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Mercy Choir - The Very Great and Horrible Harshness (July 26, 2012) |
I have to admit I'm slightly fascinated by one-man musical projects. With various technological advances the sheer volume of one-man (or woman) recording projects seems to have exploded over the last decade plus. One of the best one-man projects to come out of CT in recent memory is Mercy Choir.
In June of this year musician Paul Belbusti released the newest album, The Very Great And Horrible Harshness, from his one-man recording project Mercy Choir. The album was also, according to the band's Bandcamp page, "recorded at home onto an iPad". If that's true (and I have no reason to believe otherwise) then Mercy Choir should absolutely be featured in the next marketing campaign Apple puts together for the iPad because the music captured here sounds pretty exceptional.
Mercy Choir pulls in from a lot of different influences. The first three tracks on the album - "The Song I Have Hoped To Write", "GUN", and "Chalk It Up" - remind me a lot of the solo work of Syd Barrett, which is not a bad thing at all. Other tracks on this album do well to mix the old with the new as styles like 70's German krautrock intermingle with today's psych folk pioneers. There are multiple examples on this album of how one man can create unique and beautiful music all in the comfort of his own living room. "Ain't It Groovy" for example is a gorgeous piece of music, with a guitar that just kind of floats like a bird against the wind. And speaking of birds, the song "Bird" literally sounds to me like something I may have heard in a Stanley Kubrick film - that sort of heavily synthesized, dreamy, yet dark piece of music saved for the most stunning of scenes.
This album was a pleasant surprise for me and is highly recommended for any fans of music falling under the very broad 'psychedelic' banner.
