Espers - 3 Releases (Neo-Psychedelic Folk) [Variable BR]

Biography of Espers

Neo-psychedelic folk trio the Espers began appearing in the Philadelphia area in early 2002. With a core provided by singer/songwriter Greg Weeks, Meg Baird, and Brooke Sietinsons and rounded out by numerous collaborators, their heady blend of chamber rock, baroque pop, and late-'60s British folk won them a small but devoted following both locally and nationally. Their intoxicating self-titled debut arrived in 2004 on the Locust label. The EP Weed Tree, a collection of covers, traditional pieces, and originals, arrived in 2005, followed in 2006 by the full-length II.

Espers - Espers 2004

Acid-folk maestro Greg Weeks' psychedelic trio Espers — with Meg Baird and Brooke Sietinsons — has created a delicate and blissfully unsettling debut. Weeks' autoharp on tracks like "Flowery Noontide" conjures images of home-baked '60s folk played by sincere and optimistic flower children and dark and dreamy drifters. "Meadow," similarly, recalls the sunshine and doom chamber pop and subtle acoustic guitar of Donovan on "Susan on the West Coast Waiting" or "Atlantis," or Fairport Convention. "Riding" could easily fit on the Super Furry Animals brilliant and catchy West Coast pop collection Phantom Power — but then "Voices" is nearly as hazy and Far Eastern as Six Organs of Admittance, and "Hearts & Daggers" is over eight minutes of druggy, medieval-inspired British baroque noise. Espers' music is entirely incongruous with the trends of 2003-2004 — from the devil-may-care rock of Jet and the Strokes, to the over-the-top, cosmic, and sexy wunder-metal of the Darkness. But you can't help but feel that Espers are onto something — not quite the soft-is-the-new-loud irony of Belle & Sebastian, but a more sinister and trippy picture of a foreboding horizon in the midst of the most beautiful sunset.

Espers - The Weed Tree EP 2005

Like a reincarnated Pentangle for the neo-psychedelic folk crowd, newly expanded Philadelphia sextet the Espers come full circle on their intoxicating EP Weed Tree. Less murky than their self-titled debut, Tree is a bright, fluid, and promising collection of six covers and one original that sees the group poised for an explosive (quietly, that is) full-length record in the near future. The Espers mine the traditional ("Rosemary Lane," "Black Is the Color") with grace and reverence, keeping the framework steeped in enough British folk acoustics that when a keyboard appears out of nowhere it's not at all intrusive; rather it's the lightening bolt in a gray sky that illuminates the crows below. Speaking of dark imagery, the collective's creepy rendition of Blue Öyster Cult's "Flaming Telepaths" from 1974's Secret Treaties stays surprisingly true to its source. A haunting version of Manchester, England, post-punk outfit Durutti Column's "Tomorrow" is also a highlight, with the refreshingly clear voices of Meg Baird and Greg Weeks finding the perfect middle ground between despair and serenity. Weed Tree could have been an exercise in tedium, but like fellow interpreter Alasdair Roberts, the Espers have more than a love for the sound of late-'60s acid folk; they have a vision for its future.

Espers - II 2006

Where Espers' self-titled debut album was drenched in sunshine melodies, traditional folk influences, and psychedelic acid-folk sounds ranging from Fairport Convention and Donovan to Six Organs of Admittance and Super Furry Animals, and their creepy, apocalyptic EP -- who else would cover the Durutti Column, Nico, Michael Hurley, and the Blue Öyster Cult on the same record as a reverent version of "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair" -- neither of these offerings truly prepare the listener for II. This Philly sextet fronted by Greg Weeks, Meg Baird, and Brooke Sietinsons have gone over the edge this time while retaining just a modicum of restraint to hold all the pieces together. The proof is in the kool-aid so to speak. The opener is the sharp, gloomy, 17th century-styled Elizabethan folk of "Dead Queen," that feels more like Pentangle, and it's countered in "Widow's Weed," the very next track, by a slew of screeing electric guitars atop a snare-heavy drumkit awash in feedback that never quite lets go of the early 1800s in its melody. Here Eastern modal drone meets trad-Anglo balladry in an opium den of thieves and warriors. "Cruel Storm," uses a sparse wash of modal jazz chords to create an open-tuned dirge that floats on an augmented key elegance; it is adorned by skeletal percussion and whispering feedback in the outer reaches. Its restraint is deceptive as Baird's vocals are a bead hinting that this cruel storm is not a disaster because the disaster has already happened. There are musical hints of a sonic whiplash daring itself to reoccur in the mirror-distorted strings which cut in and out sharply from the margins as Baird sings of something out of reach but whose memory is distinct, horrific, now absent yet full of dread. The drifting psychedelic folk of "Children of Stone," suggests a dark, bleary eyed cousin to It's A Beautiful Day's "White Bird" hippie optimism. This is pushed a step in each direction in "Mansfield and Cyclops," where the repetitive Vini Reilly-styled guitars Weeks plays cancel themselves out as stray bits of 20th century West Coast strummery (think "Suite: Judy Blues Eyes"), and darkly Bert Jansch-resuscitation Steeleye Span's post-Martin Carthy experimentalism. Once more, Baird's voice (in her best Kendra Smith-kisses-Joni Mitchell mindwarp) sets a crumbling, sodden and ancient terrain to anchor to as Möebius strip basses, drums (yes, and those rubbery guitars) emboldened by myriad instruments (dumbecks, cello, an omnichord) vie for the washed-out hazy sun of nether backporch tomorrowland. In "Dead King," hints of Shirley and Dolly Collins -- sung to Helen Adam's weird, late-night gothic poetry -- and David Tibet's post-apocalyptic folkery meet the Velvets' "Venus in Furs" in the Castle Gormenghast hosted by Count Leopold von Sacher-Masoch himself. The final track, "Moon Occults the Sun," finds Weeks slowly sawing cellos, acoustic bright, rounded electrics, and droning single-string modal guitars flowing through Weeks' and Baird's voices, ushering in varying degrees of clouds, darkness, and the spirit of black night itself. Once more, one can hear the Velvets creeping through the underbrush, but they're not the only ones -- here is where Comus and Fresh Maggots offer their blunted blades, black with mud and mercury under a sky where the moon has turned to blood. Dumbek is a Doric transistorized organ, here fuzzed-out over intensifying guitars and doggedly persistent basses carrying forth the banner of a folk music that never existed for any folk at all, but merely as the face of their fears. (If "Cortez the Killer" had been composed by a court minstrel's band instead of a raggedy-ass, wasted Neil Young, it might have sounded like this.) All of these songs are sure to be long-ranging from just over five to nearly nine minutes -- but it's what gives Espers the chance not only to seamlessly blend their many influences -- it isn't their fault all this stuff had been done before -- but to create a kind of ancient-to-modern blend of Anglo song that points to a murky future while erasing an even sketchier past. Espers II is both wondrous and troubling.



All biographical information and reviews are from Allmusic.com

All MP3 files, about 168MB total. Enjoy. :)