless you are cynical, sarcastic, and bitter, then this music will seem exactly what it is suppost to be: an Homage to the great psychedelic folk music from the 60s, yet contemporary as any anti-war folk protest. Bands like Vetiver, Iron and Wine, Espers, Nick Castro, and Dev Banhart, are showing us that nothing that is really honest, can be trite or derivitive. This musical dicotomy allows it to be down to earth, yet concurrently, spins off into the stratosphere. Maybe its that tension between earthy and cosmic, western folk and eastern sitar scales, drones and melody, that produces music which is simplicity itself, yet sophisticated and deep when nessecary. Sadly, music with such a narrow audience appeal, will probibly never be popular like Jewel, or Beck. And I, for one, am always grateful for the DIY, independant, underground music. And i support it.

This music makes me feel like making something myself. I put it on while I'm painting. Or I put it on to make myself FEEL like painting. I think it's the openness of the songs and the collaborative music-making approach of the band itself that comes through the music and enters the brain. Sorry, there's no other way to explain.

One of the more interesting records out there. The group is full of gifted song writers and it shows! Wonderful music!

i have to agree with most of the reviews i've read on this band. the songs have a timeless quality and the song writers show tremendous range. a real gem of a recording!

I bought this after having heard a number of mixed reviews on this band - either praise or being called 100% bulls**t. i even saw them once and thought they were charming, had some nice stuff, but were overall a bit irritating. So i bought this CD and it is exactly what i thought it would be: a mixed bag. To say it is bad would be completely unfair - this band is very good and they write nice songs. But they don't really bring any excitement to the plate like some of thier contemporaries working in the same realm.

I don't know how I came to be recommended "Feathers" but the cover and the link to Six Organs of Admittance made me want to listen to this seriously. I had hoped on having a look at the cover that I was going to receive some seriously unique music which was an update on the 1960s folk themes.

Unfortunately, what one can only say about "Feathers" is that it constitutes imitation rather than serious innovation or even emulation. From the cover, one can see a resemblance to the recently rediscovered Christian classic Christ Tree or even the more familiar but equally good The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. The trouble is that the dramatic and beautiful sense that made those records masterpieces is completely absent: the vocals are annoyingly familiar pop that almost sounds really soppy. The guitar sound, too, is very typical of the religious pop music and fails entirely to use the religious vision as a source of imagination. Even when they try to introduce serious drama on "I Will", the song fails to get going at all sufficiently to make one want to examine it in depth.

All in all, this is a generic folk album, even if its cover promises otherwise to those with wide musical knowledge.